Evangelical Club House (Elberfeld)
The Evangelical Club House is a senior citizens' home at Kasinostraße 1 in the Elberfeld district of Wuppertal and is opposite the casino garden . In the 1920s, the former event location developed into the most important meeting place for right-wing radical and ethnic-national groups in Wuppertal. In the time of National Socialism , the building served as the headquarters of the police headquarters and as a local branch of the Secret State Police . After World War II a few years was here the cinema Apollo ; since 1955 the building has been used as a retirement home.
history
On August 29, 1860, the first Protestant clubhouse was inaugurated on the site of the historic “Reitbahn”, which served as a theater from 1828 to 1844. The institution, managed by a foundation board of trustees, was devoted to promoting community life, evangelical club activities and Christian sociability, mainly social purposes, such as the care and support of traveling journeymen, single women, the homeless and poor people regardless of their denomination. The demolition of the old riding arena building was followed by the construction of a modern, spacious new building complex, which was inaugurated in May 1912. The building contained a hostel, a community center, a day restaurant with an economy, as well as conference rooms and several halls that could be rented by clubs and societies. There was a hotel on the two upper floors.
After the First World War , in the 1920s, the Evangelical Club House developed into the most important meeting place for right-wing, ethnic-national, anti-Semitic and anti-democratic groups. The first NSDAP local group was founded here in the Wupper valley as early as 1922 . In addition to Adolf Hitler (1922 and 1926) and Joseph Goebbels , other leading activists and supporters of the National Socialists such as Erich Koch , Karl Kaufmann , August von Mackensen and Alfred Hugenberg appeared as speakers at rallies in the clubhouse , with the express approval of the hosts. From the end of 1921 to November 1939, the State Police Administration rented the upper two floors of the building and set up the Elberfeld-Barmen Police Headquarters there, from which terror against those who think differently and the marginalized was organized in the initial phase of National Socialist rule in Wuppertal. From 1933 the local branch of the Secret State Police was located here . At the end of 1939, the Wehrmacht confiscated the building. In 1941/42 goods from the Aryanized property of deported Wuppertal Jews were publicly auctioned in the large club hall . During the air raid on Elberfeld in 1943 , the building was damaged and cleared for use by the municipal works. From 1944 to 1950 the great hall served as the Apollo cinema.
Since 1949, the club house has again been home to Protestant institutions, such as the Lutheran and Reformed parish offices, the regional church music school, Bible study groups and a feed for the elderly. In 1955 the building was converted into a retirement home. After extensive renovation work, the modern old people's home Kasinostraße of the “Evangelisches Vereinshaus Elberfeld” foundation was opened here in April 2006 .
Since August 10, 2007, there has been a memorial plaque on the Evangelical Club House explaining the history of the house.
Web links
- Elberfeld Evangelical Club Foundation. In: Diakonische Altenhilfe Wuppertal
- Stephan Stracke: Mecca of the Nazis - On the early history of National Socialism in Wuppertal .
- Jan Niko Kirschbaum: Memorial plaque in memory of the history of the Evangelical Club In: denkmal-wuppertal.de
Coordinates: 51 ° 15 '22.1 " N , 7 ° 8' 30.4" E