Jacques Koenigstein

Jacques Königstein (born May 6, 1897 in Aachen , † December 17, 1971 there ) was the founder of the order against seriousness .

Live and act

Jacques Königstein was born in the Burtscheid district of Aachen . As a teenager, Königstein discovered his passion for the carnival and wrote his first carnival song in the Cologne dialect at the age of 15 and was initially considered a so-called Kölscher Imi , a newcomer. In 1921 he joined the Aachen Carnival Association (AKV), which was founded in 1859, and held his maiden speech a year later at the AKV men's evening: the Genoa Conference . Ingenious political hand-made speeches became his characteristic. Königstein was named Prince Jacques in 1927elected Carnival Prince of Aachen. As early as 1928, he headed the AKV as Vice President and from 1930 to 1968 as President, only interrupted by the war and post-war years from 1939 to 1947. The AKV then appointed him Honorary President for life.

In order to unite the 13 individual Aachen carnival societies that had existed until then, Königstein founded the Aachen Carnival Committee (AAK) as the umbrella company on December 14, 1934, and at the same time assumed the deputy chairmanship as managing director. Through Königstein, the AAK was also involved in the founding of the Bund Deutscher Karneval (BDK) in 1937 as a founding member, in which the AAK is registered with membership number 1. Koenigstein later took over the office of the board of directors of the West German area in the BDK and was made an honorary member in 1965.

As the full-time managing director of the Aachener Verkehrsverein, Königstein also recognized the economic factor of the carnival and he succeeded in having the GAB meeting broadcast for the first time on January 24, 1937 on Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). At the same time he organized the first Aachen children's costume parade with Prince Mucki (Otto I. Schmitz) and also served as deputy chairman here. Finally, on December 16 of the same year, he founded the Senate of the AKV with Otto Heinrich as the first Senate President.

On the initiative of Königsteins, the order against seriousness was brought into being by the AKV . In 1950, on the initiative of Helmut A. Crous , the AKV Elferrat had decided to award the session medal to the British public prosecutor James Arthur Dugdale , which since 1954 has been called the medal against seriousness . Under Königstein, this award advanced to a Europe-wide Aachen calling card.

With his radio show The ideal bride and groom , Königstein presented the most successful radio broadcast of the post-war period from 1951 to 1958. His concern was to increase the awareness of the Aachen Carnival. As ten minutes of the NWDR's broadcasting time was not enough for him for the prince proclamation, Königstein completed a special cabinet piece in 1953 and the proclamation was then broadcast for two hours and ten minutes. He furiously had the wife of the prince-elect rush onto the stage and bring her husband down. The Prinzengarde, Oecher Penn and Börjerwehr moved up and called for the ex-prince. He happened to be present and was crowned again. Therefore, in 1953 Aachen had a double prince from 1952/53 and a shadow prince. The motto he created for the Carnival Monday procession in 1953, Närrische Kur in Bad Aachen, shaped the Oecher Fastelovvend in 1955.

For his 25th anniversary as AKV President, Königstein set up the Jacques-Königstein Foundation for needy seniors in Aachen, following an order of the city council from 1761, which said that a poor tax was to be paid at carnival balls. A year later he created the Silver Königstein necklace as an award for carnival performances. Königstein was one of the co-initiators of the founding of the Bund Deutscher Karneval eV on October 24, 1953 in the Electoral Palace in Mainz .

Jacques Königstein died on December 17, 1971 and was buried in the Aachen forest cemetery. The Aachen sculptor and painter Wolf Ritz portrayed Jacques Königstein, the painting is in the Crous Collection . In Aachen city garden a promenade named after him.

Awards and honors

• 1956 Locust cross of the Trier Carnival Society Heuschreck
• 1965 honorary member of the Bund Deutscher Karneval eV
• Honor gondolier of the Gondoliers Laguna of Venice
• 1970 Knight of the Great Hagen KG Närrischer Reichstag (founded in 1881) with the award of the chain of the golden humor

literature

• A jack of all trades of the Öcher Fastelovvends - Jacques Königstein. Permanent traces of a passionate carnivalist. in: AKV Journal 2012. Edition 8, 5th year Session 2012, p. 12 f.

Individual evidence

1. ^ History of the AAK ( Memento from February 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Thomas Töller: 150 years of Aachen Carnival Association founded in 1859 eV 1859 With foolish cheerfulness AGAINST THE ANIMAL SERIOUS 2009. Kuper Eschweiler 2009, p. 19.

Web links

• Jacques Königstein Foundation