Hometown club

A Heimatverein is an association that has set itself the goal of cultivating, preserving and promoting the characteristics and traditions of the locality or region, to which its members feel connected to their homeland . Often this is also associated with caring for the community.

Most homeland clubs have the name of a town (more rarely a city or a region) in the name. Such associations are often constituted as a registered association (eV), and it is not uncommon for them to be called "Heimat- und Geschichtsverein ". The focus of the activities is on the maintenance of local customs and dialect or on researching and publishing local history . The tasks can also include monument protection , taking care of local facilities (such as playgrounds) or community-promoting festivals. If this is anchored in the articles of association as an “association goal”, the association fulfills an important prerequisite for recognition as a non-profit association. Sometimes local associations are also the sponsors of local museums or act as umbrella organizations for various organizations that deal with the particularities of the respective locality or region.

It is characteristic of homeland associations that they call for commitment and membership by appealing to the citizens' sense of home.

history

The first clubs came into being in the course of the homeland movement in the late 19th century. Numerous history societies had been set up beforehand, devoted to regional historical research, but often at an academic level. They broadened their membership through more popular histories for those interested in moving home and founded their own series for this purpose. Today local associations are also active as village communities, civic associations, interest groups and in a comparable form.

In the GDR, instead of the disbanded Heimatvereine, there was a centralized cultural association , which also took up regional aspects. There was a section “Friends of Nature and Homeland”, but many traditions, for example of a Christian character, were not taken into account.

Supraregional umbrella organizations

Home clubs are often members of the nationwide umbrella organizations, e.g. B. in the Association of German Citizens' Associations and in the Federation of Home and Environment in Germany .

There are also umbrella organizations in the respective federal state, e.g. B.

in Bavaria Bavarian State Association for Homeland Care ,

in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate Rhenish Association for Monument Preservation and Landscape Protection

as well as for Westphalia and Lippe Westfälischer Heimatbund and Lippischer Heimatbund

See also : List of local history and history associations in North Rhine-Westphalia

in Baden-Württemberg regional association Badische Heimat and Swabian Heimatbund ,

in Lower Saxony the Lower Saxony Homeland Federation ,

in Hessen Society for Culture and Monument Preservation - Hessischer Heimatbund ,

in Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holsteinischer Heimatbund ,

in Berlin Association for the History of Berlin ,

in Hamburg Central Committee of Hamburg Citizens' Associations from 1886

in Bremen Bremer Heimatbund - Association for Lower Saxon Folklore .

In the east, these umbrella organizations were re-established after 1990:

Saxon Homeland Security ,
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania home association ,
State Home Association of Saxony-Anhalt,
Heimatbund Thuringia .

literature

Dietmar von Reeken : Heimat movement, cultural politics and National Socialism: the history of the "East Frisian landscape" 1918-1949, East Frisian landscape 1995 ISBN 978-3-92536593-5
Winfried Speitkamp : The administration of history: preservation of monuments and the state in Germany 1871-1933 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1996, ISBN 978-3-647-35777-5 ( google.de [accessed on April 28, 2020]).

Single receipts

↑ Local associations and customs. Accessed April 30, 2020 .
^ Georg Kunz: Verortete Geschichte: Regional historical consciousness in the German historical associations of the 19th century . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000, ISBN 978-3-647-35729-4 ( google.de [accessed on April 28, 2020]).
↑ Thomas Schaarschmidt : The Kulturbund as a Heimatverein? Comments on the claim and reality of the Kulturbund in the forties and fifties from a regional historical point of view . In: Heiner Timmermann (Ed.): The GDR - Analyzes of an abandoned state . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 978-3-428-50416-9 , pp. 357–388 ( google.de [accessed April 28, 2020]).

[1] Local associations and customs. Accessed April 30, 2020 .

[2] Georg Kunz: Verortete Geschichte: Regional historical consciousness in the German historical associations of the 19th century . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000, ISBN 978-3-647-35729-4 ( google.de [accessed on April 28, 2020]).

[3] Thomas Schaarschmidt : The Kulturbund as a Heimatverein? Comments on the claim and reality of the Kulturbund in the forties and fifties from a regional historical point of view . In: Heiner Timmermann (Ed.): The GDR - Analyzes of an abandoned state . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 978-3-428-50416-9 , pp. 357–388 ( google.de [accessed April 28, 2020]).