Red Earth (Westphalia)

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Rote Erde or rothe Erde is a name that has been used since the Middle Ages for the historical Westphalia landscape between the Lower Rhine and Weser , which roughly corresponds to the western part of the old tribal duchy of Saxony .

Origin of the term

Already " The Zweifft Frag " (12th question) of the Westphalian court order of King Ruprecht of 1408 on the appointment of free judges determined, "All scoops should be made on the red earth, that is Westphalen". The so-called "Ruprechtschen questions" are in various manuscripts of the 15th / 16th Century and are quoted verbatim in a Westphalian court order from 1546. The judgment of life and death was still exercised in Westphalia for a long time by the vein court in a " free chair "; the most respected free chair was initially in Dortmund . A chapter day in the Baumhof on the Oberfreistuhl in Arnsberg , built in 1437, declared false judgments in Swabia and the County of Nassau (→ Ginsburg ) in 1490 as follows: "De Greven and Scheppen weren not op roder Erdte made".

According to an older theory of the 19th century, the expression on the red earth is related to the blood spell and means blood-soaked earth . It is more likely, however, that the term red or red earth is etymologically related to cleared earth; in Westphalian , the past participle is formed without the morpheme “ ge ”.

Hallway name

The corridor or street name Rot (h) e Erde can be found in many places around Westphalia (Bielefeld, Dülmen, Lengerich, Medebach, Münster, Neuenkirchen Krs. Steinfurt, Oelde, Steinhagen, Preußisch Oldendorf, Bad Salzuflen, Vlotho, Bad Wildungen) , but - z. B. due to the actual red soil color - also beyond (Althengstett, Ebsdorfergrund, Göttingen, Großmonra, Kobern-Gondorf, Marienrachdorf, Mechernich, Mörlen, Nörvenich, Pegnitz, Reinheim, Stolberg, Tirschenreuth).

Literary reception

"Red earth" became a synonym for the Westphalian landscape , especially in romantic literature :

“But we will then be able to move on unhindered and under safe conduct, as far as the red earth extends, through its forests and valley gorges, over its mountains and streams… That is the romantic thing we are looking for: the memories of the great times which ours is built ... "

In his “ Finkenlied ” to the late Münster President Ludwig von Vincke (1774–1844), Ernst Moritz Arndt (1769–1860) used “Land der Roten Erde” and “Westenforst” in 1845 as synonyms for “Westphalia”. By Mathilde Franziska Anneke (1817-1884) in 1846 in Münster anthology products of Rothen Earth - Westphalian Yearbook issued to which among others Annette von Droste-Hulshoff (1797-1848) and Ferdinand Freiligrath contributed (1810-1876) poems.

Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), who had not followed Anneke's request to participate in the anthology, had contrasted France with Westphalia as "the red earth of freedom" in 1833 - in connection with an allusion to the Veme courts. The poem Die Rothe Erde , ascribed to Heine in 1861, is a forgery. Fanny Lewald (1811–1889) wrote the revolutionary novella Auf rother Erde in 1850 , which takes place in various Westphalian cities ( Pyrmont , Iserlohn, etc.) and villages.

Louise von François (1817-1893), who had lived in Minden for several years, interpreted the term in her 1862 novella Judith the Kluswirtin : "Red earth means iron earth". In the Westfalenlied by Emil Rittershaus (1834-1897) published in 1869 it says:

"God protect you, you red earth,
you land of Wittekind and Teut ”.

Felix Dahn (1834–1912) published the ballad Die Rote Erde about Charlemagne in 1878 , in which he wrote:

" Two hundred thousand Saxons ,
They died bloody death: -
Of which is in Westphalia
The earth turned red ”.

The book Rothe Erde by Julius Petri (1868-1894) was published posthumously by Erich Schmidt . By Peter Hille (1854-1904) originated the autobiographical text I am the son of the red soil of 1903. The friend of Hille Westphalian regional poet Wilhelm Uhlmann Bixterheide (1872-1936) published several titles for red soil . Hedwig Kiesekamp (1844–1919) wrote On Red Earth. Stories from home .

Mental history change of the term

In the labor movement of the Ruhr area, “red earth” was reinterpreted in terms of the history of mentality and increasingly understood as a reference to a social democratic, socialist or communist character of the region in the inclusion of blood and struggle metaphor (cf. the TV series Rote Erde ). In addition, the red color of the earth means a high iron content and refers to the iron and steel industry. The term was also widely used in Dortmund because the name from the Aachen industrial district Rothe Erde was used around 1861 by the Cologne entrepreneur Carl Ruëtz (1822–1881) through his "limited partnership for shares Carl Ruetz & Co. Zur Rothen Erde" (today Rothe Erde GmbH ) was transferred to Dortmund.

Many associations or settlement names in Westphalia, especially in the eastern Ruhr area, took up the name Rote Erde . Well-known are the “Kampfbahn Rote Erde” stadium from 1926 on Strobelallee in Dortmund and the Rote Erde residential area in the west of the city of Beckum . Also in the GDR some sports facilities were named Rote Erde , u. a. in Meerane (1946–1957), Neustadt (Orla) or Rostock.

In 1928 the Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ) organized their 5th Reich Youth Day in Dortmund under the motto “Red Youth on Red Earth”. The speech and movement choir Rote Erde by the working-class poet Karl Bröger (1886–1944) was performed in the Westfalenhalle in front of 20,000 young people:

“We are the children of the Red Earth
and want justice to finally come about.
A spark of the day has glistened on us.
We come. We come."

- Karl Bröger: Rote Erde , 1928

The NSDAP tried with the name of its party newspaper for the Gau Westfalen-Süd " Westfälische Landeszeitung - Rote Erde ", the taken over and expropriated General-Anzeiger for Dortmund , to tie in with the tradition of the Rote Erde . Today a supplement of the Westphalian News dealing with historical topics in Westphalia is called “Auf Roter Erde”.

Sports clubs " Rot (h) e Erde "

Other associations " Red Earth "

literature

  • Jacob Grimm : Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer , 4th, presumably edition, obtained by Andreas Heusler, Vol. 2, Leipzig 1899, p. 457f.
  • Michael Käding: Rot (h) e Erden , in: Raw material base and sales market. The heavy industry of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Aachen Revier (= Aachen Studies on Economic and Social History, Vol. 2), Aachen 2005, pp. 13-20.

Web links

Wiktionary: Rote Erde  - explanations of meanings, origins of words, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Andrea Stühn: Ruprechtsche questions . In: Wolfgang Stammler, Karl Langosch (Ed.): The German literature of the Middle Ages. Author's Lexicon , Vol. VIII. 2nd Edition. Berlin, New York 1992, Col. 421-424.
  2. ^ Based on the edition by Johann Philipp Datt : Volume rerum Germanicarum novum, sive de pace imperii publica libri V. Kühn, Ulm 1698, pp. 777–780, esp. P. 779 ( digitized version of the Bavarian State Library in Munich), which contains the Declaratio variorum articulorum, ad Judicia Westphalica pertinentium dated 1404.
  3. ↑ Cf. Marquard Freher, Johann Heinrich David Göbel: De secretis iudiciis olim in Westphalia aliisque Germaniae partibus usitatis, postea abolitis, commentariolus . Regensburg 1762, pp. 169–191, especially p. 188 ( digitized version of the Bavarian State Library in Munich).
  4. ↑ Cf. Copia Protocolli in conventu… Arnsbergae . In: Paul Wigand: The Femgericht Westphalens, presented from the sources and explained with still unprinted documents . Schulz / Wundermann, Hamm 1825, pp. 262–267, especially p. 266 ( digitized version of the Austrian National Library Vienna).
  5. ↑ Cf. Carl Georg von Wächter: Contributions to German history, especially to the history of German criminal law, Tübingen 1845, p. 178f.
  6. ↑ Cf. Franz Jostes : Rote Erde (small communication) . In: Zeitschrift für Deutsches Altertum und Deutsche Literatur 22 (1896), p. 400 ( Google Books ; limited preview); ders .: Westphalian costume book . Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld 1904, p. 8 ( digitized version of the University Library of Münster), with reference to a Lamspringer Juvencus cast (Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel (Cod.Guelf. 533 Helmstadiensis)).
  7. ↑ Cf. Otto Behaghel: History of the German Language . (Outline of Germanic Philology 3). 5th edition, de Gruyter, Berlin / Leipzig 1928, p. 470.
  8. ^ Ferdinand Freiligrath, Levin Schücking : The picturesque and romantic Westphalia . Wilhelm Langewiesche, Barmen / Friedrich Volckmar, Leipzig undated [1841], p. 18, also p. 157 a. ö. ( Google Books ).
  9. ^ Ernst Moritz Arndt: Works , Part 1 Poems . Bong, Berlin 1912, pp. 250-252.
  10. ^ Mathilde Franziska, v. Tabouillot born Giesler: Products of the Red Earth . (Westphalian yearbook). Coppenrath, Münster in Westphalia 1846.
  11. ↑ Cf. Anja Peters: "The right look". View, power and gender in Annette von Droste-Hülshoff's verses . Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2004, p. 178 Note 3.
  12. ↑ See Heinrich Heine: French conditions . Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1833, p. 269 ( Google Books ).
  13. ^ With and from Friedrich Arnold Steinmann : Supplements to Heinrich Heine's works. Poems by H. Heine , Vol. II Mixed poems, sonnets, Auf rother Erde,… . Gebrüder Binger, Amsterdam 1861, p. 53f in section VII. Auf rother Erde (p. 51-68); see. also Ders .: letters from H. Heine . Binger brothers, Amsterdam 1861, p. 6ff.
  14. ↑ Fanny Lewald: On red earth. A novella . JJ Weber, Leipzig 1850 ( Google Books ).
  15. ^ Louise von François: Gesammelte Werke , Vol. IV. Insel, Leipzig 1918, pp. 44–65, esp. P. 51.
  16. ↑ Verse 4; Weekly newspaper for the Iserlohn-Altena constituency , April 1869.
  17. ↑ Cf. Felix Dahn: Collected Works. Narrative and Poetic Writings . Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1910, p. 471 (first printed in 1878).
  18. ↑ Paetel, Berlin 1895.
  19. ↑ Peter Hille: "I am a son of the red earth" . In: Hans Ostwald (Ed.): Songs from the Rinnstein , Vol. I. Karl Henckell, Leipzig / Berlin 1903, pp. 162-165 ( digitized in the Internet Archive).
  20. ^ Franz Coppenrath, Münster 1914 ( digitized version of the University Library of Münster).
  21. ↑ See Arbeiter-Jugend 19 (1927), p. 147 ( digitized version at Scripta Paedagogica Online).
  22. ↑ See Karl Bröger, Friedrich Weigmann: Rote Erde. A game for speaking and movement choirs . Arbeiterjugend-Verlag, Berlin 1928 = Arbeiter-Jugend 20 (1928), pp. 148–151 ( digitized from Scripta Paedagogica Online).
  23. ↑ See Willi Hofmann, Gustav Weber (ed.): Red youth on red earth. Memory book of the 5th Reich Youth Day and the first Reichszeltlager of the S. A. J. in the Teutoburger Walde . Arbeiterjugend-Verlag, Berlin 1929.
  24. ↑ Cf. Gerhard Eikenbusch : Social Democratic and Communist Children and Youth Theater in the Weimar Republic. Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1997, p. 116.