Gottfried Kricker

Gottfried Kricker (born May 16, 1886 in Anrath , Rhineland ; † January 17, 1972 there ) was a German philologist and librarian .

Life and work

Gottfried Kricker was born as the son of Friedrich Albert Kricker and Margarete. Hecker is the last descendant of a farming family that has sat on their traditional farm for more than 500 years. After attending the Anrath elementary school and the humanistic grammar school in Krefeld , he studied philosophy , history , language and literature at the universities of Heidelberg , Münster and Bonn . His studies were followed by longer practical work at various libraries until he was called up for military service.

After four years of service in the field, he became university librarian in Cologne in 1919 , and a year later he became head of the medical department of the university and city library, which he built up for the purposes of research and teaching and from 1924 onwards as a library councilor in more than 25 years of work Blossomed. In addition, he held lectures on librarianship at the university as an introduction to academic work and published numerous articles on compilations and journals and a number of academic works from his specialist fields.

However, the stresses and strains of World War II in Cologne, the loss of his house and his belongings in a bomb attack, put his health under attack. Therefore he left office at the end of 1947 and settled with his wife Sophie, nee. Jaspers, to the old home of Anrath.

Here he gave regular lectures on the history of Anrath at the adult education center and tackled the long-planned work on a source-like history of his hometown; this work was only interrupted by numerous trips to Rome . After many years of research, his work "History of the municipality of Anrath from the beginning to the present" (497 pages, Kempen) was published in 1959 with financial support from the municipality of Anrath, the district of Kempen-Krefeld and the Rhineland Regional Council. A few years later the work was supplemented by "The History of Schools and Teaching in Anrath" (101 pages, Kempen 1965). The municipality of Anrath then granted him honorary citizenship.

After the death of his wife on September 17, 1969, Gottfried Kricker last lived in seclusion in his single-family house built on Bogenstrasse after the war. His grave is in the Anrath Park Cemetery.

Dr. Gottfried-und-Sophie-Kricker-Studienstiftung

Gottfried Kricker bequeathed his entire estate in the amount of DM 323,000.00 to the city of Willich to establish a foundation . With the income from this foundation are to students from grade 11 and students who live in the district Anrath or were born or their parents at birth according to the documents of the Standes- or registration office were living in Anrath be supported. Funding is based on BAföG .

Gottfried Kricker School

The town built in 1972/73 and inaugurated on May 25, 1973. Catholic elementary school on Hochheideweg in Anrath was called "Gottfried Kricker School".

Publications

• University libraries and medical professionals . In: Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen , vol. 48, 1931, pp. 239–243.

literature

• Preface to the history of the municipality of Anrath
• Anrather Heimatbuch 1989