History of the fire department
The history of the fire brigade goes back to Roman times.
Even then, combating the dangers caused by fires was seen as necessary. Only the realization that citizens should not rely solely on the authorities and rely on them, but should rather take their fate into their own hands, contributed significantly to the establishment of volunteer fire brigades . Such facilities were mainly built in very large cities and have existed since the 18th century. Only a few, such as the professional fire brigade in Vienna , which was founded in 1686 and is considered the first professional fire brigade, go back a little further.
Many fire brigades in Germany were established around 1848 during the civil revolution . By turning away from the authoritarian state to a state with democratic participation of the population, an essential foundation stone was laid for the many founding dates of various fire departments in Germany .
With the emergence of cities there is often evidence of attempts to prevent or counteract the very frequent fire incidents. In the Roman Empire in the year 21 BC. A first fire brigade with 600 slaves . In the Middle Ages , many municipal constitutions included the obligation of residents to participate in fire protection. Tower keepers and night watchmen were initially responsible for fire reports (shouting: “Feurio!”). Firemen were also anchored in the fire extinguishing ordinances for the first time .
In the pre-industrial era, the fire-fighting equipment consisted of simple aids such as buckets, ladders and tear-off hooks. In the 17th century the hose was invented, which was first made from sewn leather ; later the leather was riveted. Until the beginning of the 20th century, hand pumps, so-called fire engines , were used, which were pulled by the fire fighting team to the scene of action (only in very large places by horses). With the invention of the internal combustion engine , the equipment used by fire brigades also improved: motorized sprayers and self-driving fire engines increased their performance many times over.
In the middle of the 19th century, the first privately organized professional fire brigades were founded in the USA , some of which only protected houses that bore the badge of the respective company. The expansion of the volunteer fire brigades in Europe in the same era, some of which arose from gymnastics clubs, is well documented.
Prehistoric times
In the past, people's buildings were relatively isolated. If a fire broke out , only a single dwelling burned down and not the entire settlement. These fires were only fought by spontaneously acting people. An organized fire brigade did not exist.
But the ancient Egyptians already had the first organized fire fighting units. The invention of the fire engine (piston pump) is attributed to the Greek mechanic Ktesibios of Alexandria in 250 BC. Attributed to BC.
Roman times
The reasons for a further development of the fire-fighting system lie in the increasing urbanization and the advances in construction technology at that time . In the Roman Empire , cities with millions of inhabitants emerged like Rome . Multi-storey tenement houses ( insulae ) were usually very close together, and the streets were also very narrow. In many cases, wooden extensions and porches were built on the houses.
Although arson was severely punished, it was very common. There was no fire insurance , but during the major fires the state provided support for the injured citizens.
Fires destroyed entire districts of Rome several times. The fire alone in July 64 AD (legend has it that emperor Nero was responsible for the arson) raged for about ten days and completely destroyed three of the city's 14 regions. He devastated seven other city districts except for a few ruins. After this fire, building regulations were issued to reduce the risk of fire. The streets became wider, more squares were created and the number of floors in houses was limited.
In the year 21 BC A first fire brigade with 600 slaves was founded. At the time of Emperor Augustus , a fire extinguishing corps followed, consisting of seven cohorts of 420 to 600 men each. Each cohort was responsible for two districts in Rome.
The Romans were not yet familiar with hoses, although they were masters of pumping water . Instead, the equipment included: syringes, buckets, ladders, poles, blankets, baskets, sponges, brooms, rag blankets (soaked with water to protect the neighboring houses), hooks, saws and hammers. In the fire extinguishing cohorts there were water carriers, syringe people, people with fire blankets and those responsible for lighting at the scene.
middle Ages
As early as the Middle Ages, the communities were obliged to set up fire protection. First the guilds and guilds were obliged to intervene in an emergency. One of the oldest known fire regulations was set up in Meran in 1086 , in which the craftsmen had to perform the tasks.
Nevertheless, major fires, in which entire districts burned down, happened very often. Lübeck , for example, burned down several times in the 12th century. Strasbourg burned down eight times in the 14th century. In addition to fires from carelessness and arson in wars, there was often arson by gangs of murder burners. Only from the end of the 14th century onwards did it burn less, as from this point onwards the building was more solid and stone increasingly replaced wood as a building material.
The first fire extinguishing ordinances took effect in the 13th and 14th centuries. These included, for example, that all fires had to be turned off at a certain time in the evening, which the night watchman checked, or that every household had to have a bucket of water ready for emergencies. So was u. a. regulated that wine and water carriers had to bring water to the fire site immediately with their buckets in the event of fire. A fire loop was provided in the city center . Night vigils were set up to report fires in the city. In the church towers , tower rooms were set up. In Vienna 's St. Stephen's Cathedral, for example, there had been a tower keeper paid by the city since 1444 , who could set off a fire alarm with the bell. During the day he had to wave one or more red flags in the respective direction where the fires were, at night he waved lanterns. This fire station existed in St. Stephen's Cathedral until 1955.
Increasingly, water scoops were constantly supplied with water by pumping stations, and waterworks gradually emerged. Extinguishing water ponds were also created in the places that still exist today, even if they no longer have the originally important importance.
The only equipment available was leather buckets, water barrels, poker hooks and roof crutches. From the 14th century, there were simple syringes that were initially fed with buckets. In the event of a fire, all exits of the place were often manned in order to let no one out except fire walkers and those who were called to fetch the fire engine during the fire. All residents who were able to work had to rush to the scene of the fire with the bucket filled and to line up in double rows after the next water supply point: "The bucket flew through the chain between hands." One row handed the filled extinguishing bucket to the syringe, the other gave the empty back to the water for filling. Refusal to obey the command, unauthorized removal from the scene of the fire or deliberate damage to the extinguishing equipment was punishable by severe physical punishment. The things rescued from the scene of the fire were closely guarded in a fireproof place.
Modern times
In the 16th century the hose was invented, which was first made from sewn leather ; later the leather was riveted. In addition, some firefighters have been equipped with old military helmets since the late 17th century . Mid-18th century were first hemp hoses used, but only 100 years later could be used reliably in the fire service after it with a rubber were provided -Einlage.
Oldest fire brigade in Germany
There are several fire departments in Germany that claim to be Germany's "oldest volunteer fire department". The fire brigade of the city of Saarlouis is one of the oldest, although there is a dispute over whether it is counted as a German fire brigade due to its changeable affiliation . It was founded in 1811 by the then owners of the city, the French under the rule of Napoleon. In 1811, shortly after a great fire broke out in the neighboring village of Fraulautern, the existing Pompiers company was reorganized by the Lord Mayor Michel Reneauld, with the approval of the Prefect of Metz Vincent-Marie Viénot, Duke of Vaublanc, following a resolution by the City of Saarlouis . This new formation happened at a time when Napoleon had issued a decree for the Paris fire brigade, the core idea of which was the voluntary nature of the recruitment of the crew, a tight military organization and unpaid service, i.e. voluntary work. Since this decree was expressly only valid for Paris, but the fire protection problem was the same everywhere, the prefectures in France subsequently also issued similar decrees for their areas of responsibility (for example, the prefect Vaublanc for the city of Metz in 1812). A fire brigade that was also founded in the then part of Germany that belonged to France is the Alzey fire brigade , which was founded on September 10, 1799. In contrast to the previously mentioned foundings, the Meißen volunteer fire brigade was founded on July 17, 1841 in Meissen expressly under the name "volunteer fire brigade".
Fire brigades in the Austrian Empire
The oldest organization in the Habsburg monarchy is the Vienna Fire Brigade . Founded in 1686, it is considered to be the oldest professional fire service in the world. Others followed only later, such as the two company fire brigades in the tobacco factories in Fürstenfeld in 1813 and Schwaz in 1831. The volunteer fire brigades , which are still the backbone of comprehensive fire-fighting in what is now Austria , were established in the second half of the 19th century Century. Here played Ferdinand Leitenberger , of the concept and the first volunteer fire department of the monarchy in 1851 in Imperial City , in what is now the Czech Republic and almost simultaneously in Linz founded.
Fire brigades in today's sense
Fire brigades in today's sense did not emerge until the middle of the 19th century. Since there were “new types” of municipal fire fighting systems before these fire brigades, things are often mixed up here. That is why a distinction is made between fire protection history and fire service history.
When the Karlsruhe court theater fire on February 28, 1847, a new type of fire brigade shone for the first time with the Durlach “Pompier Corps”. The Durlacher used a modern, movable hand pressure syringe from the young company Metz ; they used so-called risers - all gymnasts - with new types of hook ladders that climbed the roofs of the surrounding buildings in order to seal off the fire and fight it from the roofs. The fire fighting had stepped out of its confinement to defense through the use of the Steiger and had gained the ability to attack. "The fire extinguishing system is gymnastics", Carl Metz had consequently stated in his pamphlet of June 1848. This also applied to all the newly established professional fire departments that employed gymnastics teachers. As a further groundbreaking innovation, all fire brigade members of the new type were drilled according to the military “number system”. On September 3, 1854, the 1st German Fire Brigade Day took place in Ulm .
Oldest German professional fire brigade: On January 16, 1851, Ludwig Carl Scabell was appointed head of Germany's first professional fire brigade in Berlin . As the future Royal Fire Director, he commanded a total of 971 extinguishers who had the most modern manual pressure syringes and devices of the time and were trained according to the latest methods.
_der_Gemeinde_Prohlis,_sp%C3%A4tes_19._Jahrhundert.jpg)
In isolated cases, into the 20th century, especially in rural areas, hand-operated fire engines were used, which were pulled to the scene of action by human power or by horses. As early as the middle of the 19th century, especially in the big cities, the so-called steam spraying began to be implemented (here a steam engine took over the drive of the piston pump). For a long time, these pumps were also pulled to the scene by horses. The further development led, in part parallel to the motorization with internal combustion engines, to self-propelled steam sprayers, which were propelled by electric motors or by means of the steam engine carried along. After the spread of the internal combustion engine progressed more and more, the fire engines with them were mounted on single-axle trailers. These were regarded as so-called gun mounts or as self-propelled fire engines, in which the drive motor took over the pump drive via a power take-off. After the Second World War , many disused military vehicles were converted into fire engines and served for a long time.
In the USA , the first, privately organized, professional fire departments were founded in the middle of the 19th century . Sometimes only houses with the badge of such a company were deleted. In New York, on the other hand, there was strong competition for insurance premiums. So-called runners tried in a fire the nearest fire hydrant to take for your business in fog, which often led to fights.
On November 23, 1938, the “Law on Fire Extinguishing”, valid for the entire German Reich, came into force. With this law, the Nazi regime placed the fire brigades as a technical police force under the jurisdiction of the Reich Minister of the Interior. This involved the renaming of the professional fire brigade as the fire police. The volunteer fire brigade had the status of an auxiliary police force.
The fire brigade was now part of the police, so all newly purchased vehicles were painted in police green. Existing vehicles were gradually repainted, but some kept the previous color scheme. The designation "Fire Police" was also placed on the vehicles above the state eagle, which, like the police, looked with its head to the right.
In the course of the war there was an increasing shortage of materials - the needs of the Wehrmacht were primarily served. Simplification of vehicles and equipment was therefore increasing. Initially, the lettering on the vehicles was simplified, and later the paintwork and superstructures as well. From around 1943, pressboard and hard cardboard were used for the superstructures of fire engines. The painting was now completely saved, only the primer was applied.
Another problem of the fire brigades was the decreasing number of crews, caused on the one hand by the conscription to the Wehrmacht, on the other hand by the losses caused by the air war. Women and young people who were actually not allowed to join the fire police filled the gaps. There were so-called firefighters and HJ firefighters - mostly under the direction of veteran firefighters. The lost, destroyed or failed equipment due to long repair times could not compensate for these forces either.
Fire Brigade Associations
The German Fire Brigade Association was founded in Plochingen on July 10, 1853 on the initiative of the Ulm fire brigade commander Conrad Dietrich Magirus . There was a radical intervention in the construction and structure of the fire brigades during the National Socialist era with the law on fire extinguishing . On instructions from the Reich Ministry of the Interior, the association ceased operations in 1938. The re-establishment after the Second World War took place on January 12, 1952 in Fulda (Hesse).
In 1889 the Standing Austrian Fire Brigade Committee was founded as the predecessor of the Austrian Federal Fire Brigade Association (ÖBFV) . The name was changed to Österreichischer Reichsverband in 1900 . After the “ Anschluss ” in 1938, the association was called the Austrian National Fire Brigade Association for short . Since the fire brigade was subordinated to the police in the National Socialist organization, the association lost its competence and disbanded in mid-1938. After the Second World War, the association was founded in 1948 with its current name.
Origin of the term fire brigade
In the journal for all political science in Tübingen , which appeared shortly after the theater fire in Karlsruhe in February 1847 , the following sentence was written:
"We would like a fire brigade instead of the fireland storm that we have."
The intention was to express that the residents, similar to the Landwehr , had already been trained in fire-fighting technology beforehand and were constantly practicing, in contrast to the Landsturm in the military, who had no training at all but was sent into action.
When and where the term was first used is not documented. However, the Karlsruhe Pompiers Corps was described as a voluntary fire brigade corps in an internal report dated August 24, 1847 to the municipal council . The term was published publicly by the Karlsruher Zeitung on November 19, 1847.
See also
- Category: Fire Brigade Museum
- Fire brigade in Austria
- History of the medical services in the Austrian fire services
- Fire engine
- Fire bucket
literature
Books
- Matthias Blazek: Under the swastika: The German fire brigades 1933-1945 . ibidem, Stuttgart 2009 ISBN 978-3-89821-997-6
- Matthias Blazek: The history of the fire service in the district of Celle . ibidem, Stuttgart 2010 ISBN 978-3-8382-0147-4
- Hans Brunswig: Firestorm over Hamburg . Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2003
- Ralf Bernd Herden: Red Rooster and Red Cross - Chronicle of the history of fire extinguishing and rescue services . Norderstedt 2005, ISBN 3-8334-2620-9
- Tobias Engelsing : In association with fire. The social history of the volunteer fire brigade from 1830 to 1950 . 2nd Edition. Libelle-Verlag, Lengwil (CH) 1999
- Joachim Haase; Dieter Jarausch: The fire brigade regiments in World War II, part 2 . vfdb-Referat 11, Report No. 18, Stuttgart 1990
- Martin Langner (Ed.): "Fire black". A German fire brigade story using Heidelberg as an example . Verlag Das Wunderhorn, Heidelberg 1996
- Andreas Linhardt: Fire brigade in air protection 1926–1945 . Self-published d. Author, Braunschweig 2002, ISBN 978-3-8311-3738-1
- Rolf Schamberger: "One for All - All for One". 150 years of the German Fire Brigade Association . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-17-018108-4
- Rolf Schamberger: "The development of fire protection in Germany". In: Jens Rönnfeldt (Hrsg.): Fire service manual of organization, technology and training . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2003, pp. 1-13
- Carl Weiser: The German fire brigade: manual for the entire fire extinguishing system . Wirth publishing house, Mainz 1855 ( dilibri )
Magazine articles
- About rescue facilities in the event of a fire . In: Illustrirte Zeitung . No. 17 . J. J. Weber, Leipzig October 21, 1843, p. 267-269 ( books.google.de ).
- Tobias Engelsing: When the commander brought the petrol can. The synagogue fires in 1938 and the displacement of Jewish firefighters from the weirs . In: Brandschutz / Deutsche Feuerwehr-Zeitung , 2/1998, pp. 93–97
- Jens Meier: Fire brigade - old hat? The fire department in ancient Rome . In: Brandschutz / Deutsche Feuerwehr-Zeitung , 2/1998, pp. 50–56
- Jens Oberheide: Masonic symbolism and fire department emblematics. The ethical symbol association of the Freemasons and the symbolic image links of the fire department . In: Brandschutz / Deutsche Feuerwehr-Zeitung , 2/2000, pp. 119–126
- Rolf Schamberger: A “brilliant” idea prevails. The first meetings and fire brigade days . In: Brandschutz / Deutsche Feuerwehr-Zeitung , 2/2003, pp. 64–72
- Arnulf Siebeneicker: Urban fire hazards. Urbanization, industrialization and the Berlin fire extinguishing system 1800–1875 . In: Brandschutz / Deutsche Feuerwehr-Zeitung , 2/2001, pp. 106–113
- Christian Stichternath: The fire brigade as part of warfare. Shortage of staff, change in tasks, militarization . In: Brandschutz / Deutsche Feuerwehr-Zeitung , 2/2002, pp. 126–132
Web links
- The fire department and their history
- CTIF History Commission conference proceedings on the website of the Research Center for Fire Protection Technology at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jacob Grimm : About the cries of fire . In: Smaller Fonts . tape 5 . Berlin 1871, p. 393-397 ( google.de ).
- ^ Franz-Josef Sehr : The fire extinguishing system in Obertiefenbach from earlier times . In: Yearbook for the Limburg-Weilburg district 1994 . The district committee of the Limburg-Weilburg district, Limburg-Weilburg 1993, p. 151-153 .
- ↑ Saarlouis volunteer fire brigade today: On our own behalf. Retrieved May 10, 2010 .
- ^ History of the Alzey volunteer fire brigade. Retrieved February 14, 2018 .
- ^ Chronicle of the Meißen volunteer fire brigade accessed on May 25, 2017
- ^ Yearbook of the ÖBFV 2010 . ISBN 978-3-9502364-8-4 , p. 25.
