Gießen Senior Citizens' Convention

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The Gießen Seniors 'Convent (Gießener SC) is the senior citizens' convent of the Kösener Corps at the Justus Liebig University in Gießen . With a tradition going back over 200 years, it is the oldest student institution at the former Hessian Ludwig University.

history

Beginnings of the SC

The Gießen Seniors' Convent came into being as a local union of the constituted country teams who emancipated themselves from the student orders (Constantists, Harmonists) that were strongly represented in Gießen at the beginning of the 19th century and took over the leadership of the student body. The earliest representatives are documented from the year 1804, the Franconia and Rhenania country teams, which in 1806 agreed the oldest Giessener Burschencomment (SC-Comment). In August 1807, the Gießen Seniors 'Convention agreed with the Marburg office on the mutual recognition of the disreputable penalties "because of the persecution of the two universities' teams".

In 1809 the Gießener SC was expanded to include Guestphalia. In the wake of the Wars of Liberation , all three Landsmannschaften dissolved at the end of 1814. A new beginning can already be recorded at the beginning of 1815 with the founding of Hassia . From August of that year a Nassovia is also proven, which soon died again. As a continuation of the Constantist Order, there was a Constantia that approximated the country-based connections. The latter adopted the name "Corps" , which appeared in the Heidelberg Seniors' Convent in 1810 .

As a counter-movement against the Senior Citizens' Convention of the Corps, the German Reading Society for the achievement of patriotic scientific purposes (Teutonia) was formed under the influence of the national enthusiasm of the Wars of Liberation under Adolf Ludwig Follen . From it emerged the Black League and finally the Giessen fraternity. Serious conflicts arose between the corps and the Giessen “blacks” because both claimed to represent the entire student body. The disrepute pronounced on the part of Hassia and Constantia on the blacks on January 20, 1817 led to massive official investigations against both parties. There was a rapprochement after the Wartburg Festival, in which the Hesse app also took part. In August 1819, after a dispute with a member of the military, the two of them organized the joint move of the student body to Gleiberg Castle and Gladenbach. The implementation of the Karlsbad resolutions and the establishment of the Central Investigation Commission in Mainz brought the entire communication system in Gießen to a temporary standstill at the beginning of the winter semester 1819/20; Hassia was reconstituted in early 1820. A Franconia followed on May 30, 1820, which only existed for about a year. Opponents were the Germania fraternity and Constantia, who had also moved to the fraternity camp. They united in 1821 to form a single fraternity, which existed until 1834, for a time under the name of the weapon association .

Another Rhenania followed in the corps camp in August 1822, followed by a Franconia in the winter of 1822/23, later called Franco-Guestphalia or Guestphalia. Hassia, Rhenania and Franconia guaranteed a new SC comment in 1824 , which was confirmed by Rhenania and the newly founded Franco Guestphalia in 1825. He makes an explicit distinction between the constitutional-monarchical corps and the "purely republican" fraternity and is committed to the country team principle of corps students. The acceptance of orders and wreaths such as Amicitia, Arminia and Constantia was excluded.

From June 28 to July 1, 1826, the second exodus to the Gleiberg took place. The reason is said to have been that the University Court wanted to impose penalties on the referees at the scales. At the end of the summer semester of 1826, the Seniors' Convent was increased by two new foundations: Vandalia (August 20, 1826) and a Starkenburgia (August 26, 1826) founded by former members of the arms association. Vandalia went back in at the beginning of the winter semester 1826/27, and Rhenania soon afterwards.

The rest of the SC had to disband temporarily in June 1828 after serious clashes with the fraternity and renewed persecution by the academic authorities, in the course of which eight Hessians and eight strong citizens were evicted. The reconstitution took place at the end of August 1828 by Hassia, Rhenania and Starkenburgia . From August 1, 1829 to spring 1831, there was also a Nassovia, and in 1831/32 a Vandalia. With the latter, however, it is uncertain whether it has been recognized by the SC. Possibly it is part of the fraternity camp.

Demagogue tracking and progress

State persecution intensified after 1830 and forced Starkenburgia to suspend it at the beginning of the winter semester 1831/32. Thus in 1832 only the Corps Hassia and Rhenania existed. They were joined by Teutonia, founded on July 18, 1832 by members of the fraternity who had resigned. At the instigation of the rector, it dropped the general name Teutonia and called itself Starkenburgia from July 1833, but kept its colors.

From remnants of the fraternity, which dissolved after the failed Frankfurt Wachensturm in 1833, the Corps Palatia Gießen , which was accepted into the SC on May 31, 1833, was also constituted. In the summer of 1833, the SC consisted of the Corps Hassia, Rhenania, Starkenburgia and Palatia. The contrasts between the old country team Corps Hassia and Rhenania and the fraternity-oriented Starkenburgia and Palatia soon became clear. Palatia in particular had a strong fraternity tendency and was extremely political. Carl Vogt from Palatinate described it as a fraternity camouflage connection. When the conflict escalated in February 1834, Hassia and Rhenania refused the other two further recognition. Public riots led to new official investigations under the new university chancellor Justin Linde . Palatia, which was included in the ongoing investigations against the fraternity, had to disband. Starkenburgia followed shortly afterwards.

After a new disciplinary order was issued for the university in the summer of 1835, the two still existing corps also formally dissolved, but probably continued to exist in secret. On October 22, 1836, the University Court issued a judgment on an attempt to re-establish a Hassia. On December 9, 1836, the investigation against Palatia and the fraternity were ended by judgment of the University Court. The related relegations meant the temporary end of corps life in Giessen.

Start-up

Consolidation did not begin until 1838. In the winter semester of 1838/39 there was already a pub society of Starkenburgern, which, however, did not appear to the outside world and did not adopt a constitution in the sense of the earlier corps. An informal association of Rhinelanders is said to have existed. Under the leadership of the lawyer Heinrich Stüber, a smaller group separated itself from the Starkenburgers and founded the Corps Teutonia Gießen on June 1, 1839 , which adopted the colors and the constitution of the former Corps Palatia and was thus the first corps to be reconstituted. The reason for the secession were differences with August Metz from Starkenburg , which also led to several duels between Metz and Stüber.

Therefore Teutonia applies in seniority until today as the oldest corps of Giessen SC. Just two days later, however, under the leadership of Wolrad Kreusler , Hassia opened up again as a corps. It also consisted mainly of former members of the loose union of Starkenburgern. Investigations by the university judge Trygophorus were initiated against them and against Hassia in mid-July 1839 . Relegations, consultations and prison sentences were the result. As rumors of a disease of the lockup imprisoned Stark Burgers Matthes began circulating, decided on a student meeting in Ebelschen cafe on June 25, 1839, the violent liberation of the detainees. Another student assembly on the drive the following morning sent a deputation to the ministry. When Trygophorus had Cheveauxlegers (light cavalry) come from Butzbach, it was decided to move out to Gleiberg, which lasted until the beginning of August. The peace was restored through the mediation of Rector Karl August Credner .

The Hassia of 1839 dissolved again after the storm in the prison. Since the Starkenburger had not yet converted their pub society back into a corps, only the Corps Teutonia existed. In 1840 the University Court promised her that connections based on the Bavarian model would be approved. Thereupon Rhenania was constituted on August 3rd, Starkenburgia on August 7th and Hassia on August 9th as a new corps. Since then there has been a formal senior citizens' convention of four corps again. In July 1848, Georg Ludwig, a strong citizen , represented the Gießener SC at the delegates 'assembly of the Senior Citizens' Convention in Jena.

The SC in imperial times

The years after the Franco-German War are considered to be the heyday of corps students. Although the corps lost influence on the student body due to the increasing total number of students , the emergence of alternative forms of corporation and the emancipation of the free student body, they were able to maintain a representative position and expand their social position thanks to their close ties with the social elites, especially the higher civil service. This was particularly true of Giessen as a state university, which was the most important training facility for civil servants in the Grand Duchy of Hesse .

The Giessen Corps included the Ministers of State Freiherr von Dalwigk (Hassia), Rinck Freiherr von Starck (Teutonia) and Julius Finger (Rhenania), the Ministers Friedrich von Bechtold (Hassia), Wilhelm Küchler (Teutonia), MPs such as August Metz ( Starkenburgia) and Wilhelm Haas (Teutonia) as well as from the Prussian mansion Prince Friedrich Wilhelm zu Ysenburg and Büdingen (Teutonia). There were also representatives of the Darmstadt ministerial bureaucracy such as Karl von Neidhardt (Teutonia), Gustav Krug von Nidda (Teutonia) and Ferdinand Emmerling (Teutonia). The heads of the provincial administrations and the district councils were also often old men of the Giessen corps.

In contrast to the Heidelberg and Bonn Senior Citizens' Convents, which also took on a leading role in the association, the Gießener SC remained comparatively provincial and only had little effectiveness beyond its own university.

Weimar Republic and the time of National Socialism

The experience of the front, the economic and social upheavals, the increasing politicization of broad strata of the population and, in particular, the radicalization of the workers, who hated the corps, which were ostracized as a relic of the old empire, shaped the interwar period . The years 1919 to 1924 in particular brought the corps increasingly into right-wing conservative waters. In the years 1920/23, active and inactive individuals took part in the Kapp Putsch , the Küstriner Putsch and the Hitler putsch as free corps fighters or members of the Black Reichswehr . Contacts also existed with the local group of the Consul organization . From 1925 onwards, with the increasing depoliticization of the student body, the situation generally calmed down. By 1927, the SC had largely withdrawn from working in the local student body.

In 1933 the three corps introduced the leader principle following the guidelines of the Kösener Seniors Convents Association (KSCV) . In 1934, the Gießener SC decided to join one of the three military associations ( Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten , SA , SS ). In October 1935, active operations in all corps were suspended. The late attempt to form a common SC comradeship (Comradeship VIII "Hilrich van Geöns"), promoted by the then chairman of the Alter Gießener Teutonen Association, Otto Gennes , was no longer successful because of the outbreak of war.

post war period

With the dissolution of the Ludoviciana in 1946 and the reduction of the Gießen university location to the field of agricultural science and veterinary medicine , there was initially no prospect of reviving the life of the corps in the traditional form. Hassia and Teutonia reconstituted in 1950 at the newly founded University of Mainz . Only Starkenburgia left its headquarters in Gießen and started active operations at the same time at the Philipps University of Marburg . In view of the imminent expansion of the Giessen Justus Liebig University to a full university, Teutonia returned to Giessen in 1953 and acquired the former Hassia corp house. Together with Starkenburgia she again formed the Seniors' Convent. In April 1961 the Corps Normannia-Halle , which had initially found a new home in Erlangen in 1951, moved to Giessen. Since then, the Seniors' Convention has again consisted of three corps. Hassia stayed in Mainz.

In 1967 and most recently in 1993, Gießener SC took over the KSCV's local business.

SC bars and clubs

Scale length on the Schiffenberg between the Corps Teutonia and Starkenburgia, winter semester 1855/56

Before building their own corps houses, the corps frequented various inns and rented pubs for their use. In addition, there were always inns and cafés that were frequented together. The most important SC eatery in Giessen was "Ins Lotze" (also "Lotzekasten") on Seltersweg, which was destroyed in 1944.

As Mensurlokale served mid-19th century, among other things Heuchelheimer mill, the Philosophenwald, the powder mill, the Ludwigsbrunnen that Wellersburg, the monasteries Schiffenberg and Arnsburg that Liebig height and Baden castle . There was also frequent cramming in the surrounding towns such as Bieber, Steinbach, Krofdorf and Wieseck. In the second half of the 19th century, the Windhof developed into the main drum hall. After the First World War he was temporarily replaced by the Hardt. Since the Second World War, scales have taken place mainly on the houses of the three corps. However, there were bruising days on the Schiffenberg until the 1990s.

Gießener SC today

The Giessen Senior Citizens' Convention is now taking on the organization and implementation of events. He represents the common interests of the Giessen Corps to the public and has a seat and vote for them at the Kösener Congress. Since the Gießener SC left the Gießener Waffenring in the 1990s, the Gießener Consenioren-Convent (Gießener CSC) has also been established, which takes over the regulation of the scale matters. In addition to the Giessen SC Corps, the Gießen CSC also includes the Corps Austria Frankfurt and Saxonia Jena .

literature

  • Georg Fritz: Corps Teutonia Giessen 1839–1935 . Giessen 1939
  • Florian Hoffmann: "Called to leadership ...?" The Giessener SC between leadership claim and isolationism . In: then and now. Yearbook of the Association for Corporate Student History Research 49 (2004), pp. 295–309.
  • Walter Hoffmann: About the student situation in Gießen during the progressive period in the 1840s, along with some noticeable student silhouettes from this period . In: then and now . Volume 31 (1986), pp. 103-114.
  • Walter Hoffmann: "Special Corps Comment" of the SC on Gießen from 1824 . In: then and now. Volume 32 (1987), pp. 237-254.
  • Hans-Reinhard Koch : The Gießener SC between Urburschenschaft and Progress . In: then and now. Vol. 15 (1970), pp. 97-103.

Web links

Commons : Gießen Seniors Convent  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Paschke: The efforts of the German corps to unite until 1848 . In: then and now. Yearbook of the Association for Corporate Student History Research 3 (1958), p. 7.
  2. ^ Walter Hoffmann: "Special Corps Comment" of the SC on Gießen from 1824 . Einst und Jetzt , Vol. 32 (1987), pp. 237-254.
  3. ^ Georg Fritz: Corps Teutonia to Gießen 1839-1935 . Giessen 1939, p. 138
  4. ↑ Ekkehard Komp: "Groß aus'm Lotz". The old casting . Lollar 1979