KStV Walhalla Würzburg

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Basic data
State : Bavaria
University city : Wurzburg
Founding: November 14, 1864
Association: KV
Abbreviation: Wh!
Colours: Wine red-white-black
Motto: Pro Fide et Patria!
Website: www.walhalla-wuerzburg.de

The Walhalla Catholic Student Association is the oldest of the Würzburg Catholic student corporations and, after Askania-Berlin, Burgundia Berlin-Stuttgart, KStV Unitas-Breslau Cologne, KStV Arminia Bonn and KStV Germania Münster, the sixth oldest in the Cartel Association of Catholic German Student Associations (KV). It is considered the fifth founding association.

precursor

Attempts to found a Catholic student corporation in Würzburg date back to the second half of the 1850s. In 1859 a Catholic student association "Albertia" was founded in Würzburg. However, when he switched to wearing colors (red-white-black), some members left, the association quickly closed.

In 1862, a purely theological-philosophical reading club was established, which later also accepted “honorable Catholic students” from other faculties . But this second "Albertia" also failed.

The early years

As early as the winter semester of 1863/64, Catholic students made a third attempt to establish a Catholic student association in Würzburg and founded the “Theologians' Association”.

In the autumn of 1864 the “ General Assembly of the Catholic Associations of Germany” (Catholic Assembly) met in Würzburg . This recommended the establishment of Catholic student corporations, as they already existed at other universities . Thereupon the “theological union” decided to put itself on a broader basis. On November 14, 1864, it was re-established as a "Catholic student association", united with a student society that also included non-theologians, and called itself the "League" with the colors red-white-blue. However, in order to avoid confusion with the same colors of the Würzburg Corps "Rhenania", red-white-black was chosen. The motto was: “Pro fide et patria!”.

The first foundation festival of the "League", which part of the Philistines of the Theologians' Union joined, was celebrated on November 17, 1864 in the "Hutten'schen Garten". The confirmation of the statutes , in which the purpose of the association was stated as "sociability, science, catholicity ", was carried out by the academic authorities without any difficulty. Instead of the much hostile name "League" (it was probably too reminiscent of the " Catholic League " that existed during the Thirty Years' War ), the club chose the name "Walhalla" on January 7, 1865.

The general assembly of the Catholic associations in Trier in 1865 already separated the Catholic student corporations into colored and non-colored and thus separated into CV ( Cartel Association of Catholic German Student Associations ) and KV. "Walhalla" joined the " Cartel Association of Catholic German Student Associations " (KV).

In the first years of its existence, "Walhalla", like many other Catholic, non-defeating corporations, suffered from all kinds of hostility. However, she managed to assert herself among the Würzburg student corporations and in the KV. Prominent figures in science and public life emerged from their ranks (such as the ministers of state Krausneck, Kraus, Ankermüller, Seidel and Franken and the theology professor Herman Schell).

In 1904, the general assembly of the “Walhalla” decided to build its own corporation house specially designed for the needs of the connection and acquired a plot of land on the left bank of the Main below the “ Käppele ”. It was handed over for use by the Philistine of Aktivitas on July 22, 1907 , one of the most beautiful student houses in Germany below the "Käppele". In the years before the First World War , Walhalla recorded up to 80 new members per year, a comparatively large growth compared to other student associations. Not least because in Walhalla the “North German”, more precisely the Rhenish-Westphalian element predominated. For Catholic students from the Prussian provinces, the Rhineland and Westphalia , Walhalla was the number 1 contact point in Würzburg in those years when the majority of students were active in corporations. In order to promote the solidarity of the Walhallans, who come from Northern Germany, even after completing their studies, an annual meeting, the "Northwest German Walhallan Day", has been held since 1921. This trend continued until World War II and was reactivated a few years ago.

Especially in the years 1925–1933, Walhalla was considered a so-called sports corporation, which at the time was able to win a number of challenge prizes at the university championships of the University of Würzburg (for example in team all- around competitions in different seasons, in handball and fistball ). This gave rise to the acquisition of the neighboring property in 1926 in order to convert it into a sports field. Its main part was the tennis court, for which a separate changing room was built in 1930.

National Socialism

On February 27, 1934, it was decided to merge Merovingia-Rheinland, which had been in Würzburg since 1924, with Walhalla, which lasted until February 15, 1955. The Walhalla had already supported the younger corporation since 1924. In view of the reprisals against the Catholic corporations, which were largely carried out by the National Socialist German Student Union, the merger also took place in order to have a stronger external effect. Merovingia-Rheinland canceled this merger when it was re-established in 1955 in Cologne . On June 20, 1938 the association was declared an anti-state organization by decree of the Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police Heinrich Himmler in the Reich Ministry of the Interior and therefore dissolved and banned on the basis of the ordinance of the Reich President to combat political riots of February 28, 1933 and that entire assets confiscated.

The expropriated fraternity house initially served the "Riemenschneider" comradeship of the NSDStB as a comradeship house. During the war, city offices were housed there for a long time. The owner became the Reichs Zweckverband Studentenhaus e. V., who transferred it to the NS-Altherrenbund der Deutschen Studenten.

post war period

After the collapse, the house building association was initially unofficially re-established on October 22, 1945. More was not possible at the time, as the occupation authorities in the American Zone were initially hostile to the re-establishment of student associations. After the gradual collection of the Walhallans, the house had to be recovered . It had survived the bombing raid on Würzburg on March 16, 1945 , in which the entire inner city within the " Glacis " was completely destroyed.

The house building association was re-licensed on June 4, 1948, and on August 11, 1948, the Walhalla House was transferred back as the first corporation house in Bavaria. However, it was not until September 1950 before the Red Cross Clinic, which had been housed there after the air raid, cleared the house again. The tennis court was not restored until 1954. The licensing of the connection dragged on  until the winter semester 1949/50 due to the negative attitude of the University of Würzburg .

After initially only salon wicks were worn for highly official events, the full wicks were subsequently reintroduced for festive occasions. While the war generation refused to wear uniform-like clothing, the younger activists were easily enthusiastic about it and the Walhalla association almost even transformed into a full-color association. The clubhouse has also undergone major changes, it has been modernized and a student dormitory has been set up on the upper floor . The old gentlemen who lived in Würzburg and the surrounding area played a decisive role in the reactivation of the corporation. They passed on their experiences from their own active time to the young students and thus inspired them to join the community on the house.

After a low between 1968 and 1975, the club grew again significantly until the 1980s. The low is explained by the changed attitudes of the students towards the corporations seen as conservative-reactionary in the wake of the 68 revolts and the associated decrease in new entrants. However, this changed at the end of the 1970s, so that in 1985 Walhalla was the largest student corporation at the University of Würzburg with almost 60 active members.

In 2014 the KStV Walhalla celebrated its 150th anniversary with a big Festkommers in the wine press hall of the Marienberg Fortress. Today the KStV Walhalla consists of around 300 members.

Well-known Valhallans

literature

  • Rolf-Joachim Baum et al. (Ed.): Student Union and Corporations at the University of Würzburg 1582–1982. Würzburg 1982, pp. 271-272.
  • Thilo Berdami: Studies on the history of the Cartel Association of Catholic German Student Associations (KV) from 1918-1945. Würzburg, 1991.
  • Hermann Cardauns: Fifty Years of the Cartel Association (1863–1913). Kempten, 1913.
  • Michael Doeberl : Academic Germany. Berlin, 1930–1931.
  • H. Heß: A brief outline of the history of the K.St.V. Valhalla. In: 100 years of K.St.V. Walhalla Wurzburg. , 1964, pp. 4-6.
  • Dr. Ludger Heuer: K.St.V. Walhalla 1864 - 2014 , a collection of sources compiled from the archive materials of the association, Würzburg, 2014
  • Udo Zehe: The history of the KV after the publications of the association. Würzburg, 1989.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ EH Eberhard: Handbook of the student liaison system. Leipzig, 1924/25, p. 116.
  2. ^ Siegfried Koß, Wolfgang Löhr (Hrsg.): Biographisches Lexikon des KV. 4th part (= Revocatio historiae. Volume 5). SH-Verlag, Schernfeld 1996, ISBN 3-89498-032-X , p. 94.
  3. ↑ www.frankfurter-verbindungen.de/korporierte/k.html

Web links