Peter Simons

Peter Simons (born February 9, 1877 in Oberelvenich ; † June 1, 1956 in Nemmenich ) was a German teacher and local researcher . He was one of the most productive and successful regional historians in the Rhenish area in the first half of the 20th century.

Peter Simons family grave in Nemmenich (2011)

Life

education and profession

Peter Simons attended the one-class elementary school in his birthplace from 1883 to 1891 . In addition to the regular lessons during his school days, his teacher encouraged him to take individual lessons in German , Latin and mathematics . Due to his musical talent, he also received lessons on the church organ . This enabled him to acquire qualifications that enabled him to work as an organist in Nemmenich in later years. In the following years until 1894 he worked in his parents' farm and at the same time visited the preparatory in Erp for a few days . From 1894 to 1897 he took up studies at the teachers' college in Siegburg . At the same time he attended courses in Prehistory and Early History as well as in Old and Middle High German as a guest student at the University of Bonn . After the teacher examination, he started his first teaching position in Schönau (Bad Münstereifel) in 1897 . From 1899 he taught at primary schools in Cologne, first in Mülheim am Rhein , then in Kalk and finally until his early retirement in 1938 as vice-principal in Poll . After his marriage to Katharina Orth in 1902, he and his wife moved into an apartment in Cologne-Poll. Between 1914 and 1917 he took part in the First World War as a captain in France . When his apartment in Cologne-Poll was destroyed by bombs during the Second World War in 1942, he moved to Nemmenich, the birthplace of his wife, where he lived in the family estate until his death.

research

In addition to his professional activity, as a young teacher he devoted all of his free time to studying history and language, visited libraries and archives and attended lectures at the University of Cologne as a guest auditor and wrote numerous articles on local history . Between 1903 and 1914 five local stories were written. Between 1921 and 1933 he did research in the Euskirchen city ​​archive during the school holidays and published 140 articles in the historical supplements "Our Home" of the Euskirchener Volksblatt. He published 26 articles for the Dürener Zeitung. At the time he wrote seven local stories and between 1933 and 1942 eight more and more than 40 essays. His local stories and his contributions to regional history, culture and folklore , he published mainly in newspapers, whose publishers took over the later printing. The new version of the city history commissioned by the city of Euskirchen to Simons was postponed by the city council in 1935 when Simons refused to submit the manuscript to the Westdeutscher Beobachter publishing house in advance. It was not printed after the Second World War , as the city of Euskirchen published a two-volume anniversary publication in 1952 on the occasion of the 650th anniversary of the city of Euskirchen, in which Peter Simons contributed with two articles. When he was able to look back on more than 50 years in the service of local history research on September 18, 1954 , he had written more than 400 articles on the early history , the Middle Ages and the beginning of the modern era in the Rhenish region, including 26 local histories of places in the Euskirchen district , the district of Düren and Cologne districts. The "Dürener Zeitung" paid tribute to Peter Simon's services as a regional historian.

After his death, several obituaries were published honoring Simon's services as a local researcher and regional historian, who had made previously unknown sources and archives accessible to science under the most difficult working conditions. His publications were said to be of national importance and the preservation of his estate should be ensured.

His local histories are partly outdated by newer research results, but his basic research on regional history remains a pioneering work that is still used today.

Publications (selection)

• History of the Jülich subordination of Bollheim: in Euskirchener Volkszeitung 1907.
• Sources for opening up the history of the city of Zülpich . Zülpicher Volkszeitung 1910 and 1912.
• Illustrated history of Deutz, Vingst, Kalk and Poll - a contribution to the history of the Electoral Cologne office of Deutz. Nagelschmidtsche Buchdruckerei Deutz. 1913.
• From Euskirchen's old days. A history of the "Jülich co-capital" from the oldest times to the present with consideration of the neighboring villages in: Our homeland, supplement to the Euskirchener Volksblatt 1st year 1924.
• Development of the traffic system in the Euskirchen area in: Our home, supplement to the Euskirchener Volksblatt 6th and 7th year 1929 and 1930
• The rise of the city of Euskirchen in the first half of the 19th century in: The Euskirchen district. West German sheets for economy-traffic-technology-architecture.
• Friesheim : History of the cathedral capitular rule. 1933
• Niederberg. History of his Domdechantischen rule and the castle . Euskirchen 1934
• Bliesheim History of the Mariengraden monastery rule in Cologne. Doepgen Euskirchen 1936
• Weilerswist . History of the glory of the Electorate of Cologne from the oldest times to the present. Volksblatt Verlag Euskirchen. 1939
• The community of Kierdorf - its history from the oldest times to the present. Liblar 1940
• Contributions to the topography of old Euskirchen in: 650 years city of Euskirchen. Festschrift for the city anniversary. 1. Vol. 1952
• The jurisdiction in the old and new Euskirchen in: 650 years city of Euskirchen. Festschrift for the city anniversary. 2nd volume 1952

Commemoration

In 1959, in memory of Peter Simons, the city council of Euskirchen named a street not far from today's district administration after him. In 2005 Nemmenich was also given a street name in his name.

estate

The legacy of his writings is scattered over several archives. Parts of the estate are now in the city and district archive of Düren, the city and district archive of Euskirchen, the city archive of Erftstadt , the archive of the community of Weilerswist, the city archive of Zülpich , the historical archive of the city of Cologne and the Mönchengladbach-Hardt parish archive .

literature

• Josef Franke: Peter Simons . In: Foreword to the town history of Euskirchen. Euskirchen 1952
• Carl Brandt: Peter Simons, the homeland researcher of the Euskirchen district . In: Kölnische Rundschau June 1956.
• Paul Hubert Pesch: Peter Simons is alive . In: Local calendar of the Euskirchen district in 1957.
• Ulrich S. Soenius, Jürgen Wilhelm (Ed.): Kölner Personen-Lexikon. Greven, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-7743-0400-0 , p. 509.
• Hermann Tüttenberg: Peter Simons (1877–1956) teacher, local researcher and regional historian. In: Erftstadt City Yearbook 10, 2010, pp. 66–77.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ school chronicle Nemmenich and parish chronicle Oberelvenich
2. ^ Parish archive Erp
3. ↑ Simon's family chronicle
4. ↑ School Chronicle Schönau
5. ^ HASTK inventory of the city of Cologne's personnel files
6. ^ Family chronicle Orth, Nemmenich
7. ^ Parish archives Kierdorf , Letter from Simon to Pastor Siegfried Brandts
8. ↑ ^{a b} Dürener Zeitung of September 18, 1954
9. ↑ Written communication from the Zülpich museum director Paul Hubert Pesch to the district culture advisor Matthias Weida in 1956, requesting receipt of the literature from Peter Simons with reference to eulogies by Max Braubach and Heinrich Neu

Web links

• Literature by and about Peter Simons in the catalog of the German National Library