Geusen beaker
The Geusenbecher (also known as Weseler pompous goblets ) are two silver cups that the Lower Rhine Hanseatic city of Wesel received in 1578 as a gift from Calvinist religious refugees from the Netherlands and today's Belgium. They are still owned by the city today. The honorary name Vesalia hospitalis ( Latin for "hospitable Wesel") is engraved on them .
Historical context and receipt of the trophies
Wesel became a member of the Hanseatic League in 1407 and in 1540 was the first town on the Lower Rhine to admit to the teachings of the Reformation . In the period from 1544 to 1583 it took in several thousand Calvinist religious refugees from the Netherlands and Flanders, Wallonia and England. The total number is said to have been 8,000 people admitted in these almost four decades, but there have been other emigration of immigrants in the meantime. Their share of the population was around 20 percent at times. The above mentioned groups of immigrants were collectively referred to as " Geusen ".
The immigration of refugees began in 1544 with three fled Flemings and Walloons who asked Wesel for the opportunity to continue to pursue the cloth trade there and were accepted. Overall, there were three periods of particularly high immigration in the following decades. Immigration was associated with an economic upswing for the Hanseatic city, which was particularly due to the fact that some of the Flemings and Walloons had special knowledge of cloth weaving and helped this branch of industry to flourish. In addition, arts and crafts and book printing also benefited from a significant upturn. Some of the immigrants became permanent residents in Wesel. In 1550 the first of them had received the citizenship of the city. In 1568 an important meeting of leading Calvinists of Dutch origin took place in Wesel with the Wesel Convention .
In 1578 a large part of the Dutch left the city and a delegation from the Dutch municipalities presented the Wesel city council with the two Geusen cups, one each for the Flemish group and one for the Walloons, in recognition of their hospitality. The honorary name "Vesalia hospitalis" (hospitable Wesel) was engraved on the trophies as an expression of thanks for the hospitality provided. The exact date of delivery was February 24, 1578 and the Geusen beakers were made by the Cologne goldsmith Gillis Sibricht.
The Geusen beakers as historical objects
As part of the municipal property, the Geusen cups have been preserved over the centuries. However, in the final stages of World War II , there were concerns that the items might be lost. On September 21, 1944, the Geusen beakers were therefore placed in a coffin along with five other trophies and beakers from the city's possession and buried in the cemetery on Caspar-Baur-Straße. The grave was given the name of a fallen soldier Gillis Sibricht for camouflage, which actually corresponded to the name of the manufacturer of the Geusen beakers. The mayor and a few members of the city administration were involved in the process. The originally involved initially remained silent about the whereabouts of the trophies after the end of the war, but the cemetery gardener, who was also inaugurated, made the process known to the new Wesel city administration in January 1946. The background was that rumors about the whereabouts of the Geusen cups already existed and for this reason he feared for their safety. On the evening of January 28, 1946, the objects were dug up again by leading members of the city administration and taken to the safe of the Sparkasse Duisburg the next morning . Their removal was initially kept secret from both the public and the British military administration. In August 1950 the Geusen cups were brought back from Duisburg to Wesel.
The Geusenbecher are permanently exhibited in the municipal museum in the building of the public library Wesel on the edge of the Kornmarkt , but also loaned out as part of certain exhibitions. Usually they are only awarded individually. For example, there will be a loan to the German Historical Museum in Berlin from April 2017 . The historical honorific name "Vesalia hospitalis" is still used in the present and transferred to similar contexts, for example to tourism and dealing with current immigration.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Wesel Geusenbecher (routemigration.angekommen.com)
- ↑ a b Vesalia hospitalis (wesel.de)
- ↑ a b Lived hospitality (derwesten.de)
- ↑ Proud of a city with a great history ( Memento of the original from June 10, 2016 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. (kdg-wesel.de)
- ↑ 16th century AD (zeitreise-wesel.de)
- ↑ Wesel's art treasures (wesel775.de)
- ↑ a b January 28, 1946: Recovery of the Wesel State Cups (wesel.de)
- ↑ a b DUisburg INFORMATION (wgff.net)
- ↑ Weseler Becher soon in Berlin (derwesten.de)
- ↑ Location Exposé Wesel (weselmarketing.de)
- ^ Vesalia Hospitalis - Wesel, new home? ( Memento of the original from October 20, 2016 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. (wesel775.de)
- ↑ Escape, a new home, integration - how do they fit together? Seven Wesel statements. (lokalkompass.de)
