Brothers Grimm Society
| Brothers Grimm Society V. (BGG) |
|
|---|---|
| purpose | Cultivating and promoting culture in the spirit of the Brothers Grimm |
| Chair: | Ewald Grothe |
| Executive Director: | Bernhard Lauer |
| Establishment date: | 1897/1942 |
| Number of members: | 254 (2018) |
| Seat : | Brothers Grimm-Platz 4 34117 Kassel |
| Website: |
Homepage of the Brothers Grimm Society |
The Brothers Grimm Society (BGG) is a registered association that was founded in 1897 and then re-established in 1942, with its seat in Kassel .
tasks
The Brothers Grimm Society is an “international scientific society” that has set itself the task of “ serving in the spirit of the Brothers Grimm to maintain and promote German culture through events and activities of a suitable kind”. Together with the city of Kassel, the company set up the Brothers Grimm Museum in Kassel in 1959 , which contained an important collection, but was closed by the city of Kassel in 2014.
BGG has also been active as a publisher since 1990; The publishing director is the managing director Bernhard Lauer . The publisher has brought out over 100 publications to date.
History and prehistory
First Kassel Grimm Society
At the time of the hundredth birthdays of the Brothers Grimm in 1885 and 1886, there were numerous anniversary activities. In addition to the traditional scientific and literary interests in the Brothers Grimm, a strong national political impulse played a role, as the Brothers Grimm were seen in the ruling class of the German Empire as champions of the unified state that emerged in 1870/71. A lasting result of these anniversary activities was the erection of the national monument of the Brothers Grimm in front of the Neustädter Rathaus in Hanau .
Efforts had also been made in Kassel for a Grimm memorial, but they were unsuccessful. Librarians at the Kassel State Library, headed by Edward Lohmeyer (1847–1927), therefore took the initiative to set a different focus for Kassel and to create a "Kassel Grimm Collection" of letters based on existing Grimm holdings, To build up manuscripts, original editions, pictures, etc., which they saw as a possible basis for a future Grimm Museum in the State Library . The regional library in the Museum Fridericianum had been the place of work for the Brothers Grimm from 1814 and 1815 to 1829; much in the collections, catalogs and furnishings of the house still reminded of her.
In 1896 the Kassel librarians founded a committee to promote the Kassel Grimm Collection. They also won Wilhelm Grimm's son Herman Grimm to collaborate . After an appeal published at the end of 1896 for the promotion and expansion of the Kassel Grimm Collection had great success, the said committee decided in early 1897 to found the "Kassel Grimm Society". The statutes stated about their goals: “§ 1. The Kassel Grimm Society has set itself the task of honoring the memory of the Brothers Grimm in a manner commensurate with their importance. § 2. The Society seeks to achieve this goal in particular 1. through the collection, which, following on from the basic stock available in the State Library in Kassel, unites memories of all kinds about the brothers, their relatives and friends, and into the Property of the named institution passes, unless other rights are reserved, 2. through the organization of lectures, 3. through the support and publication of scientific works which are suitable to enrich and deepen the Grimm literature, 4. through the distribution of the writings of the Brothers, 5. through the accumulation of funds to be used to build a Grimm monument in Kassel. "
The company managed to collect several hundred documents in the Kassel Grimm Collection. They also included hand copies of the Brothers Grimm's collection of fairy tales with numerous notes. The society's activity came to a standstill again around 1910 due to the old age and death of the few active members; on June 8, 1920 the society was dissolved with 17 members remaining. In accordance with the statutes, the collection remained the property of the State Library, which used it to set up a small Grimm exhibition in its buildings. The entire remaining property of the society, including its financial assets (277.33 marks), was transferred to the state library as property.
Founding of the Brothers Grimm Society V. 1942
The Brothers Grimm Society e. V. was founded for the second time on April 13, 1942 in Kassel as the successor to the older Grimm Society from 1897 . This was done with significant support from the President of the Hesse-Nassau Province, Philip of Hesse . The idea went back to the owner of the Bärenreiter publishing house , Karl Vötterle , who owned an important Grimm collection. Hessian politicians of the time took up the idea and made it their own. The board of directors from the very beginning was the deputy of the NSDAP Gauleiter Kurhessen Max Solbrig as chairman and the state director of the Reichsschrifttumskammer des Gaus Kurhessen Karl Kaltwasser as managing director as well as Rudolf Fleischer and Karl Vötterle in other offices. In a brochure from the founding time it says about the goals and the way of working:
“The Brothers Grimm Society is a on April 13, 1942 by Gauleiter and Preuss. State Councilor Karl Weinrich founded an association registered in the register of associations with its seat in Kassel. The Gauleiter of the Gau Kurhessen is their patron. The society has set itself the task of serving the maintenance and promotion of German culture in the spirit of the Brothers Grimm. [...] It is their goal to strengthen, enrich and deepen our people's self-awareness. The Brothers Grimm Society wants to create a lively foster home in Hesse for German culture, as it has always taken shape in science, poetry, art and folklore. [...] The events and publications of the society will seek to serve a comprehensive science of the German people beyond the borders of the homeland in the spirit of the Brothers Grimm, which is always directed towards the wholeness of the higher national life. Never losing sight of the goal of true folklore, the Brothers Grimm Society will devote its work to the inherited cultural assets in awe of the legacy of the ancestors, not only to preserve the endangered, but above all to make the still living things fertile. In active fidelity to the past, your service to our present applies here. "
The following were named as projects of the BGG: lectures, lecture series, working groups, readings, exhibitions, conferences, editions of the works and correspondence of the Brothers Grimm, a yearbook, a magazine, etc. Members of the society were “German Volksgenossen”, corporations under public law and commercial enterprises. As a result of the Second World War and during the continuing destruction of the city of Kassel by bombing, the society was in fact unable to achieve any of its goals until 1945.
post war period
Even from the first post-war years, not much is known about the activities of the Grimm Society. The continuous continuation of a literary society founded in 1942 is, however, remarkable in itself. The persistence in the continuation of the company came primarily through Karl Vötterle, the knowledgeable actual inspirer of the company, who replaced Max Solbrig as chairman after the Second World War . He was supported by Wilhelm Praesent and Karl Kaltwasser , who was active in cultural policy as Kassel city councilor of the FDP after 1945 , as additional board members, followed by Dieter Hennig and Karl Fritz Heise around 1970.
The Brothers Grimm Society, like the administration of the Brothers Grimm Museum, had offices first in the Murhard library, then in an outbuilding of the Palais Bellevue . Since 2014, the company has been located at Brothers Grimm-Platz .
The BGG in the present
Today's BGG follows the tradition of the old Kassel Grimm Society founded in 1897 (keyword: 100 years of the Brothers Grimm Society, 1997 ). The BGG participates in the worldwide Brothers Grimm research. Her work focuses on exhibitions and the issuing of publications. In addition to the publication of the yearbook of the Brothers Grimm Society (previously published from 1991 to 2008, including 2001–2002, 2003–2004, 2005–2006, 2007–2008, 2009–2010, each as double volumes), the "Kassel edition" of works and correspondence of the Brothers Grimm on the main scientific project of the BGG (3 volumes since 1998). In addition, the series of writings of the Brothers Grimm Society (8 volumes since 1990) and sources on Brothers Grimm research are published . A Brothers Grimm Journal (10 issues since 2006) is published irregularly .
Members, board of directors, scientific council
The BGG currently (as of June 2018) has 254 members.
The BGG has been chaired by the Wuppertal historian Ewald Grothe since October 2017 . His predecessor was the Kassel politician Werner Neusel from 2008 to 2017. From 2006 to 2008 the building contractor Klaus Dieter Staubach held the post; before that the Kassel politician Wolfgang Windfuhr (1997–2006) and the Marburg Slavic Studies professor Hans-Bernd Harder (1984–1996). Bernhard Lauer (Kassel) has been the managing director since August 1989 and headed the Brothers Grimm Museum until 2014. The other board members are treasurer Marco Benderoth (Lohfelden), press spokesman Daniel Stein (Kassel) and economic expert Ewald Griesel (Ahnatal).
The Scientific Council of the BGG consists of the members of the Board of Directors who belong to the Council in accordance with the Society's statutes, and a. from the following scientists: Wilhelm Bleek (Bochum / Toronto), Maria Teresa Cortez (Coimbra / Aveiro), Rotraut Fischer (Darmstadt), Wilhelm Heizmann (Munich), Heidrun Helwig (Gießen), Ulrich Hussong (Marburg), Burkhard Kling (Steinau on the street), Katinka Netzer (Bochum), Volker Schupp (Freiburg), Ulrich Sieg (Marburg), Hans-Jörg Uther (Göttingen) and Harm-Peer Zimmermann (Zurich).
literature
- Edward Lohmeyer: The Kassel Grimm Society 1896 to 1905. First annual report , Kassel 1906.
- Brothers Grimm Society Kassel (leaflet, probably 1942).
- Karl Kaltwasser: A living legacy. Speech at the opening ceremony of the Brothers Grimm Society in Kassel , Kassel 1943.
- Dieter Hennig: Brothers Grimm Museum Kassel. Catalog of the exhibition in Palais Bellevue , Bärenreiter, Kassel 1973.
- Bernhard Lauer: One hundred years of the Brothers Grimm Society . In: Yearbook of the Brothers Grimm Society 7 (1997), pp. 7-13.
- Bernhard Lauer: The Brothers Grimm Society and the literary Grimm sites in Hesse . In: Bernd Heidenreich / Ewald Grothe (ed.): The Grimms. Culture and Politics , Societäts-Verlag, 2nd edition, Frankfurt a. Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-7973-1072-9 , pp. 430-466.
- Bernhard Lauer: Possibilities and limits of museum presentations of the Brothers Grimm - memorials and exhibitions 1885 to 2015. In: Yearbook of the Brothers Grimm Society 19/20 (2009–2010), pp. 7–144.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Publications | 1. Yearbook of the Brothers Grimm Society. Brothers Grimm Society Kassel eV, accessed on December 29, 2017 .
- ↑ Press release from the University of Wuppertal .