Karl Stommel

Karl Stommel in 1973

Karl Stommel (born July 22, 1922 in Marienfeld , † December 24, 1989 in Lechenich ) was a German teacher and historian whose research focus was on the history of the Rhineland .

Life

Education

Karl Stommel studied history, geography and German at the University of Bonn for teaching in secondary schools. He received his doctorate in 1949 from Max Braubach with a thesis on socialist-communist movements in the Rhineland before the revolution of 1848/49 . He passed his first and second state exams in Bonn in 1951 and 1953.

Working life

After completing his legal traineeship, he was transferred to the secondary school in Lechenich in 1953, since 1962 a Progymnasium (5th to 10th grade). Since 1967 he has been in charge of the Progymnasium and since 1968 the municipal grammar school , which has been expanded to a full grammar school (first Abitur in 1971) as a mathematical and natural science grammar school with a modern language branch, which under his direction has been expanded into a multi-level grammar school with a differentiated upper level (since 1973). He was open to new educational ideas. A student council (now SV student council) was set up as early as 1967 , one of the first in North Rhine-Westphalia . In addition to the usual range of courses, his school offered additional future-oriented projects such as computer science and lessons in Arabic and Russian with cultural encounters and exchange relationships. In 1982 he retired early for health reasons.

Social Commitment

In addition to his work as a teacher, he campaigned for the citizens. In 1963 he took over the management and development of the Lechenicher Volksbildungswerk, a forerunner of the adult education center , which existed in this form until 1969. On his initiative, the city library was set up in the school center in 1973.

research

At the suggestion of his doctoral supervisor Max Braubach , the focus of his historical work from 1958 to 1961 was the scientific research of the history of Lechenich and the importance of Lechenich in the politics of Kurköln as well as the emergence of the Lechenich office during the expansion of the territorial rule of the Cologne archbishops. After retiring, he intensified his historical research. The most important work of this time was the biography of the 17th century nobleman Johann Adolf Wolff, called Metternich zur Gracht, from the Wolff-Metternich family . Together with his wife Hanna Stommel, he edited a five-volume collection of sources on the history of the city of Erftstadt , which was published between 1990 and 1998 after his death.

Karl Stommel was also significantly involved in the exhibitions organized by the civil society in the parish center of St. Kilian : a historical documentation on the history of Erftstadt's towns, 1979, and the exhibition Precious items from Erftstadt's churches, 1985, both with a catalog compiled by him.

Awards

Rhineland thaler

• Appointment as a member of the " Society for Rhenish History " (1962)
• Award of the Rhineland Taler (1982)
• Awarded the Carl Schurz Medal by the City of Erftstadt (1983)

Publications

• Socialist-communist movements in the Rhineland before the revolution of 1848/49. Bonn 1949 (dissertation)
• History of the Electoral Cologne city of Lechenich. Published by the Association of History and Friends of the Euskirchen District, 1960.
• The Electoral Cologne Office Lechenich, its creation and its organization. Published by the Association of History and Friends of the homeland of the Euskirchen district, 1961.
• The poor doctor Dr. Andreas Gottschalk - the first Cologne workers' leader in 1848. Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine. Schwann Verlag Düsseldorf 1964.
• Lechenich, office and city. (Photo book) Published by the Lechenich administration in 1966.
• Origin and development of the Euskirchen district. Euskirchen home calendar 1966.
• Erftstadt: today's districts through the ages; an image documentation. Published by the Bürgergesellschaft eV, Lechenich 1977, 1982 (2nd edition)
• The Jews in the places of today's city of Erftstadt. Cultural Office of the City of Erftstadt 1983.
• Johann Adolf Freiherr Wolff called Metternich zur Gracht: from land knight to land steward. Rheinland-Verlag, Pulheim and Habelt-Verlag, Bonn 1986. ISBN 3-7927-0919-8
• The Cologne poor doctor Dr. Andreas Gottschalk. Short biography. Rhenish life pictures 1988.
• The Franciscans in Lechenich in: H. Weingarten (Hrsg.): Monasteries and monasteries in the Erftkreis.
• Frauenthal - from the Cistercian convent to the Marienhospital in: H. Weingarten (Hrsg.): Monasteries and monasteries in the Erftkreis. Rheinland-Verlag, Pulheim-Brauweiler 1988. ISBN 3-7927-1044-7
• The French population lists from Erftstadt 1798 to 1801. Erftstadt Cultural Office 1989.
• Sources on the history of the city of Erftstadt. together with Hanna Stommel. 5 volumes, published by the City of Erftstadt Cultural Office 1990-1998.