Gräßle Society

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Group picture of the Gräßle Society from 1855. Top row: Dr. Adolf Schliz, Legal Counsel August Strauss, David Gräßle, State Councilor Adolf von Goppel, Dr. Jul. Rieckher , Dr. Philipp Safe, Building Inspector Albert Barth, Senior Medical Officer Dr. Gottlob Höring, Preceptor Dr. Coloman Pfaff. Bottom row: Senior clerk Heinrich Titot, legal counsel Heinrich Feyerabend, senior magistrate Baron Karl von Gemmingen, Dr. Justinus Kerner, Carl Künzel, Oberamtmann Ferdinand Bürger , Professor Dr. Eberhard Finckh.
The local pub of the Gräßle Society was the inn of the baker Gräßle at the Kilian's Church in Heilbronn (picture around 1895/96). The city acquired the building in 1897 for demolition.

The Gräßle Society (also Grässle Society and Gräßles Society ) is a circle of academics and dignitaries in Heilbronn . The society named after the baker and innkeeper David Gräßle (1801-1858) emerged in 1845 from the circle of friends of the doctor Philipp Safe (1803-1861), to which great intellectuals such as the philosopher David Friedrich Strauss and the doctor and poet Justinus Kerner belonged. The group that still exists today, which is also called Herbulanum in Latin , was referred to as the “oldest Stammtisch in Germany” on the occasion of its 140th anniversary in 1985 and later , although the Osnabrück Klausenbrüder can look back on a tradition since 1819.

history

The Gräßle Society was formed in 1845 on the basis of a "foul joke" that the leather merchant Rudolf Rauch (1792-1852) had allowed himself when the hospital doctor Philipp Safe (1803-1861) divorced . The assembled Heilbronn academics, mostly from the birth cohorts 1795 to 1805, who had known each other for a long time anyway and who also spent gentlemen's evenings together, looked for a way to expel smoke from their community without going to the common rounds in the restaurant of the wealthy baker and innkeeper David Gräßle having to do without. So it was decided to found an elitist "society" named after the innkeeper Gräßle, who not only made his premises available, but was possibly also a regular member of the society himself. The society met twice a week; in the middle of the 19th century, the circle around SECURERS comprised the Oberamts doctors Johann Friedrich Seyffer and Gottlob Höring, the businessman Adolf Goppel , the legal consultant Heinrich Feyerabend , the mayor Heinrich Titot , the high school professor Christoph Eberhard Finckh as well as the camera officials Ludwig Schmoller, Ludwig Raaser and Carl Fenninger together with the chief magistrate Karl von Gemmingen . In addition, other friends of Sicherheitsers like the philosopher David Friedrich Strauss and the Weinsberg doctor and poet Justinus Kerner enlivened the group as regular guests. Due to the elitist conceit and the narrow space of the meeting room, efforts were made to keep the company in a very small frame of about a dozen people and to accept only a few worthy new members, as in the 1850s, the doctor Adolf Schliz . At first, non-academics were only accepted very sporadically, above all Carl Künzel , authorized signatory of the Rauch paper mill , who seemed worthy enough to society, probably due to his large collection of autographs . In the beginning, only Protestant members were accepted, the first Catholic member was the postmaster Xaver Oberst. The members of later years, who continued to consist of Heilbronn dignitaries, included the lawyer Karl von Köstlin , from 1906 the surgeon Gustav Mandry and from 1907 the historian Moriz von Rauch .

In the 19th century, the commonality of the members of society seems to have mainly been the sociability they celebrated together, as the individual members had very different political and ideological opinions and only shared the disgust for Württemberg pietism and Freemasonry . In the founding years, at the suggestion of Sicherheitsers, the company also devoted itself to the joking homage to the Württemberg Duke Karl Eugen , to whom an annual Karlsfest was dedicated on the occasion of excursions to the Rößle in Schwabbach. As Count Palatine , Safe was appointed chairman of the society.

The Gräßle Society has continued to exist to the present day, but its importance does not match the years it was founded. In 2013 the company supported the restoration of a listed vineyard house in Heilbronn.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ life data according to http://www.stimme.de/heilbronn/nachrichten/stadt/sonstige-Wo-ist-die-Strasse-des-4-Dezember;art1925,613846
  2. ↑ Reuter 2001, p. 183 and note 3.
  3. ↑ http://www.nwzonline.de/friesland/kultur/juengere-träger-sollen-tradition-am-leben-halten_a_3,0,3122705424.html
  4. ↑ Reuter 2001, p. 183 and note 5.
  5. ↑ Reuter 2001, p. 188, note 7.
  6. ↑ Haag 1999, p. 155
  7. ↑ Reuter 2001, p. 183 and note 6.
  8. ↑ Reuter 2001, p. 185 and note 16.
  9. ↑ Reuter 2001, p. 185 and note 18.
  10. ^ Karl von Köstlin , Heilbronn City Archives
  11. ^ Walter Hirschmann: Gustav Mandry. In: Maria Magdalena Rückert (Ed.): Württembergische biographies including Hohenzollern personalities. Volume II. On behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-17-021530-6 , pp. 185-187.
  12. ↑ Reuter 2001, p. 187, note 5.
  13. ↑ Reuter 2001, p. 185 and note 20.
  14. ↑ Reuter 2001, p. 186.
  15. ↑ Haag 1999, p. 157.
  16. ↑ http://www.stimme.de/regioticker/Offene-Tueren-im-aeltesten-Weinberghaus;art16233,2878258

literature

  • Dirk Reuter: The "Gräßles Society": gentlemen's regular table and circle of dignitaries. In: Historischer Verein Heilbronn, yearbook 34/2001, pp. 183–189.
  • Simon M. Haag: Quirky and coarse, but ingenious - Philipp Safe (1803–1861). In: Heilbronner Köpfe II , Heilbronn City Archives 1999, pp. 141–158.

Web links

Commons : Gräßle-Gesellschaft  - Collection of images, videos and audio files