Bridge of Nations

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Bridge of Nations is the name of several cultural institutions in Lower Saxony .

The part of the name "bridge" goes back to the nickname of all " British Information Centers ". These should be established in all cities of the then British occupation zone with more than 50,000 inhabitants as part of the British policy of the reconstruction of post-war Germany. This also happened in Oldenburg (Oldenburg) and in Osnabrück , where since the 1950s the name “Brücke” has been extended by the attribute “of the nations” (informally, this extension was occasionally made in other places, e.g. in Braunschweig ) .

"British Information Centers" were cultural institutions owned by the British government. Most of the cultural and international understanding institutions in the former British zone of occupation, which still have the name “bridge” today, emerged from BICs.

Locations

Oldenburg (Oldenburg)

Villa on Gartenstrasse

Villa Gartenstrasse 5 in 2014 - location of the "Bridge of Nations" Oldenburg until 1991

The Villa Gartenstrasse 5, which was built in 1817 opposite the palace garden and was inhabited by Carl Christian Ludwig Starklof , was rebuilt in 1906 for the governor Hermann Freiherr von Rossing by the architect Eduard Gildemeister in a neoclassical style. The view of the side facing Gartenstrasse has largely been preserved to this day.

In between 1942 and 1945, the villa was Paul Wegener inhabited, the last NS - Gauleiter Weser-Ems and in personal union " Reich governor " for Oldenburg and Bremen . From 1945 the British city ​​commander resided there . This led to the decision to make the villa on Gartenstrasse, which was owned by the City of Oldenburg at that time, as the location of the "Information Center Die Brücke".

After the public library department had left the budget of the Oldenburg State Library in 1944 , the question of a domicile for the city library arose. Since April 1, 1953, the city of Oldenburg has financially contributed to the continuation of the "Brücke", which has since been known as the "Anglo-German Center Die Brücke". On April 1, 1956, the international cultural center "Bridge of Nations" was founded after the "Anglo-German Center" had ceased its work. The “Bridge of Nations” was sponsored by the city of Oldenburg with the assistance of the British Council and the Amerika-Haus in Bremen. The municipal public library was incorporated into the cultural center and renamed the "Library of the Bridge of Nations".

In addition to the city library, the villa has housed the Oldenburg sections of the German-French and German-Finnish Society , the Carl Duisberg Society and the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation since the 1950s . In the basement of the Bridge of Nations , in the “Home of the Open Door” (“OT”), there were regular dance events for young people.

In the 1970s, the city's cultural center, Brücke der Nations, had an events department with a 99-seat lecture hall and two seminar rooms as well as a library department. In 1972 a 300 m² library pavilion was added. Since 1979 the library has been called the "Bridge of Nations - City Library".

In 1991 the city of Oldenburg sold the house to the Oldenburg Retail Association. The city library and some of the other facilities previously located on Gartenstrasse moved to Peterstrasse in 1991/1992. In 2007, a private person bought the building, which was then in great need of renovation, from the retail trade association and completely rebuilt it by 2009.

Former Peter Friedrich Ludwigs Hospital, today the PFL Oldenburg cultural center

Building complex on Peterstrasse

Today the Bridge of Nations is the nickname of the cultural office of the city of Oldenburg. The office was founded on September 20, 1991 and is located in the building next to the main building of the former Peter Friedrich Ludwigs Hospital on Peterstraße. The main building houses the rooms of the city library, the bi-national societies and other cultural institutions of the city of Oldenburg.

Osnabrück

An institution called the Bridge of Nations was also founded in Osnabrück after the Second World War . This was housed in May 1950 in the old casino on Neuer Graben near the Ledenhof . It was a library with foreign language texts. The holdings of the Bridge of Nations have been transferred to the foreign language area of ​​the Osnabrück City Library. Exhibitions and readings were also held in the rooms of the Bridge of Nations .

In 1967 the "Bridge of Nations" Osnabrück was given the address Markt 8 as the seat of a "German-French Society". The address of the “Bridge of Nations” association is given as the seat of the Volkshochschule Osnabrück (in the Stüvehaus ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gabriele Clemens: British cultural policy in Germany 1945-1949: literature, film, music and theater . Stuttgart. Steiner 1997, p. 206
  2. ↑ Gallery Kramer: Bärbel Hische. biography
  3. ↑ Lore and Peter Bachmann: Alt-Oldenburg ... discover! gardenstreet
  4. ↑ Nadia-Zakia Chelly / Jasper Rittner: trading house becomes residential building. Association sells casino in Gartenstrasse . Nordwestzeitung , January 16, 2007
  5. ^ Oldenburgforum: Historical outline: 100 years of the Oldenburg City Library
  6. ^ German-French Society Oldenburg: History
  7. ^ German-Finnish Society of Lower Saxony eV: Oldenburg /
  8. ↑ You have to go back . The mirror . Issue 20/1967. May 8, 1967, p. 100
  9. ↑ Society CJZ Oldenburg eV: Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation Oldenburg
  10. ↑ Karsten Röhr: Sleeves up! - When the city started. Michael P. Hopp publishes an illustrated book about the structure of Oldenburg in the 1950s and 1960s . Northwest Newspaper . November 3, 2011
  11. ↑ Ekkehard Seeber: Kulturpolitik der Stadt Oldenburg from 1976 to 2001 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Oldenburg Yearbook . Vol. 102. 2002, p. 221 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / digital.lb-oldenburg.de
  12. ↑ Nadia-Zakia Chelly / and Jasper Rittner: trading house becomes residential building. Association sells casino in Gartenstrasse , Nordwestzeitung . January 16, 2007
  13. ↑ Only a skeleton: The former bridge of nations. Generations borrowed their books there - private person is renovating , Nordwestzeitung . February 7, 2008
  14. ↑ Ekkehard Seeber: Kulturpolitik der Stadt Oldenburg from 1976 to 2001 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Oldenburg Yearbook . Vol. 102. 2002, p. 268 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / digital.lb-oldenburg.de
  15. ↑ Wido Spratte: Osnabrück 1945–1955. Overview of data H. Th. Wenner. Osnabrück 2005, p. 246
  16. ↑ Burkhard Herbote: Osnabrück City Library / Foreign Language Area ( Memento of the original from July 30, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.laenderkontakte.de
  17. ↑ Thorsten Heese: “… a local for art and antiquity” - the institutionalization of collecting using the example of Osnabrück's museum history . Section Events of Osnabrück Museums 1879–2000 . Dissertation at the University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt in Halle. July 4, 2002, p. 52
  18. ↑ "Citizens wanted their theater" . Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung , July 6, 2010
  19. ^ Margarete Mehdorn: French culture in the Federal Republic of Germany. Political concepts and civil society initiatives 1945–1970 . Cologne / Weimar / Vienna: Böhlau Verlag 2009, p. 335
  20. ↑ Adeos Media: Bridge of Nations
  21. ↑ 1001 city map: Bridge of Nations in the Stüvehaus