Loyalty to Erfurt
The association Heimattreuer Erfurt in West Germany and West Berlin was an association of former Erfurt citizens who had moved to West Germany from the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR . It existed from 1960 to 1992. The Erfurt Heimatbrief was published every six months from 1961 to 1992 .
history
From 1945 onwards, thousands of people from Erfurt, including many from the educated and property classes, left their hometown for political and economic reasons and settled in the western occupation zones and the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1961, the number of Erfurt residents was estimated at 22,000 in West Germany and West Berlin .
The West Berlin lawyer Selmar Bühling , who had worked as a lawyer in Erfurt until 1949, issued a Berlin appeal on August 27, 1960 to unite all Erfurt residents living in West Berlin and western countries. This appeal is considered to be the founding document of the Erfurt home loyalty association. The people of Erfurt who took part in the meeting of the federal state team of Thuringia in Coburg on October 1st and 2nd, 1960 decided to promote this union and to record names and addresses by home district supervisors / shop stewards. These were compiled by Bühling in a central "home index". The HE did not have its own founding meeting. Selmar Bühling became chairman of the association. Together with the publisher Heinz Heise, he was the founder of the Erfurt Heimatbriefe and its publisher and sole responsible editor until 1977. The first of these issues, which will now appear every six months until 1992, was printed and distributed in February 1961 in 2,400 copies.
Every two years meetings of the Erfurt loyalists took place in Mainz , some also in Rothenburg ob der Tauber . In Mainz, a wreath was always laid on the memorial stone of divided Germany on the banks of the Rhine . Low-income Erfurters were able to participate from donations. At the second meeting in September 1963, the highest number of participants was counted at 3,200. In 1964, the address directory already included 7,000 family names (over 27,000 people in the 1970s) of people who moved from Erfurt to the West. In November 1964, HE renewed the wine partnership between Erfurt and the large wine-growing village of Bechtheim, which had existed since 1934, and from now on with an annual on 10/11. November Martins Lantern Festival as celebrated in Erfurt. The last freely elected mayor of Erfurt, Paul Hach , who was deposed and imprisoned by the SED with Soviet support , also took part in the 1965 meeting . In 1965, the city of Mainz took on the sponsorship of the Erfurt home loyalty association. Many pensioners from Erfurt also took part in the 1971 meeting of the association in Mainz. In 1972, Selmar Bühling spoke of "those who are constantly today who consider the German split to be unalterable". The Erfurters who were loyal to their homeland also came together in regional groups and at student meetings for graduates from the major Erfurt schools.
After Bühling's death in 1977, Hans Bimboese was elected as his successor as chairman, and Carl Haußknecht took over the editing of the Erfurt Heimatbriefe. In 1980 Robert Trauernicht became chairman. In 1981 the Erfurtensien collection, cataloged by Lorenz Drehmann, was handed over to the Mainz City Library by the Erfurt residents . In 1983, Drehann was elected chairman at the 12th meeting of Erfurt loyalists . At the 13th meeting in 1985, it was decided to leave the Thuringia federal state team and to convert it to the legal form of a registered association , while maintaining partnership relationships with it.
The 15th meeting in October 1989 with 100 participants was all about the news about the beginning of the Peaceful Revolution in Erfurt. In June 1991, Lorenz Drehmann informed that the Erfurters who were loyal to their home would take over the cost of renovating the Minerva fountain on Domplatz. The renewed monument was handed over to the city of Erfurt in 1992. In 1991 the chairman of the Erfurt loyalists, Lorenz Drehmann, was elected an honorary member of the Erfurt Society for the History and Archeology, which was re-established in 1990 . In 1991 it was decided to dissolve the association on December 31, 1992.
The Erfurt Home Loyalty Association has always maintained unofficial contacts to Erfurt since it was founded until 1989 , without which the current reports from the city in the Heimatbriefe would not have been possible. This often required courage from the citizens who remained in Erfurt. The association also took a critical part in the considerable structural changes in the Erfurt cityscape over the decades.
Under the code name “Bund”, the Erfurt Home Loyalty Association has been subject to “operational processing” by the MfS since at least 1966 .
The assets of the Erfurt Home Loyalty Association were transferred to the Erfurt Home Loyalty Foundation in 1992. This promotes scientific work on the history of the city, especially in the 20th century. The foundation contributed to the restoration of the Erfurt Cathedral Choral Society flag, Luther prints and the large Erfurt cathedral bell "Gloriosa". The association's assets came from donations, no association fees and no subscription money for the home letters were raised.
literature
- "Letter from Erfurt" for the meeting of the Erfurt loyalists on September 4, 1992. Highlights from the 32-year history of the Erfurt Heimattreue Association with excerpts from the Erfurt Heimatbrief No. 1 to 64: Compiled by Rudolf Mohr. Ed .: Verlag Heinz Heise GmbH, Hanover, 1992.