Lower Rhine antiquity association

The Niederrheinische Altertumsverein Xanten e. V. ( NAVX ) is a local historical association founded in Xanten in 1877 . He initiated the archaeological excavation activity in the Colonia Ulpia Traiana and carried out excavations himself until this task became the responsibility of the Rhenish Provincial Museum as a result of the Prussian excavation law from 1920/21 . The association also has an extensive collection and exhibition history.

Regional and historical context

Philipp Houben (1767–1855)

In the Xanten city area there was one of only three Roman Coloniae on German territory (next to Cologne and Trier ) - the Colonia Ulpia Traiana , which, however, unlike in those cities, was and is mostly not overbuilt. Excavations were carried out here earlier in the 19th century, for example carried out by the notary Philipp Houben , whose extensive collection, however, was scattered across Europe after his death through sales and theft.

In contrast to many other German regions, history societies only began to emerge in the Rhineland to an increasing extent from the middle of the 19th century, which may be due to the existing competition from local building societies (such as the Karlsverein in Aachen, the Cologne or Xanten cathedral building societies ), according to the historian Georg Kunz suggests as a hypothesis.

history

Foundation and first activities

Draft of the association's statutes dated May 31, 1870, kept in the Xanten City Archives (Department B, box 311).

The Niederrheinische Altertumsverein was officially founded on May 28, 1877, but there is a handwritten draft of the statutes dating from May 31, 1870, which indicates that the association was already active before it was officially founded. According to the statutes, the association wanted to endeavor to collect, excavate, scientific research and store them in a museum to be founded in order to preserve the monuments for posterity and to protect them from vandalism. Members of the association were high-ranking citizens of all denominations - Protestant landowners, members of the Catholic clergy such as the clergy Johannes Brockelmann and Jacob Freudenhammer as well as the Jewish merchants Adolph and Moses Oster. The association began with 62 members and met in the rooms of the Niederrheinischer Hof restaurant in Xanten. Objects such as urns, sacrificial bowls and lamps were bought on a large scale and plaster casts were made from Berlin of important finds from the Xanten area, including the so-called Xanten boy . The antiquity society received a private collection of gems from a member of the von Haeften family .

Excavation and collection

The collection moves to Klever Tor (1908)

The excavation work of the association, which was financially supported and scientifically accompanied by the provincial administration, was decisive for the scientific knowledge about the Roman times in Xanten. A member (Mölders) discovered the thermal baths in 1879. In 1883 a coin with the image of Emperor Nero was unearthed, and the chairman Josef Steiner (1881–1914) himself discovered the amphitheater of Colonia Ulpia Traiana in 1891 . As a procedure, for example, an iron stick was used to probe the soil.

The number of members decreased over time, but by 1883 the association had accumulated around 3,200 antique objects. The archaeologist Paul Steiner , son of Josef Steiner, cataloged and published the collection in 1911.

At no point did the association have sufficient funds to finance its own museum. Initially, the collection was housed in the garden house of the Hotel Schwerdt on the Westwall in Xanten, then from 1883 in two rooms on the upper floor of the town hall, before it was relocated to Klever Tor in a splendid move in 1908 , a location that was not very suitable from a restoration point of view. In 1935 the exhibits moved again to the town hall on Kleiner Markt (after the seat of the city administration had been relocated).

End of excavation, new focus

Due to the Prussian Excavation Act of 1914, which in fact only came into effect in 1920 through implementing provisions, the association had to look for a new focus. This happened on the one hand through membership in the tourist office, on the other hand also through an additional focus on the post-Roman history of Xanten. Several board members of the NAVX contributed with their own contributions to a publication for the 700th anniversary of the city.

At the first general meeting after the association's activities, which were interrupted by the First World War, Matthias Basqué was elected chairman, who remained in this position for 35 years until his death in 1955.

Period of National Socialism and World War II

For the period of National Socialism attempts of the city, among other things, the collection of the association under municipal administration are, according to Jürgen Rose (who has assembled a later chairman the club history) is to increase the urban influence on the NAVX to bring. In the first years after 1933, the association was increasingly involved in the town's homeland care activities. The National Socialist Mayor Friedrich Karl Schöneborn became a member of the board. According to a statement by Matthias Basqué in 1950, the general meeting decided in 1938 that the collection should remain in the possession of the association - whereupon the association was regarded as an “outright opponent of the system”. The secretary of the association was classified as incriminated in the denazification process after the war, whereupon Basqué stood up for him.

At the beginning of 1940, the collection was brought to various locations in and outside the city to protect it from possible war damage. The town hall, which until then still served as an exhibition area, was completely destroyed in February 1945 during air raids by the Allies . From 1945 Basqué organized the return of the objects; the reorganization took several years. After the re-establishment meeting in 1950 with 47 members, the association tried to find new museum rooms, which initially did not succeed, the collection moved again to the Klever Tor . The other post-war activities concentrated mainly on the organization of lectures, excursions and guided tours as well as some publications.

Foundation of the regional museum, present

With the establishment of the Regional Museum Xanten (RMX) in 1974, the collection of the antiquity association, together with the holdings of the St. Viktor cathedral parish, was finally given a museum specially designed for its purposes. This remained the home of the NAVX collection until the LVR-RömerMuseum was founded in 2008. Many of the excavation finds and collection items of the association are now shown as exhibits in the museum integrated in the LVR Archaeological Park Xanten .

In the statutes of 2017, the association has three tasks: research, collection and communication in the context of Xanten's history, as well as supporting local museums and organizing excursions.

Web links

• navx-xanten.de - Official website of the Niederrheinischer Altertumsverein Xanten

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Holger Schmenk: Xanten in the 19th century: a small town in the Rhineland between tradition and modernity . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-20151-7 , pp. 107-111 .
2. ↑ Hans-Joachim Schalles : ... and rest from their unsteady wandering life ... On the museum history of the Niederrheinischer Altertumsverein Xanten 1877–1953 . Ed .: Niederrheinischer Altertumsverein Xanten eV Verlagshaus Wohlfahrt, Duisburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-87463-556-1 , p. 20 .
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Jürgen Rosen: On the history of the Niederrheinischer Altertumsverein Xanten . In: Gundolf Precht , Hans-Joachim Schalles (Ed.): Trace reading. Contributions to the history of the Xanten area . Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1989, ISBN 978-3-7927-1162-0 , pp. 275-286 .
4. ↑ Discoverer of the amphitheater. In: rp-online.de. October 7, 2011, accessed August 25, 2018 . 
5. ↑ Lorelies Christian: history of museums. Niederrheinischer Altertumsverein Xanten shows exhibits in the RömerMuseum . In: Niederrhein-Nachrichten . November 29, 2008, p. 2 .
6. ↑ Museums - Collection - Exhibits. In: navx-xanten.de. Retrieved August 26, 2018 . 
7. ↑ Ralph Trost: A completely destroyed city. National Socialism, War and End of War in Xanten . Inaugural dissertation to obtain the academic degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Flensburg. Xanten 2001, p. 122 ( PDF ). PDF ( Memento of the original from March 28, 2019 in the Internet Archive ) 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.  
8. ↑ NAVX statutes. March 27, 2017. Retrieved August 26, 2018 .