Knivsberg Society

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Knivsberg Society
legal form
Seat Haderslevvej 484 6230 Rødekro
management René Schneider
Branch Minority organization
Website www.knivsberg.dk

The Knivsberg Society is an organization of the German ethnic group in North Schleswig .

history

Since the first half of the 19th century, folk festivals formed the framework for national demonstrations in the dispute over the membership of the Duchy of Schleswig. Two wars, 1848–1851 and 1864, were waged around Schleswig, which eventually became the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein in 1867 together with Holstein. After a German folk festival on the island of Kalö in Gjenner Bucht, it was suggested in 1893 to buy Knivsberg as a future location for German folk festivals. The Knivsberggesellschaft, which still exists today, was founded on October 11, 1893, with the Apenrad shipowner Michael Jebsen as its first chairman .

The Knivsberggesellschaft acquired the site and on July 15, 1894 hosted the first folk festival on the Knivsberg. On August 4, 1895 the foundation stone was laid for the construction of a Bismarck national monument on the Knivsberg; With a height of 47 m and a 7 m high Bismarck statue, it was to become one of the largest monuments in the German Empire. The inauguration took place on May 4, 1901. The Bismarck monument was intended to emphasize the German claim to Schleswig-Holstein, which was acquired after the war of 1864. The Bismarck statue was removed as early as 1919, as a decision by North Schleswig in favor of Denmark was foreseeable in the upcoming referendum as a result of the First World War. The Bismarck monument has stood on the Aschberg north of Rendsburg since 1930. After the referendum of 1920 and the subsequent cession of North Schleswig to Denmark, the Knivsberg remained the annual meeting place of the German ethnic group, for which the Knivsbergfest became essential for the preservation of German consciousness, your home German identity and for contact with Schleswig-Holstein.

The importance of the Knivsberg as a meeting point for the Germans from North Schleswig was reinforced by the youth hostel built in 1931. It was donated by the Hamburg wholesaler Alfred Toepfer and is named after the German national writer August Julius Langbehn (1851–1907), who was born in Hadersleben and was influential in his time. a. coined the "Wandervogel".

The Knivsberg Society tried to maintain the traditional framework of the Knivsberg festivals, although after the National Socialist rise to power in Germany in 1933, National Socialism also gained a foothold in North Schleswig. Disputes about the organization of the Knivsbergfest resulted in the fact that from 1940 there was no more festival. The great symbolic significance that the Knivsberg and the Knivsberg festivals had for the German-minded population of North Schleswig since the Prussian period meant that three and a half months after the end of the German occupation of Denmark, Danish resistance fighters took the night of August 15-16, 1945 Knivsberg tower blew up.

The first Knivsberg Festival after the Second World War took place in 1947 beneath the ruins of the blown up tower. It took more than a decade for the Knivsberg Society to reach an agreement with the Danish State Ministry to repair the damage on the Knivsberg. The rubble was largely removed or covered with earth and a memorial wall was built from granite stone rubble from the Bismarck Tower on the 100 m high mountain, which shows a relief representation of the blown monument on one side based on a design by the North Schleswig artist AG Nissen and on the other the names who names members of the founding board of the Knivsberg Society. In addition, the memorial for those who died in the two world wars was laid out in 1962. In 1970 the Knivsberg youth farm was built.

The Knivsberg is the cultural and historical center of the German minority.

Knivsberg educational facility

The center in Knivsberg is a cultural meeting place for the German minority in Denmark . There is a wide variety of programs for young people and adults. It is about sport, art, theater, political education, youth exchanges and music. The area covers approx. 10 ha, including a campsite , open-air stage , climbing opportunities, nature trail , sports field, etc.

The educational establishment combines minority-specific seminars, courses and offers with international educational work for all generations of all nations. Guest and third-party bookings are desirable. In addition to educational work, participation in regional and national cultural work is playing an increasingly important role. The Bildungsstaette is an institution of the State of Schleswig-Holstein. In terms of content, a wide range of cultural-musical and creative activities is offered. The Knivsberg is the central meeting place and leisure center for the German minority. The organization responsible for the educational establishment is the German Youth Association for North Schleswig. Knivsbergfest is a central date in the calendar of German North Schleswig.

The Knivsberg site is privately owned by the Knivsberg Society.

The center of the educational establishment is the Michael-Jebsen-Haus, inaugurated in 1970. Contemporary cultural and educational work is implemented in regional and European projects. In addition to the German minority, the offers are aimed at every European citizen. The event program offers courses, seminars, training courses and activities for all age groups and major public events, such as the official Danish soapbox championship, open-air concerts, public viewing, readings and cultural evenings.

The Knivsberg offers over 100 beds in four-bed rooms and wooden huts (both with their own bathroom). In team tents with floors and beds, cheaper accommodation can be made possible. Meeting rooms, theater hall with large stage, ceramic room with kiln, sound studio, library, discotheque, fireplace hall, billiards, offer optimal meeting and conference conditions. With free resources, everything is also available for private inquiries, even catering and celebrations in and outside of the house are options.

The youth hostel on Knivsberg, inaugurated in 1931, is a foundation of the Hamburg merchant Alfred C. Toepfer (1894–1993). In its original architectural execution, the house was strongly associated with homeland security architecture. The youth hostel was named after the Hadersleben-born writer August Julius Langbehn (1851–1907), who had a great influence on the youth movement in Germany before and after the First World War, to whom Toepfer also felt lifelong.

August Julius Langbehn became known for his culture-pessimistic work, published anonymously in 1890; the surname Langbehn, the Rembrandt German, was later derived from the title of this publication. In this book Langbehn turned against the influences of rationality and modernity, he compared them with a mystical-romantic concept of art as the origin of all real values ​​and advocated the primacy of feeling and individuality over reason. He saw the Dutch painter Rembrandt as a model. Langbehn's ideas are vague and full of prejudices; they form an ideology that opposes the Enlightenment and faces the past. The book reflects the anti-modern, anti-liberal and anti-Semitic zeitgeist of parts of the German bourgeoisie at the end of the 19th century. The anti-progressive and idealistic wishful thinking of the youth movement also made use of this world of ideas, which had an effect right through to National Socialism.

The retention of the name Langbehn-Haus calls for a critical examination of the ideology of this author, whose name is carved as deeply into the stone above the entrance as his thoughts have shaped two generations and made them blind to the inhumane effects of Langbehn's ideas.

For the youth hostel, the founder Alfred C. Toepfer had a series of oil paintings made by the artist A. Paul Weber, who was associated with him. Among other things, they show landscapes and places that have been culturally connected to Germany for centuries or were part of the German Empire until the end of the First World War and were separated as a result of the Versailles Treaty - such as North Schleswig: z. B. Alsace-Lorraine and Poznan-West Prussia.

Today the house serves as an office and conference building for the Jugendhof Knivsberg educational facility.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b http://www.knivsberg.dk/
  2. ↑ knivsberg.dk ( Memento from January 14, 2016 in the web archive archive.today )
  3. ↑ http://www.nordschleswig.dk/geschichte.1144.aspx
  4. ↑ http://europa.eu/youth/vp/organisation/10000332326_tr