Leonensia

Connection Leonensia
coat of arms	Circle
Basic data
University / s:	Heidelberg University
Founding:	June 26, 1871
Corporation association :	Miltenberger Ring
Color status :	black
Colours:	blue-yellow-red
Type of Confederation:	Men's association
Position to the scale :	exposed
Motto:	Fearless and faithful!
Website:	www.verbindungen-leonensia.de

The Leonensia is a black , free beating , religiously unbound fraternity in Heidelberg . It was donated in 1871 and is one of the oldest black associations in Germany. In 1919 Leonensia founded the umbrella association Miltenberger Ring with five other associations , of which it is still a member.

history

German Empire, 1871–1918

The Leonensia was founded after the Franco-Prussian War by students in the inn at the golden lion in Heidelberg's old town. Karl Reuling, Paul von Boltenstern and Ernst Keller achieved the founding of a "society" in November 1871 under the leadership of a three-person committee. Based on the inn at the golden lion, the company gave itself the name Leonensia. Shortly thereafter, a liaison circle , beer comment and federal song were created . Since the statutes of the society contained no provisions on color , scale or denomination , important characteristics of a student union were still missing.

Old Gentlemen of Leonensia (1876)

Foxes of Leonensia in Kneipack (1904/05)

This changed in the course of a dispute with the Corps Vandalia Heidelberg from 1878. Since both connections obtained the majority of their new members from Mecklenburg , the Vandals tried to force the company to dissolve with Contrahagen . The Leonensia decided in 1878 to include unconditional satisfaction and the prohibition of the wearing of paint in the statutes.

The historian Bernd Kasten describes the Leonensia as "the most important civil student association for Mecklenburg" in the German Empire. The historian Martin Dröge confirms this view in a biography of the National Socialist politician Karl-Friedrich Kolbow : "Anyone who later wanted to make a career as a lawyer in their Mecklenburg homeland had to have made the appropriate contacts as an active Leonese in Heidelberg." The Leonensia has the same Colors like the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin . At the top right of the coat of arms of the Duchy and Leonensia there is a black bull's head with a crown.

As places of socialization for the elite, student associations shaped social and university life in the empire. Arne Lankenau describes membership in a striking connection in Wilhelminism as a “conditio sine qua non for advancement to higher political offices”. Two reports in the university newspaper confirm the outstanding role of connections for Heidelberg as well: In December 1898, Baden's Prime Minister Wilhelm Nokk and the Secret Council and Reichstag member Leopold Arnsperger received a delegation from the student body. The delegation only consisted of fraternity students. The report mentions: “Messrs. Hoffmann (Leonensia), Graef ( V D. St. ), Wegener (representative of the philos. Faculty ), Alst (Rhenopalatia), Dr. Ruschhaupt (Leonensia) and v. Levetzow ( Saxoborussia ) ”. The second report from 1899 on a meeting of the so-called “further committee” also illustrates the dominance of connections in everyday university life. According to the minutes of the further committee - a body for student self-government - the association Palatia declares in a letter that it will no longer participate in the meetings "as long as the insulting expressions of the chairman against the Palatia are not revoked." The committee chairman and first delegate responded the Leonensia, Walther Hoffmann , the committee the vote of confidence. This was answered positively with 20 votes in favor and six abstentions. The protocol names all participants with connection to which they belong in brackets. Since everyone mentioned belongs to a connection, the protocol documents the lack of representation of non-affiliated Heidelberg students in university bodies in Wilhelmine Germany.

Weimar Republic, 1918–1933

Chargia der Leonensia im Wichs (1930)

The economic problems of the Weimar Republic also affected the life of the union. The lawyer Björn Bertram writes in a dissertation on the Leonensia member Hermann Krause that due to the inflation , the Leonensia could only hold pubs twice a month instead of the usual twice a week in the German Empire . Like most connections, the Leonensia was also hostile to the post-war order . In 1921 Carl Gernandt, at that time a member of the board of the old gentlemen's association , criticized the powerlessness of the Weimar Republic and called for revenge against France. In a speech at the 50th Foundation Festival he said: “But now Germany is down, now it's time to confess and so we remember him in all the big pubs, sing the patriotic songs, remember the God who made iron grow! "

In the empire, connections set the tone in social and university life. In the Weimar Republic, however, a new social order was established in which previously less influential groups claimed an elitist position. The political scientist Michael Ruck points out that the Baden civil service in the Weimar Republic tended to distance itself from corporations. Instead, the higher civil servants had organized themselves in " lied-like gentlemen's associations". Norbert Giovannini points out that the black connections Leonensia, Rupertia and Karlsruhensia had to struggle with a particularly strong decline in membership: “ Fraternities and VDSt [would] snatch the politically interested from the black connections, the color-bearing competitors the color-mad foxes from under the nose . "

National Socialism, 1933–1945

Many connections escaped the state's dissolution through reforms in line with the National Socialist ideology as part of the “ Gleichschaltung ” . With a double resolution of the Special Convent (BC) and the Elder Convent , Leonensia introduced the leader principle in July 1933 . The old Mr. Friedrich Tischbein was elected liaison leader. As the liaison manager, Tischbein was able to make binding decisions without being bound by instructions from the liaison.

Basic democracy , the principle of the alliance of life vis-à-vis Jewish members and the student's concept of honor as a demarcation from the “ national community ” were problematic from the perspective of the Nazi state. The Göttingen riots and the Heidelberg asparagus meal demonstrate the potential for conflict between National Socialism and some student associations.

At the beginning of the summer semester of 1936, students had to join the NS student union . Members of the NS student union also had to join a branch of the NSDAP ( SA , SS , NSKK , HJ , BDM ). On May 14, 1936, Rudolf Hess announced a decree that forbade membership in a student association and a member of the NSDAP at the same time. Two days later, the BC of Leonensia ruled the active mode to suspend. The old gentlemen's association and the fraternity house association were not affected by this suspension. On September 18, 1937, the old gentlemen's convention decided with 101 votes against 87 to convert the connection into a comradeship and to make the connection house available to them. 43 old gentlemen who voted against the decision resigned from Leonensia. Based on the Heidelberg romantic, the comradeship was named Achim von Arnim .

Michael Ruck examines the representation of old men in the Baden administration in a habilitation on the Southwest German civil service . From 1933 to 1945, according to Ruck, 38 connections had provided a total of 138 higher officials. Of these, three officers were assigned to the Leonensia. Only the Rupertia Heidelberg connection had an unusually high concentration of senior officials with 17 civil servants.

Allied occupation, 1945–1949

The Allied Control Council dissolved all branches of the NSDAP with Control Council Act No. 2 . This also included the comradeship Achim von Arnim. On the other hand, the old gentlemen's association of Leonensia was not affected by the dissolution, which was not banned under National Socialism either. Although the liaison house was now subordinate to the Heidelberg Office for Asset Control, a foundation festival bar was held here on June 16, 1948.

Federal Republic of Germany, 1949 – today

On April 25, 1949 the "EV Leonenserhaus" was re-established in the register of associations. The University of Heidelberg recognized the EV Leonenserhaus two months later as the legal successor to the former house association. By the summer semester of 1950, Aktivitas had grown to ten people.

In July 1958 the old gentlemen's convention decided to give up the principle of unconditional satisfaction that had been in force for 80 years. Since then, members of the Leonensia have been free to hit lengths . So far, the chairmen of Aktivitas had always worn Chargenwichs at official events . Speaking at a memorial ceremony for the inauguration of a memorial plaque for fallen in World War II frat brothers , the chairman of the Aktivitas refused to overact in regalia. Since then, no activitas of the Leonensia has charged in the jerk.

Fraternity house

Fraternity house

North facade of the connecting house (2014)

North facade (before 1907)

On August 1, 1891, decided Altherrenconvent the Leonensia the construction of a connecting building. For this purpose, the old owners acquired a plot of land at Klingentorstrasse 10 for 12,000 gold marks . The construction was completed on January 14 and cost a further 25,000 gold marks. The house was designed by the architect Friedrich Müller . In 1907 the west side was expanded under Frank Sales Kuhn .

The US occupiers confiscated the fraternity house, which was initially used as an officers' mess. Later the house was transferred to the University of Heidelberg and was returned to the connection by the rector Karl Geiler on July 18, 1949.

Umbrella organization

The Heidelberg connections Leonensia, Rupertia and Karlsruhensia as well as Albingia Freiburg, Lunaburgia Göttingen and Saxonia Tübingen founded the Miltenberger Ring (MR) in Miltenberg on June 12th and 13th 1919 as an umbrella organization for black connections with the principle of unconditional satisfaction . As early as 1908, the three Heidelberg connections had established a paucous relationship with a common pauce comment .

In 1935, Hans Lammers , MR leader and State Secretary of the Reich Chancellery, suggested the dissolution of the MR and its member associations. Previously, Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, had forbidden simultaneous membership in a branch of the NSDAP and an association. On October 19, 1935, the MR liaison officers decided to dissolve the umbrella organization.

In 1951, MR was re-established. In 1973 the MR and the Wernigeroder Schwarze Verband merged to form the Miltenberg-Wernigeroder Ring. The new association gave up unconditional satisfaction as no longer in keeping with the times. Disputes about the alignment of the Miltenberg-Wernigeroder Ring led to several withdrawals.

In 1995 the connections Leonensia, Rheno-Colonia Cologne, Karlsruhensia Heidelberg, Lunaburgia Göttingen and Albingia-Schwarzwald-Zaringia Freiburg founded the MR again in the Miltenberg restaurant Zum Riesen .

Connections in today's MR are non-color-bearing , politically independent, non- denominational and do not beat any compulsory censorship . Association members do not wear a couleur on their body, but carry a couleur flag at highly official events. The individual members are allowed to wear black beer hips and beer tubs .

Trivia

In protest against the introduction of unconditional satisfaction , some members left the Leonensia in 1878. Five of those who left founded a company in the same year, from which the Karlsruhensia Heidelberg association emerged in 1893 .

Max Weber completed a mensur against a member of the Leonensia in 1883. Weber met his opponent once and was hit three times himself. The referee broke off the scale because of unclean fencing by Weber.

The Landsmannschaft Teutonia Heidelberg struck their first lengths with black weapons of the Leonensia in 1891 .

Known members

photo	Surname	accession	activity
	Paul Felisch	1873	Judge, Admiralty, writer
	Adolf Langfeld	1873	Minister of State of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
	Friedrich Zelck	1881	Lawyer, mayor
	Bernhard Kahle	1882	Germanist, Scandinavian
	Hans Linck	1882	Lawyer, member of the Reichstag
	Adolf Franke	1884	Electrical engineer
	Oskar Vulpius	1885	Orthopedist
	Emil Lemcke	1889	Lawyer, President of the Upper Church Council
	Wilhelm Zangemeister	1889	gynecologist
	Franz Schieck	1890	Ophthalmologist, medic
	Carl Uhlig	1890	Meteorologist, geographer
	Waldemar Gädecke	1893	Lawyer, District Administrator
	Ulrich Gerhardt	1893	zoologist
	Walther Schieck	1893	Prime Minister of Saxony
	Franz Thorbecke	1894	geographer
	Max Reich	1894	physicist
	Hermann from Siemens	1904	Industrialist
	Paul Ramdohr	1909	mineralogist
	Hermann Krause	1921	Legal historian
	Franz Engel	1927	historian
	Karl Heinz Fielitz	1928	Government director in the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Economic Affairs

literature

• Björn Bertram: Hermann Krause. Life and work of a German legal scholar in the upheavals of the 20th century. Eick, Kiel 2018, ISBN 978-3-9815733-7-4 .
• Gerhart Berger, Detlev Aurand: … once Bursch zu Heidelberg… A commemorative publication by the Heidelberg corporations to mark the 600th anniversary of Ruperto Carola. Arranged by Gerhart Berger and Detlev Aurand. Heidelberger Verlagsanstalt, Heidelberg 1986, ISBN 3-920431-63-4 .
• Wolfgang Benstz: The Miltenberger-Werningeroder Ring (MWR) and its member connections in Heidelberg. In: … Weiland Bursch zu Heidelberg… A commemorative publication by the Heidelberg corporations for the 600th anniversary of Ruperto Carola. Arranged by Gerhart Berger and Detlev Aurand. Heidelberger Verlagsanstalt, Heidelberg 1986, ISBN 3-920431-63-4 , p. 95 f.
• Gabriele Dörflinger : Student associations in Heidelberg: a city tour. Heidelberg University Library, Heidelberg 2017.
• Carl Gernandt, Martin Dorfmüller: The history of the connection Leonensia. 1871-1971. Carl Winter University Press, Heidelberg 1971.
• Norbert Giovannini: Between Republic and Fascism. Heidelberg students 1918–1945. Deutscher Studien-Verlag, Weinheim 1990.
• Paul Felisch : Memoirs. A career in the empire. Eick, Kiel 2015 [dictated posthumously, 1932/33].
• Bernd Kasten : Lords and servants . Social and political change in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 1867–1945 (=  sources and studies from the state archives of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . Volume 11 ). Edition Temmen, Bremen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8378-4014-8 , pp. 135 f .
• Michael Ruck : Corps Spirit and State Consciousness . Officials in the German southwest. 1928 to 1972 (= Dieter Langewiesche, Klaus Schönhoven [Hrsg.]: National Socialism and the Post-War Period in Southwest Germany . Volume 4 ). R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-486-56197-9 (Zugl .: Mannheim, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 1994/95).

Web links

• Literature by and about Leonensia in the WorldCat bibliographic database
• Collection of color cards from Leonensia

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Heidelberger Akademische Mitteilungen: Academic connections and their bars and clubs . Ed .: J. Hörning. No. 2 . Universitäts-Buchdruckerei, Heidelberg May 8, 1897 ( uni-heidelberg.de ).
2. ↑ Bernd Kasten: Lords and servants . Social and political change in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 1867–1945 (=  sources and studies from the state archives of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . Volume 11 ). Edition Temmen, Bremen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8378-4014-8 , pp. 135-136 .
3. ↑ Bernd Kasten: Lords and servants . Social and political change in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 1867–1945 (=  sources and studies from the state archives of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . Volume 11 ). Edition Temmen, Bremen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8378-4014-8 , pp. 135 .
4. ↑ Martin Dröge: Masculinity and 'Volksgemeinschaft' . The Westphalian governor Karl Friedrich Kolbow (1899-1945): biography of a Nazi perpetrator (=  research on regional history . Volume 78 ). Schöningh, Paderborn 2015, ISBN 978-3-506-78289-2 , pp. 71 , urn : nbn: de: 101: 1-201601061214 (Zugl .: Paderborn, Univ., Diss., 2014).
5. ↑ Alexandra Kurth: Men - Bünde - Rituals. Student associations since 1800 . Campus publishing house, Frankfurt a. M./New York 2004, ISBN 978-3-593-37623-3 , pp. 110-120 .
6. ↑ Arne Lankenau: "Dark the future - bright the courage!" The Heidelberg student associations in the Weimar Republic, 1918–1929 . In: Manfred Berg u. a. (Ed.): Heidelberg Treatises on Middle and Modern History . tape 18 . Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 2008, ISBN 978-3-8253-5527-2 , p. 26 .
7. ^ Johannes Rissom: Hochschulnachrichten . In: J. Hörning (Ed.): Akademische Mitteilungen . No. 9 . Universitäts-Druckerei, Heidelberg December 17, 1898, p. 1 , doi : 10.11588 / diglit.25134.11 .
8. ^ NN: V. Ordinary meeting of the further committee on January 13, 1899 . In: J. Hörning (Ed.): Akademische Mitteilungen . No. 12 . Universitäts-Buchdruckerei, Heidelberg January 21, 1899, p. 1 , doi : 10.11588 / diglit.25134.14 .
9. ^ Bernhard Bertram: Hermann Krause. Life and work of a German legal scholar in the upheavals of the 20th century . Solivagus-Verlag, Kiel 2018, ISBN 978-3-9815733-7-4 , p. 44 .
10. ^ Bertram: Hermann Krause . S. 46 .
11. ↑ Michael Ruck: Corpsgeist and State Consciousness: Officials in the German Southwest. 1928 to 1972 . Oldenbourg, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-486-56197-9 , pp. 75 .
12. ^ Norbert Giovannini: Between Republic and Fascism. Heidelberg students 1918–1945 . Deutscher Studien-Verlag, Weinheim 1990, ISBN 978-3-89271-091-2 , p. 82 .
13. ^ Martin Dorfmüller: History of the connection Leonensia . S. 136 .
14. ^ Kurt Meier: The theological faculties in the Third Reich . De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1996, ISBN 3-11-015226-6 , pp. 287 .
15. ^ Martin Dorfmüller: History of the connection Leonensia Heidelberg . S. 141 .
16. ^ Martin Dorfmüller: History of the connection Leonensia Heidelberg . S. 157 .
17. ^ Norbert Giovannini: Between Republic and Fascism . S. 211 .
18. ↑ Michael Ruck: Corpsgeist and State Consciousness . Officials in the south-west of Germany, 1928 to 1972 (= Dieter Langewiesche, Klaus Schönhoven [Hrsg.]: National Socialism and the Post-War Period in South-West Germany . Volume 4 ). R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-486-56197-9 , pp. 302 .
19. ^ Martin Dorfmüller: History of the connection Leonensia . S. 179 .
20. ↑ Martin Dorfmüller: The history of the connection Leonensia . S. 185 .
21. ^ Martin Dorfmüller: History of the connection Leonensia Heidelberg . S. 188 .
22. ^ Carl Gernandt: History of the Leonensia . S. 36 .
23. ^ Gabriele Dörflinger: Student connections in Heidelberg. A city tour . Heidelberg University Library, Heidelberg 2017, p. 29 .
24. ^ Gabriele Dörflinger: Student connections in Heidelberg . S. 30 .
25. ↑ The Miltenberger Ring has been dissolved . In: Miltenberger Ring (Ed.): Miltenberger Ring newspaper . No. 10/11/12 , 1935, ZDB -ID 1350479-4 , p. 1 .
26. ↑ Wolfgang Benstz: The Miltenberger-Wernigeroder ring (MWR) and its members links in Heidelberg . In: Detlev Aurand u. a. (Ed.): … From time to time Bursch zu Heidelberg… Heidelberger Verlagsanstalt, Heidelberg 1986, ISBN 3-920431-63-4 , p. 95-96 .
27. ^ Gabriele Dörflinger: Student connections in Heidelberg. A city tour . Heidelberg University Library, Heidelberg 2017, p. 24 .
28. ↑ Herbert Unholz: history of the Corps Karlsruhensia-Heidelberg . In: Miltenberger Ring (Ed.): Miltenberger Ring newspaper . No. 5 , May 1935, ZDB -ID 1350479-4 , p. 1-2 .
29. ^ Wolf-Diedrich Reinbach: Max Weber and the fraternity Allemannia zu Heidelberg . 3rd (unchanged) edition. Self-published, Heidelberg 2014, OCLC 699286315 , p. 118 .
30. ↑ Landsmannschaft Teutonia Heidelberg: A bit of history. (No longer available online.) In: Landsmannschaft Teutonia Heidelberg. 2014, archived from the original on February 23, 2015 ; accessed on May 6, 2019 .