Reading society Gernsbach

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The reading society Gernsbach was founded in 1847 in the rural town of Gernsbach . Reading societies were carriers of bourgeois emancipation in the German-speaking cultural area and belong in the prehistory of the formation of political parties in the 19th century.

Founded in 1847

The reading society in Gernsbach, an official town in Baden since 1803, was founded late. Corresponding societies had been founded decades earlier in the larger cities of Baden such as Karlsruhe (1784), Pforzheim (1785) and Heidelberg (1785).

On 22 December 1847, 25 citizens of the city, all the assembled bourgeois upper class belonging, at Gasthaus zum Hof Baden to establish a reading society. These were:

  • Casimir Griesbach, skipper
  • Otto Wieland, skipper
  • Dr. Franz Abbreviation, general practitioner
  • Heinrich Sonntag senior, pharmacist
  • Engelhard Sonntag jun., Pharmacist
  • Wilhelm Grötz, skipper and councilor
  • Benedikt Grötz, skipper
  • Wilhelm Seyfarth, councilor
  • Wilhelm Katz, pastor
  • Friedrich Kayser, deacon and director of the local Latin school
  • Gustav Wallraff, host of the Badischer Hof
  • David Keller, senior teacher
  • Benedikt Kaufmann, merchant
  • Ludwig Gaugg, tradesman
  • Heinrich Dreyfuss, gold worker
  • Emmanuel Dreyfuss, iron merchant
  • F. Robelt, skipper
  • Oskar Feill, skipper
  • Friedrich Ofterdinger, bookkeeper for the shipping company
  • Christian Bucherer, skippers
  • v. Ketterer, chief forester
  • Kasimir Katz jun., Skipper
  • Madame Dr. H. Keller, widow
  • Madame Seis, widow
  • Madame J. Kast, widow

Of the 25 founding members of the reading society, eight were boatmen , because Gernsbach was the main location of the logging in the Murg Valley . It is also noteworthy that three widows and the three Jewish citizens Benedikt Kaufmann, Heinrich Dreyfuß and Emmanuel Dreyfuß were among the founding members.

The initiative to found the reading society came from the Freiburg im Breisgau doctor, Franz Kurzel, who was elected to the board at the founding meeting.

statute

The statutes differentiated three types of members:

  • The full members had to pursue an independent occupation and have their permanent residence in Gernsbach
  • The extraordinary members who did not have an independent job and did not live in Gernsbach or the surrounding area
  • The widows and women who did not have the right to vote at the General Assembly and could not vote on the admission of new members either.

At least three general assemblies should take place annually, which, in addition to the association's regulations, should discuss and decide on the acquisition policy. A board of directors was elected by the general assembly as the organ of the society, which consisted of the board of directors, the secretary (secretary), the librarian and the cashier. The board of directors was elected for one year.

The reading society's lounge was in an adjoining room of the Gasthaus zum Badischer Hof. When joining the society, a one-off admission fee had to be paid and then the annual membership fee.

The political neutrality of the society was established in paragraph 18 of the association's statutes.

Library

The focus of the acquisitions was on the entertainment sector. Subscription to only two political newspapers was made right from the start: these were the Deutsche Zeitung and the Allgemeine Augsburgische Zeitung . The following entertainment papers were subscribed to: Morgenblatt Kunst- und Literaturblatt , Leipziger Illustrirte Zeitung , Die neue Illustrirte, humorous satyrical magazine , Deutsche Vierteljahrschrift , Allgemeine Musterzeitung and the newspaper for the dissemination of charitable knowledge . At the second general assembly it was decided to buy the Karlsruher Zeitung , the German Viewer and the Baden State Parliament Gazette .

Baden Revolution

In 1848, when the Baden Revolution began, there was a heated argument within the reading society over the purchase of political newspapers and magazines. In October 1848, a minority of members could not prevail with the proposal to found a singing group and to hold other entertaining events in the winter half-year. The political differences of opinion, the democratically-minded members appeared actively in the reading society and the conservative or apolitical-oriented members hardly appeared, led to the resignation of Pastor Katz, the deacon Kaiser and the teacher Keller after the general assembly on December 5, 1848. The reading society, however, did not become a political circle, as the Gernsbach gymnastics club, founded on January 16, 1849, gathered the political left across all social classes. Members of the reading society were also founding members of the gymnastics club and the Volksverein founded on May 3, 1849 in Gernsbach .

resolution

The last general meeting of the Gernsbach Reading Society, in which the subscription to newspapers and magazines was decided, took place on June 9, 1849. After that, no more information has been handed down. On July 24, 1849, all associations endangering the state were dissolved by ordinance of the Baden state.

literature