Idstedt Museum
The Idstedt Museum in Idstedt is a museum sponsored by the Idstedt Foundation established by the Schleswig-Flensburg district in 1978. The main theme of the museum is the Battle of Idstedt on July 25, 1850.
background
At the historical place of remembrance in Idstedt, information is provided about a significant section of German-Danish history against the background of the European Revolution of 1848/49: the "uprising" of German-minded Schleswig-Holsteiners against Denmark and the territorial dispute over the national affiliation of the Duchy of Schleswig . In the opinion of the Danish National Liberals, Schleswig should be completely incorporated into Denmark up to the historic border on the Eider (the special position of Schleswig as a fiefdom of Denmark should therefore be abolished). The German-oriented Schleswig-Holstein national liberals - in their revolutionary demands for basic liberal rights and freedoms largely agreed with their Danish opponents - on the other hand, with reference to the Treaty of Ripen of March 5, 1460 , wanted what they saw as inseparable ( up eternally unedited ) Integrate the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein into the longed-for German nation-state. On March 24, 1848, this dispute led to a three-year civil war with numerous dead and injured on both sides.
On July 25, 1850, the armed forces of both sides met on an east-west front line approx. 14 km long near the small town of Idstedt. The Schleswig-Holstein army numbered around 26,000, the Danish army around 37,000 soldiers. In this battle, which both sides later perceived as the climax of the war, 1,455 people died and more than 5,000 were wounded or maimed. The village of Idstedt burned down almost completely.
Commemorations and wreath-laying ceremonies have been taking place in Idstedt on the anniversary of the battle since 1869. Initially, the focus was primarily on the soldiers who were killed or injured on the Schleswig-Holstein side. In the commemorative speeches held on this occasion, in support of one's own point of view, old images of the enemy were cultivated and ritualized declarations of loyalty were filed. This form of commemoration has fundamentally changed since the 1950s. Since the 150th anniversary on July 25, 2000, the Idstedt Day has been organized in cooperation with the cultural association of the Danish minority, the Sydslesvigsk Forening . Since then, a delegation from the Danish army has taken part in the traditional ceremony, which has not changed since the 1950s, with the laying of wreaths at the memorial as well as at the grave complexes in the vicinity .
Idstedt monument
With the monument erected on July 25, 1869, in the presence of around 10,000 guests on the former battlefield, the historical place of remembrance Idstedt received its first port of call. The initiative for the obelisk placed on an artificial hill came from the former soldiers of the former Schleswig-Holstein army from 1848/1849. These had organized themselves in war clubs, the comrades-in-arms, and called for a nationwide fundraising campaign to implement their idea.
Idstedt myth
At the same time as the inauguration of the monument, the "Idstedt myth" was created. This included the opinion that had long been circulated in Schleswig-Holstein's regional historiography that the Schleswig-Holsteiners fighting to break free from the entire Danish state suffered a defeat on the battlefield. Their heroic struggle against the overpowering enemy and their striving for acceptance into the longed-for but ultimately failed democratic German nation-state was not in vain and the victims in the battle of Idstedt were not in vain. In the German-Danish War of 1864, Prussia and Austria would have taken the initiative, defeated the Danes and paved the way for the integration of a now undivided Schleswig-Holstein into the German Empire.
This view completely ignores the fact that the German-minded Schleswig-Holsteiners from 1848 were by no means inclined to be incorporated into Prussia, as actually happened in 1864. In addition, it is misunderstood that the losing battle of Idstedt had no winner and neither side were able to achieve their war aims. In the armistice or peace of Berlin on July 2 and 10, 1850, the major European powers involved in this conflict from the beginning had largely agreed on the Schleswig-Holstein question. The Schleswig-Holsteiners, who had been robbed of their Prussian ally, misunderstood the situation and made the serious political mistake of averting this decision by resuming the fighting.
To maintain the balance of power carefully negotiated at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the status of the entire Danish state was reaffirmed. The Duchy of Schleswig remained a Danish fiefdom and the Duchy of Holstein under the leadership of the Danish King as the German Federal Prince in the German Confederation. The European solution was confirmed again under international law on May 8, 1852 in the Treaty of London and only began to falter after Denmark made the mistake in November 1863 of tying the Duchy of Schleswig more closely to itself with the November constitution . In this violation of the treaty, Prussia, under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck, saw a welcome opportunity to assert its own claims to power. In an alliance with Austria, the federal execution against Holstein and Lauenburg was first carried out. In the subsequent German-Danish war , the climax of which was the successful assault of Prussian troops on the Düppeler Schanzen on April 18, 1864, Denmark suffered a painful defeat and as a result lost about a third of its national territory. Prussia, on the other hand, had impressively strengthened its position as a major European power.
The deliberate negation of these facts within the framework of the Idstedt myth primarily served to stylize the image of Prussia, which had long-lasting effects on the German side, as the perfecter of Schleswig-Holstein's endeavors to achieve unity. In fact, the dispute about the national affiliation of the Duchy of Schleswig continued to smolder and broke out again and again: in the referendum of 1920, which - from a German point of view - led to the loss of North Schleswig and - from a Danish point of view - made clear the ultimate loss of Flensburg and South Schleswig, and also after 1945, when Danish-minded forces (after the September note at the latest , but in vain) pushed for southern Schleswig to join the kingdom. Only in the course of the Bonn-Copenhagen Declarations of 1955 agreed between the German and Danish governments and the rights of existence for the national minorities of both sides did the situation ease.
Keeper's house to the armory
Right next to the Idstedt monument, members of the Schleswig Combat Comrades Association built a caretaker's house in 1878. A supervisor should live here, who was also entrusted with the care of the monument area. At the same time, the comrades in arms started an extremely successful campaign with the aim of collecting as many weapons, documents and uniforms as possible from the former combatants in order to present them to the public as souvenirs. These found their place in 1889 in a building built next to the guard's house, the "armory".
The comrades-in-arms organization transferred the supervision of the first Idstedt Museum to a former combatant. This war veteran took care of the guests in a tavern attached to the caretaker's house, so that the Idstedt memorial site developed into a popular meeting point for the local population. A museum as a place for excursions, where visitors could also find food and drink, was an important unique selling point for this time.
Following the Idstedt idea, the parish built the Idstedt Memorial Church on a neighboring property in 1903, a neo-Gothic sacred building whose 40 m high twin towers symbolized the "op eternally unedited" duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. Concerned about the preservation of the armory, the comrades-in-arms, which became less and less in the course of time, transferred responsibility to the city of Schleswig a year later.
During the First World War , however, interest in the memorial decreased noticeably. When in 1914 a proposal made the rounds to store the exhibits in the Landeshalle in Kiel, the waves of outrage hit high so that the plans were not implemented. Nevertheless, the buildings fell into disrepair. In the period of inflation , there was no longer even enough money for urgently needed building maintenance measures. This also affected the neighboring memorial church, whose twin towers had to be shortened in 1923 due to the risk of collapse. At the same time, weapons, uniforms and documents mysteriously disappeared.
Idstedt Memorial Hall or Idstedt Hall
An initiative of the Schleswig mayor Dr. Oscar Behrens turned the tide. Since state funding for a building renovation could not be obtained, he decided to build a new museum and commissioned his city planning officer Julius Petersen with a first draft. Its publication in 1927 in a special supplement to the Hamburg Foreign Gazette, however, led to a storm of indignation among the north German architects. The Association of German Architects officially lodged a complaint with the magistrate. Because Petersen orientated himself too much on a design for the cemetery chapel in Itzehoe by the Hamburg architect Hans Philipp. Phillip, worried about his copyrights, even announced a lawsuit.
In the summer of 1927, Philipp submitted his own designs to the Schleswig magistrate himself. A few days later he received the order. Whether he and the other critics should be appeased with this surprising decision can only be guessed.
After numerous re-planning, the Memorial Hall , built in the homeland security style, was opened on July 3, 1930. The ensemble of buildings "harmoniously connected" with the old armory and the guard's house formed a horseshoe shape typical of the fishing landscape . Hans Philipp also took care of the interior design and was also responsible for the exhibition concept. The former exhibition room in the armory was converted into a taproom, so that the guards in charge had more space available to entertain the now numerous guests who were pouring into Idstedt.
In 1944 the museum was closed to the public due to the war. After the exhibits were transferred to Schleswig, it served as a refugee camp for a few months. The reopening on the basis of the old exhibition concept took place in September 1949.
From the Idstedt Committee to the Idstedt Foundation
It soon became clear, however, that the memorial hall designed by Philipp also had considerable structural defects. The situation was no better for the neighboring memorial church, which even had to be demolished in 1954 and replaced by a new building, which today mainly serves as a cemetery chapel.
In addition, visitor interest waned. Museum exhibits disappeared again. The city of Schleswig, as a museum sponsor, felt overwhelmed and in 1962 transferred its responsibility to the Schleswig district, which was now supported in coping with this task by the voluntary Idstedt committee.
When the end of the 1970s threatened to finally close the house, the Schleswig-Holsteinische Heimatbund (SHHB) took the initiative. The exhibits have been relocated and a new concept, which has often been criticized by younger regional historians, has been developed. This tied again to the Idstedt myth and warned to take an example from the courage and willingness to make sacrifices of the Schleswig-Holsteiners who were defeated at Idstedt. They would not have given up the longing for the annexation to Germany ultimately brought about by Prussia, which was shattered at the time, just as one should not lose hope of the regaining of German unity today (1978).
The exhibition was presented to the public on the 1st Schleswig-Holstein Day on September 9, 1978. Initially it found numerous visitors, but at the turn of the millennium the interest declined, and even tended towards zero.
In connection with these activities, the sponsorship had previously been reorganized and the Idstedt Foundation was founded on March 20, 1978 under the direction of the Schleswig-Flensburg district. The foundation under private law, in which the SHHB, soldiers' associations and a large number of communities located in the district acquired membership, also assumed responsibility for the organization of the annual Idstedt Day. In addition, she is responsible for the care of the grave monuments of the war from 1848 to 1850 located in the vicinity of Idstedt and, together with the regular committee from 1864, for the care of the monuments erected in memory of the German-Danish War in 1864 near Oeversee.
Today's permanent exhibition
In the run-up to the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Idstedt on July 25, 2000, the Foundation Board discussed initial considerations for a completely new conception of the exhibition, which was considered out of date. There was agreement that the current state of research and also the change in the German-Danish relationship should be given greater consideration.
The Schleswig-Flensburg District Cultural Foundation was responsible for planning and implementing the project. This resulted in an extension that had been discussed for a long time and was inaugurated on May 17, 2005 together with the new, consistently bilingual (German-Danish) permanent exhibition.
The leitmotif of the exhibition is the thesis that the battle of Idstedt could have been avoided in view of the previous decision by the major European powers about the national affiliation of the Duchy of Schleswig and that human lives were unnecessarily sacrificed here. In the extension with space for future temporary exhibitions, the exhibition offers a brief introduction. This is followed by an explanation of the background to the bourgeois mood of optimism in Europe and the commonalities between Danish and Schleswig-Holstein liberals despite the national contrast.
In the interior designed as a tower, once designed by Hans Philipp as a hall of honor adorned with historical cutting and stabbing weapons, the focus is on the people who witnessed the happenings at Idstedt. A 7 m long fabric banner hanging from the ceiling lists the 1,455 names of the soldiers on both sides who fell in the battle. Quotations from letters and descriptions of experiences of those involved in the war can be found in many parts of the exhibition, which are intended to create an emotional bridge between today's viewers and what happened back then and allow space for your own interpretations.
The third exhibition room is about the battle of Idstedt. A mural as a large copy of a contemporary depiction of the Danish painter and then war veteran Erich Fich illustrates the event. In addition, information is given about the course of the fighting and the end of the war with the last meeting near Friedrichstadt and Missunde.
literature
- Inge Adriansen, memorial and dynamite. Monument dispute in the German-Danish border region, Neumünster 2011. ISBN 978-3-529-02815-1 .
- Maren Clausen-Stolzenburg, The Idstedt Memorial Hall. Origin-Development-Objective, in: Museum Cimbrium. Aspects of public museums in Schleswig-Holstein 1689 - 1989, Kiel 1989, pp. 139 ff.
- Manfred Jessen-Klingenberg , Jörn-Peter Leppien , Hans-Friedrich Rothert , Das Problem Idstedt, in: Grenzfriedenshefte 2 (1979), pp. 140 ff.
- Manfred Jessen-Klingenberg, Jörn Peter Leppien, “The Battle of Idstedt”. On the change in national historical awareness in Schleswig-Holstein since the end of the 1970s, in Grenzfriedenshefte 3 (2001), p. 165 ff.
- Ulrich Lange (Hrsg.): History of Schleswig-Holstein. From the beginning to the present. Wachholtz, Neumünster 2003. ISBN 3-529-02440-6 .
- Matthias Schartl: Idstedt - place of remembrance of joint German-Danish history - the new exhibition in the Idstedt-Halle, Schleswig 2005.
- Gerd Stolz, guide through the Idstedt-Halle, Schleswig 1981.
Web links
Coordinates: 54 ° 34 ′ 37.5 ″ N , 9 ° 29 ′ 43 ″ E