Historical association for the Saar region

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The Historical Association for the Saar Region (HV), based in Saarbrücken, is a non-profit, registered association whose main purpose is to maintain the history of the Saarland and the neighboring areas.

history

Coat of arms of the historical association for the
Saar area (the coat of arms later served as a template for the Saarland state coat of arms from 1957)

The historical antiquarian association for the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann and their surroundings , as its original name was, was founded in 1839, during the heyday of the emphatically "bourgeois" association. Parallel to the collapse of the estates , open-minded, interested citizens were now involved in a wide variety of clubs - gymnastics and singing clubs were also particularly popular - and thus expressed a growing sense of community in addition to civic pride.

The historical association saw its main task in “collecting the remains of historical monuments of prehistoric times, in which our area is richer than many others in the Rhine Province, and protecting them from destruction”. Above all, "coins, urns and stones with inscriptions" were collected and attempts were made to prevent the destruction or scattering of Roman finds through "the increasing lust for collecting and excavation of foreign and local amateurs", as was formulated in the founding appeal. As in all other history and homeland associations founded in this period, its members dealt exclusively with the period of prehistory and early history, the period of Celtic, Roman and Germanic colonization and ended their studies in the Middle Ages at the latest. Limes research and the romanticism of ruins enjoyed particular popularity. The preoccupation with recent history was - for national and political reasons - completely excluded in the first decades of existence.

Friedrich Schröter, senior teacher for ancient languages ​​and history at the Ludwigsgymnasium in Saarbrücken , was elected as the first chairman of the historical association after the former Saarbrücken mayor and Bergrat Heinrich Böcking had refused the office .

The association had 65 members when it was founded, and the former list of members now reads like a WHO IS WHO in Saarbrücken's city history. The association included, for example, the merchants Friedrich and Christian Quien, the notary Reusch, the lawyers Riotte and Lautz, the judiciary Noeggerath, Oberbergrat Leopold Sello , the notary Röchling, the merchants LH Röchling and Heinrich Zix, booksellers Neumann, master builder Knipper, mining department assessor Gottlieb, landowner Carl Hartung, the glass manufacturers L. Reppert in Friedrichsthal, lawyer Wagner and Louis Vopelius in Sulzbach, businessman Dryander, Dr. Kalk, Bergrat Heinrich Böcking and businessman Carl Schmidtborn, to name just a few. The Saarbrücker Geschichtsverein offered a neutral stage on which the long-established elites could meet and exchange ideas with the new Prussian civil servants.

Social, legal and political upheavals made it necessary for the historical association to change its purposes and adapt to the new circumstances.

In contrast to other historical societies, it survived the turmoil of the Vormärz and the revolution of 1848/49 , but went through a crisis of several years. After Schröter's death in 1870, the association, which had only 32 members in 1868, initially collapsed.

Equating history with the past alone, as the extremely conservative Friedrich Schröter had still done, was no longer considered contemporary. In the meantime, the members of the history associations interested in history were themselves regarded as amateurs, since now only specialists carried out the archaeological excavations and the state set up specialist authorities for monument conservation issues, which was not least due to the persistent work of the association.

In 1881 the history association was re-founded by the Saarbrücken mayor Julius Kiefer under the name of the “Historical Association for the Saar Region”, in the name of the newly strengthened nationally oriented historical awareness. The primary goal was now the professional maintenance and housing of his collections.

The collections

For decades, the association endeavored to set up its own museum for the antiquities collection, which had grown steadily over the years, but this failed mainly because of different ideas about museum and presentation concepts. Ultimately, the board of directors decided in 1924 to make the collection of the historical association available to the local history museum of the city of Saarbrücken, newly founded by Hermann Keuth, and later to the museum for prehistory and the Saarland museum. In the early days of these museums, the collection of the historical association made up a significant proportion of the museum's holdings.

If the association's extensive cultural-historical collection, with diaries, maps, images, graphics and oil paintings, pictures of princes, citizen portraits and cityscapes is now in the Saarland Museum, the valuable archives relating to regional history, such as maps, plans, posters, photos and newspapers, are stored in the regional archive of the Saarland kept in Saarbrücken.

Library

Since its founding, the Historical Association had made it its mission to acquire as many magazines and publications as possible on antiquity and history, to collect them and to make them available to members for scientific studies. Until the expansion of the city library in the 1930s, the library of the historical association was the only and well-stocked academic library on the Saar.

Under the pressure of National Socialism , the club library was finally incorporated into the city library in 1938. Since the French authorities were re-admitted to the association in 1950, it has remained an essential part of their scientific and cultural department on permanent loan.

The library of the historical association now comprises more than 20,000 volumes and is housed in the Saarbrücken City Library as well as in the Saarland University and State Library. Those who conduct research on Saarland topics will often, without realizing it, hold an old book in their hands that is the property of the historical association.

Publications

Cover of the "Journal for the History of the Saar Region" (ZGS)

The association not only acquired specialist literature, but also published it scientifically itself. Only a few publications are mentioned here, the importance of which for research is still beyond question:

  • Announcements from the historical-antiquarian association for the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann and their surroundings (source collections)
  • Saarbrücken war chronicle for the 25th anniversary of the war of 1870/71
  • Friedrich Joachim Stengel , monograph by Karl Lohmeyer (1911)
  • Regesta on the history of the former Nassau - Saarbrückische Lande (Issue 13, 1919?) Determined and described by Rector August Hermann Jungk, the association's librarian at the time
  • 1932 Chronicle of the Saarbrücker Theater and Drama
  • Historical regional studies of the Saarland, Ed. Kurt Hoppstädter † u. a.
    • Vol. 1: From hand ax to winding tower, Saarbrücken 1960
    • Vol. 2: From the Franconian conquest to the outbreak of the French Revolution, Saarbrücken 1977
    • Vol. 3/2: The economic and social development of the Saarland 1792-1918, Saarbrücken 1994
  • The Saarland - history of a region. Edited by Hans-Christian Herrmann and Johannes Schmitt, Röhrig Universitätsverlag, St. Ingbert 2012, ISBN 978-3-86110-511-4 .

Journal for the history of the Saar region : In the nationally recognized "Journal for the history of the Saar region" published annually by the historical association, well-known historians report on the latest regional scientific research.

saargeschichte (n) : Since 2006, the association has been publishing the quarterly publication "saargeschichte (n)" together with the regional association of historical-cultural associations in Saarland, with current articles on regional culture and history, exhibitions, events and new publications.

The historical association and the preservation of monuments

The historical association is of particular importance in the preservation of monuments in Saarland. Since its establishment, he has carried out archaeological excavations on his own responsibility or supported them; found objects were collected and archived. Even in later decades he worked tirelessly for the preservation of historical monuments - the architecture of the 19th and early 20th centuries should be emphasized here - long before a monument protection law came into force (not until 1975!).

In the following, only a few of the architectural monuments are mentioned that owe their preservation largely to the intervention of the Historical Association.

  • Bucherbach Castle
  • the old town hall in St. Wendel
  • the grave monuments in the castle church in Saarbrücken
  • the Ludwigsplatz in Saarbrücken (demolition of the Palais Döben prevented)
  • the pavilion in Ottweiler
  • the St. Johann post office in the Dudweilerstraße in Saarbrücken

An older and at the same time highly topical example of the historical association's strong civic engagement is the commitment to the preservation of the Saarbergwerke's management building in Saarbrücken, the so-called “mine management”, which has become one against the resistance of the association and other organizations by the investor ECE Department store was rebuilt.

Lecture series and conferences

Every year in autumn, the historical association offers a public series of lectures on topics related to the history of the Saarland. He cooperates with historical associations throughout the Saarland and is present at various lecture venues. Recently, the focus on “On-site History”, each spring, is intended to strengthen interest in historical places in Saarland. Together with other cooperation partners, the historical association contests the discussion event "Historical Quartet". The cross-border conferences with cooperation partners such as the “Westrichtagagung” or the cross-border interregional conference with the Lorraine sister organization SHAL every two years are also very popular.

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