Kurt Holl

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Kurt Holl (right) with Andreas Hupke at the Waidmarkt (March 2015)

Kurt Holl (born September 17, 1938 in Nördlingen ; † December 10, 2015 in Cologne ) was a politically and socially committed teacher.

Life

Holl grew up with two brothers on his grandparents' farm. His father died in 1942 as a member of the SS cavalry during World War II . After primary school, he switched to a boys' boarding school at the Zinzendorf Schools in Königsfeld in the Black Forest through the mediation of his religion teacher . He came to Cologne in 1953 and attended the Kreuzgasse grammar school here . Here he was politically roused during the Hungarian uprising in 1956. As a high school student he was introduced to the book by Henri Alleg La Question (German title: Die Tortter ) by his French teacher , which represented French injustice in the Algerian war . When he found out that members of the FLN had found refuge in the Tunisian embassy in Bonn, he brought their information material to Paris during the high school trip and displayed it in churches and museums. In Cologne he founded the “Action Group Algeria” with classmates and won over Federal President Theodor Heuss and the SPD politicians Johannes Rau and Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski . During his subsequent theology studies at the Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal , he became involved in student politics and was elected AStA chairman in the first semester , who developed many political activities, for example in the campaign against atomic death .

He switched to teaching French, history and philosophy at the University of Cologne , where he completed his studies in 1967 with the state examination. As a member of the SDS in Cologne , he continued to work in politics at the university. From 1974 he was a trainee lawyer at the Hansagymnasium Cologne . After his legal traineeship , he was refused admission to school because of “lack of character aptitude”. As a student and SDS member, he was accused of taking part in rallies against the Vietnam War, in a demonstration against the "Cologne Vietnam Process" sponsored by the Red Aid of the KPD and in activities against the radical decree. In a two-year trial, Holl successfully defended himself.

While receiving social assistance , the city of Cologne obliged him to do charitable work in the Melaten cemetery . From Roma who were also deployed there , he learned that contact with the deceased led to taboo social exclusion. He founded the “Association of Compulsory Workers Cologne” and distributed leaflets in the cemetery, which earned him a cemetery ban. In 1976, together with the “Cologne Association for German-Turkish Cooperation”, he ensured that families in a Turkish ghetto settlement in Cologne-Merkenich received adequate apartments near their Ford Cologne workplace .

In 1975, students from the Hansa-Gymnasium reported about the EL-DE building used by the city administration , the former Cologne Gestapo headquarters, but they were refused a visit. Kurt Holl, Sammy Maedge and others subsequently founded an “Initiative for a Documentation Center in the EL-DE House”. In March 1979, he and the photographer Gernot Huber from the left-wing Kölner Volksblatt locked themselves up in the basement of the building overnight and photographed the prisoner inscriptions that had been preserved in the former cells of the Gestapo prison. The public echo at home and abroad after the publication of the pictures resulted in the city of Cologne having the cellar and the inscriptions restored and in 1981 the cellar became a memorial, the Nazi documentation center of the city of Cologne .

Grave in the Melaten cemetery (October 2018)

In 1981 Holl was hired as a teacher and in 1985 he was transferred to the evening grammar school in Cologne , where from 1998 he mainly taught at the branch in the Ossendorf prison . So he had free time for his activities during the day. In 1987 it got involved with other townspeople in founding the “Cologne Roma Initiative”, from which in 1988 the Aid Association Rom e. V. emerged . Together with Hedwig Neven DuMont he received the alternative honorary citizenship of Cologne . In 2007 he was awarded the Rheinlandtaler for his multicultural and multinational commitment in the Rhineland .

In 2013, Holl was invited to the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia on the subject of "Roma in North Rhine-Westphalia : Difficulties and Chances" .

The Rom e. V. elected him lifelong honorary chairman in 2015 for his outstanding service over decades in the interests of the Cologne Roma. Holl died in Cologne in 2015 at the age of 77. He was buried in the Melaten cemetery (hallway 18 (C) No. 308).

In October 2018 Kurt Holl's autobiography “An uncomfortable Cologne until the end” was published posthumously, created by his two sons Hannes Loh and Benjamin Küsters from a manuscript and other notes they left behind.

Publications

  • with Corinna Kawaters: A line through oblivion . Published by Rom eV, Cologne 1997, DNB 1006083162
  • with Theo Fruendt: 650 years of Roma culture in Kosovo and its destruction: das Pogrom , Rom eV, Cologne 1999, DNB 1004978677
  • Kurt Holl (Rom e. V): “Amaroh Kher”, a project for Roma street children in Cologne . In: Max Matter (Ed.): The situation of the Roma and Sinti after the EU expansion to the east . V&R unipress GmbH, Göttingen 2005
  • with Claudia Glunz (Ed.): Satisfaction and Resting Traffic - 1968 on the Rhine. Revised new edition, Emons, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-89705-550-6
  • with Jovan Nikolić: The forgotten Europeans: Art of the Roma - Roma in art , (exhibition in the Cologne City Museum from December 5, 2008 to March 1, 2009, The forgotten Europeans ), ROM eV, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-9803118 -8-5 (contributions partly in German, English, French, Russian, Serbian)
  • Hannes Loh, Benjamin Holl (ed.): An uncomfortable Cologne to the end: Kurt Holl. Autobiographical portrait of a 68er, Edition Fredebold , Cologne 2018, ISBN 978-3944607214

Web links

Commons : Kurt Holl  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Anja Katzmarzik, Uli Kreikebaum: Obituary for Kurt Holl: “A great person and fighter” has died . Kölner Stadtanzeiger , 12./13. December 2015. The birthday is only mentioned in the print version, p. 27.
  2. ↑ Self-presentation at cologne-info.de/prominente
  3. ↑ Interview with Kurt Holl in: Karl-Heinz Heinemann: A long march. 1968 and the aftermath. Conversations. Papyrossa Verlags GmbH, Cologne 1993, pp. 42-47.
    Louis Peters: The laudation for Kurt Holl . Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , December 19, 2011.
  4. ↑ Hansagymnasium Köln: "The students were great". 12 /// Hansa story (s) /// Alumni. (No longer available online.) 2013, archived from the original on February 1, 2014 ; accessed on January 22, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / hansa.digionline.de
  5. ↑ Permanent exhibition of the NS Documentation Center opened, undated, see: [1] .
  6. ↑ This and the following information: Günter Born, Das EL-DE-Haus in Cologne. Memorials in North Rhine-Westphalia - Part 3, in: Lotta, No. 30, Spring 2008, pp. 48–50, see: Archived copy ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and still Not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lotta-magazin.de
  7. ↑ Awarding of the “Rhineland Taler” to Kurt Holl, in: Nevipe. Circular letter of Rome e. V., No. 14 (September 2007) p. 5, see: [2] .
  8. ^ Roma in North Rhine-Westphalia: Difficulties and Chances . Press release 2013/05/0905 of the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament , May 9, 2013, accessed on December 12, 2015.
  9. ↑ Ossi Helling: New board member Rom e. V. elected . Ossi Helling, February 26, 2015, accessed December 12, 2015.
  10. ^ At the age of 77: Cologne Roma activist Kurt Holl died. Kölnische Rundschau , December 12, 2015, accessed on December 12, 2015 .
  11. ↑ Uri Degania: "An uncomfortable Cologne to the end". Kurt Holl's autobiography was published posthumously. In: haGalil.com. October 18, 2018, accessed on October 18, 2018 (German).
personal data
SURNAME Holl, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German teacher
DATE OF BIRTH September 17, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Nordlingen
DATE OF DEATH December 10, 2015
Place of death Cologne