Villa ten Hompel

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The Villa ten Hompel (2005)

The Villa ten Hompel is a memorial for crimes committed by the police and administration during the Nazi era in Münster, Westphalia . As a historical site, it reminds of the task of compensating those persecuted by National Socialism and works preventively against right-wing extremism and for democracy.

history

Rudolf ten Hompel, industrialist

The villa was built by the Münster industrialist Rudolf ten Hompel from 1924 . Ten Hompel was one of the richest citizens of the city of Munster and co-owner of the largest cement company in Germany at the time, the Wicking -Werke , and from 1920 to 1928 a member of the Reichstag for the Center Party .

The house, located on Kaiser-Wilhelm-Ring, and its spacious garden were accordingly often the location of parties and receptions and were therefore very luxuriously furnished.

In the Great Depression and the subsequent hard times in the early 1930s also th Hompels broke cement empire together. In 1935, the former Director General ten Hompel before been Münster Regional Court for embezzlement, bankruptcy offenses, wealth transfer and forgery accused and three years in prison and a fine of 22,000 Reichsmarks convicted. In 1939 the villa finally became the property of the Reich Treasury . Rudolf ten Hompel moved to Munich , where he died in 1948.

The Villa ten Hompel is owned by the Ordnungspolizei

From April 1940, the police took over the villa as the headquarters for Military District VI , which encompassed all of today's North Rhine-Westphalia including the region around Osnabrück and parts of Belgium . During the war, over 20 police battalions were sent from Villa ten Hompel to occupied Europe, guards for deportations and supervisory personnel for labor education camps were organized, and foreign workers and prisoners of war were monitored from there.

From there, the commander of the Ordnungspolizei (BdO) had authority over almost 200,000 men. In April 1940, Major General of the Police Heinrich Lankenau was appointed BdO. Lankenau was replaced by Major General dP Otto Schumann in December 1942 , who was followed in September 1943 by Major General dP Kurt Göhrum . In autumn 1944 this was finally followed by Lieutenant General d.OP. Reiner Liessem , who held the post until the end of the war. At the end of 1944, Liessem moved the headquarters of the BdO to Düsseldorf-Kaiserswerth .

The villa as part of the state police

After the Second World War, the Villa ten Hompel served as the headquarters for the state police and, from the spring of 1946, the criminal police , which was merged with the Düsseldorf police in October and withdrew from the villa. The water police for the West German Canals were also stationed here until 1953 , when they were relocated to Duisburg . A water police station remained in the villa until 1965.

Compensation payments from Villa ten Hompel

From 1954, the district government's reparation department was based in the villa. As such, it was responsible for making compensation payments to victims of National Socialism and their surviving dependents. In the years up to 1968, 12,000 people applied for compensation, and 100,000,000 D-Marks were paid to them.

The villa as a place of history

At the end of the 1990s, the city of Münster bought the villa in order to set up a memorial dedicated to police and administrative activities. On December 13, 1999, Lord Mayor Berthold Tillmann opened the first exhibition in the presence of NRW Prime Minister Wolfgang Clement and the President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany Paul Spiegel . Since 2005, the two permanent exhibitions " I. m A. order" and "reparation as an order" have been on view, revolving around the topics of war crimes under National Socialism , compensation for Nazi injustice , and the history of the police and authorities. In 2005, the first exhibition on the history of the uniformed police under National Socialism at a European museum level was awarded an award. The villa works closely with the university , schools and the police in seminar and educational work. The Münster University of Applied Sciences supports the exhibition of the villa in questions of design . Since October 2008, the city of Münster has supported one of five mobile advisory teams against right-wing extremism in North Rhine-Westphalia. the "Mobile advice in the Münster administrative district - against right-wing extremism, for democracy" is affiliated with Villa ten Hompel. The new permanent exhibition was opened in March 2015. The villa publishes a series of publications and sponsors publications, projects and events.

Collection and documentation

As a historical site, the Villa ten Hompel is not only a museum, but as a documentation center also enables research in historical primary and academic secondary literature. Many private individuals have already deposited bequests and historical finds in the villa, which not only make the “great” story, but also the life of “simple people” understandable.

staff

The first managing director and founding director was Alfons Kenkmann from 1996 to 2003 . He was initially followed by the historian Christoph Spieker as provisional and since 2009 as head. Volunteers, interns and a development association support the employees.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Münstersche Zeitung : Funding: Villa ten Hompel receives 1.2 million euros , Münster, June 28, 2012
  2. ↑ Press release of the city of Münster from March 29, 2015: "We are happy and proud that we have the villa". New permanent exhibition “History - Violence - Conscience” opened , accessed on May 18, 2015.

Coordinates: 51 ° 57 ′ 58.5 ″  N , 7 ° 38 ′ 47.5 ″  E