Reading (Bonn)

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Former house of the reading and recreation society, entrance to the hall and stairway to the restaurant

The Reading and Recreation Society of 1787 (short: reading ) is an association under the old law in Bonn and stands in the tradition of a reading society .

history

After the invention of modern letterpress printing, it was possible for anyone to own printed copies of scientific, philosophical, critical and political books, essays, speeches and discourses, as well as leaflets, diatribes and pamphlets - provided they had the necessary financial means - or to join associations to borrow each other's fonts. In the 18th century, the era of the Enlightenment , the church was finally dropped the knowledge monopoly and developed in the emerging educated middle class , now available in Germany, various associations, lodges and (secret) -Bünde as Illuminati , Rosicrucians and Freemasons . The feudal rulers reacted: the Masonic Lodge founded in 1775 in the royal seat of Bonn dissolved three years later, as did the Illuminati Order of Minervalkirche Stagira, founded in 1776, in 1785.

Only two years later, on December 1, 1787, a group founded by education and status distinguished men in a rented house, opposite the elector's residential palace , a Literary Society , which they later named "READ Society" gave. Among the first members were the former Illuminati Nikolaus Simrock , Christian Gottlob Neefe , Franz Anton Ries , the Freemason Eulogius Schneider and the secret court councilor Bernhard Franz Josef von Gerolt. Already at the beginning of 1788 the Elector Max Franz of Austria became a patron and protector of the society. The motto of the reading was: et sibi et aliis (Latin for both for oneself and for others ); the signet showed a beehive in which busy bees collect and store the (knowledge) nectar.

In 1794, when Count Ferdinand von Waldstein, the friend and supporter of the young Beethoven, had been a member of the harvest since 1788 and was elected director, French revolutionary troops stood before Bonn. Elector Max Franz, the youngest son of Empress Maria Theresa , fled from the Electorate of Cologne, accompanied a. a. from Waldstein. The 167 reading members, now leaderless, decided to dissolve the association and distributed the inventory among themselves, only to reopen a few months later - this time with the protection of the French occupation - in the same place in the town hall as cabinet de litterature . In contrast to the princely era, when the rooms were only read and / or discussed and not eaten, drunk or played cards, a change now took place under the cultural impression of the occupying power. Additional rooms for recreation and management were made available in the town hall and a pool table was set up. In the association, education and recreation were given equal rights.

After 1815

The University of Bonn was founded in 1818 and the number of members of the Reading and Recreation Society Bonn increased from year to year. Students and almost the entire professorial body (in 20 years there were over 50 university professors) as well as later the student sons of the Prussian King and German Emperor Wilhelm I now took part as members in the social and cultural events - if they were not with their federal brothers from Corps Borussia Bonn celebrated in the Kaiserhalle . Not only university members, but also famous personalities from Bonn's prominence, such as Friedrich Schlegel , Ernst Moritz Arndt , Barthold Georg Niebuhr , Alexander Koenig , August Kekulé , Rudolf Hammerschmidt were reading members. After 50 years there were over 600 members.

In 1824 the association acquired its own domicile, which was expanded in 1833 to include an extension in the direction of Remigiusstraße (connecting road from the market square to Münsterplatz ) with a hall for parties, wine tastings, balls and restaurants. The projects were always financed by voluntary fixed-income subscription of the members, an anticipation of the later cooperative idea . The reading and recreation society had developed into the cultural center in Bonn since the association was founded and remained so until the end of the 19th century. Former reading members, who turned away from the politically ( religiously ) critical orientation of society, helped found the Bonn Citizens' Association in 1862 .

Modern times

In 1897 (inauguration on November 24th) the association moved into a society house designed by the Berlin architects Kayser & von Großheim by the Cologne architect Heinrich Rings in the form of a representative city ​​palace at the end of the Hofgarten , that of Coblenzer Straße (today Adenauerallee 37 / Erste Fährgasse) extended to the banks of the Rhine. For the design of the new building, the Bonn architect and government master builder Anton Zengeler provided essential suggestions. It was equipped with all spatial possibilities, a large library, a large ballroom and large social rooms (as well as its own wine shop). In the decades that followed, the harvest was again a much-used place for a stimulating or relaxing stay.

At the end of the Second World War , the Gesellschaftshaus was destroyed along with a large part of the inner city on October 18, 1944 in the Allied air war in the most devastating of the bombing raids on Bonn . In the post-war period, reconstruction on the banks of the Rhine began only slowly, even in the two decades after Bonn was designated the seat of government of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949. The area between Adenauerallee, Erste Fährgasse, Rheinuferpromenade, university library and Institut français was considered too valuable to only be to be used by the reading society, which was downsized after the war.

In 1974 an overall structural concept for the Carée was drawn up. With the participation of the Protestant and the New Apostolic Church, which had already been built here in 1951/52, a terrace house complex was created as a pure exposed concrete structure with a shared underground car park , a jointly usable large hall, a wing with conference rooms, and a design by the Bonn architect Ernst van Dorp New Apostolic Church (Erste Fährgasse 4), administrative rooms of Protestant church districts in the house of the Protestant church and a restaurant floor with Rhine terraces.

After the company had not found a new tenant for the building for a long time, it sold its share in the Adenauerallee 37 building to the Evangelical Administrative Association in 2018. The events of the harvest now mostly take place in the town hall Bad Godesberg , partly also in the house of the Ev. Church instead. Until February 2019, only men could be members. This has been changed with the new statutes; women can now also become members.

Known members

in alphabetical order

literature

  • Andreas Pellens: A Bonn native builds. Ernst van Dorp 1950-2000 . Bouvier-Verlag, Bonn 2002, ISBN 978-3-416-03033-5 , p. 138 f.
  • Karl Moritz Kneisel: Historical news from the reading and recreation society in Bonn. From its foundation to its semisäcular celebration, 1787 to 1837. Carl Georgi, Bonn 1837. ( Online UB Düsseldorf )

Web links

Commons : Adenauerallee 37 (Bonn)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  • lesebonn.de - Official website of the Reading Society Bonn

References and comments

  1. ↑ 22 [16] - History of the reading and recreation society in Bonn. - Page - Digital Collections - Digital Collections. In: digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de. Retrieved September 28, 2016 .
  2. ↑ List of members in the appendix to the 50-year chronicle from 1837, digital.ub.uni-düsseldorf (see 2)
  3. ^ Landeskonservator Rheinland (Ed.): Die Bonner Südstadt , workbook 6, second, modified edition, Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1976, ISBN 3-7927-0265-7 , p. 18.
  4. ^ Boris Schafgans: Hermann Eduard Maertens (1823–1898). On the life and work of the architect and author in Bonn . In: Bonner Heimat- und Geschichtsverein , Stadtarchiv Bonn (ed.): Bonner Geschichtsblätter: Yearbook of the Bonner Heimat- und Geschichtsverein , ISSN  0068-0052 , Volume 68 (2018), Bonn 2019, pp. 139–212 (here: p. 206).
  5. ^ Photo in the Bonner General-Anzeiger on the article 225 years of the Bonner Reading Society
  6. ↑ 1889-1989. Beethoven-Haus association [Festschrift for the 100th anniversary]. Verlag Beethoven-Haus, Bonn 1989, p. 52.
  7. ↑ Peter Jurgilewitsch, Wolfgang Pütz-Liebenow: The history of the organ in Bonn and in the Rhein-Sieg district , Bouvier Verlag, Bonn 1990, ISBN 3-416-80606-9 , pp. 31–32.
  8. ^ Paul Schneider-Esleben 1970: Konrad Adenauer Airport Terminal 1
  9. ↑ Nadine Klees: Church buys the restaurant "Zurlesen" in Bonn , General-Anzeiger , October 24, 2018.

Coordinates: 50 ° 43 ′ 55.1 ″  N , 7 ° 6 ′ 31.7 ″  E