Voltaire Club

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Club Voltaire is a name used mainly in Germany for various left-wing alternative cultural institutions that have no organizational connection with one another. One of the common maxims is freedom of expression .

Naming and origin

The naming is based on the French philosopher of the Enlightenment , Francois-Marie Arouet, who became known under the name Voltaire . The quote wrongly attributed to him (in fact, the phrase comes from SG Tallentyre ) “You disagree with me, but I will defend your right to it to the death” stands for a radical commitment to freedom of speech. Voltaire is particularly popular in politically moderate left circles, as he has argued and written against poverty and ignorance as well as for the obligations of industry and the state in relation to the common good. But he also turned against any fanaticism ("consider that fanatics are more dangerous than villains") and stands for a scientific worldview ("chance is a word without meaning; nothing can exist without a cause") and for modern principles of the rule of law ( "Better to risk saving a guilty man than to convict an innocent man"). The clubs founded between 1968 and 1975 were often based on the model of the Republican Club in Berlin.

Examples of political clubs

"Club Voltaire", Kleine Hochstrasse 5 in Frankfurt am Main
  • The Club Voltaire in Frankfurt am Main is the oldest in Germany and has existed since the turn of 1962/63. Among its founders were Heiner Halberstadt , the founding manager of the Socialist Federation , Heinz Brakemeier (born May 6, 1925 in Barntrup ; † January 12, 2010 in Frankfurt am Main), and Walmot Falkenberg .
    In the eatery without obligation to eat, there are regular and irregular events; Politicians and activists from various left-wing parties are invited to give lectures. There are meeting rooms on the two upper floors. Free music events and other events take place on the stage. In the entrance area there is a small mural from the 1960s , on which Hans-Jürgen Krahl is deep in conversation with Karl Marx , Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg over a glass of red wine. (While Krahl explains something obviously important to them with a raised index finger, Lenin absently pats a red cat.) For many years, the youth organizations of left Frankfurt parties, such as the Jusos , the Green Youth and the Pirate Party, have met regularly in the rooms of the Voltaire Club .
  • The Club Voltaire in Hanover was founded in 1968 by Professors Peter Brückner and Peter von Oertzen , the later Lord Mayor Herbert Schmalstieg and the cabaret artist Dietrich Kittner . It was a pub in the basement of Nikolaistraße 11, the former headquarters of the Hanover paper wholesaler JC Kayser & Giesecke .
  • The Club Voltaire in Tübingen was founded in 1972 - triggered by the 1968 student movement - and saw itself as a fighter against an outdated concept of culture. In 1975 the first Tübingen folk and songwriter festival was held there, which was entirely dedicated to the left-wing Anglo-American songwriter scene.
  • The Club Voltaire in Munich was founded in 2001 by Petra Finsterle and Judith Schmalzl. Michaele Dietl has curated together with Petra Finsterle since 2006. Until 2012, the focus of Club Voltaire Munich was on the political and cultural scene.
  • The Club Voltaire in Stuttgart was founded in 1964 and dissolved in 1971. The circle of founders included: Helga and Heinz Schmalenberger, Fritz Lamm , Willi Hoss , Manfred Hackh, Jürgen Holtfreter, Jack Beck, Margot Wilhemy, Kaja Tenholt, Klaus Croissant , Wolfgang Kiwus, Ulrich Cassel, Manfred Esser , Peter Grohmann . In Peter Grohmann's autobiography it says: “Jürgen Holtfreter and Helga Schmalenberger with us, Leonhard (Susanne, PR) with us and Hoss and the Lamm, Jack Beck, Ernst Knepper, Kurt Blank, onion, Peter Rauscher, and whoever yet?"

Other examples of using the name

  • In 1964, Gerhard Szczesny Verlag in Munich published the first “ Yearbook for Critical Enlightenment ” under CLUB VOLTAIRE .
  • A nightclub operates in Aachen under the name Club Voltaire and is open all night.
  • In Münster , Club Voltaire is a regular French-speaking meeting of the German-French Society of Münster in a restaurant.
  • In France, the use of the term Club Voltaire is quite popular and is used for womenswear, office space providers and martial arts clubs alike.

The literary quote

" Daniel Cohn-Bendit pours the contents of his wine glass past my face against the wall of the Club Voltaire ". Daniel Cohn-Bendit is the student leader of the Paris May Revolt of '68, the Club Voltaire in the small Hochstrasse in Frankfurt.

Events

On June 10, 2009, the Voltaire Club in Neu-Isenburg was attacked by about twenty young men during a music concert.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Evelyn Beatrice Hall: The Friends of Voltaire. UP Putnam's Sons, New York 1907, p. 199: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”, archive.org .
  2. ↑ Klaus Mlynek , Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) And a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , pp. 611f.
  3. ^ Left opposition for a Europe based on solidarity: Heinz Brakemeier (1925–2010) is dead
  4. ↑ Claus Leggewie: porter. The Algeria project of the left in Adenauer Germany , Rotbuch Verlag, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-88022-286-X , pp. 79-80
  5. ^ Klaus Mlynek , in: Stadtlexikon Hannover , pp. 611f.
  6. ↑ Peter Grohmann: Everything lies except me , Tübingen 2013, p. 142.
  7. ^ Bernward Vesper : The journey. From the Hitler Youth to the RAF , 1977, based on: Frederick A. Lubich : Wende Welten , 2002, p. 65.
  8. ^ Neu-Isenburg: Brawl in Club Voltaire , op-online.de, June 10, 2009

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