Crous collection

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The Alte Kurhaus (here: former garden facade) houses the Crous Collection

The Crous Collection is an urban history collection in Aachen compiled by the collector Helmut A. Crous . It has been open to the public in the Alten Kurhaus in Aachen since 1996 .

history

The journalist and publicist Helmut A. Crous (1913–1993) began the collection in 1948. In 1993, the year of his death, the Aachen Carnival Association 1859 eV (AKV), of which Crous was honorary president, bought the collection.

Over the course of 45 years, Crous had compiled around 2000 printed matter, 370 watercolors , graphics and copperplate engravings on the history of Aachen. As a collector, he was guided by his philosophy of life: understanding the present from knowledge of the past and planning the future .

The holdings could be expanded considerably through donations of bequests and purchases. In addition to lithographs, watercolors and paintings, users now have around 5300 printed products , 700 original graphics and 4500 historical postcards at their disposal.

Library

An important part of the collection is the eight-page work Römischer Küniglicher maiestat chronung zu Ach haben from 1521. It is the first traditional press report and the oldest item in the collection. The text published in Augsburg describes Charles V's coronation in Aachen. On the title page the coat of arms of Charles V can be seen with the double-headed eagle on the chest. Other important writings are the Beeck'sche Stadtchronik Aqvisgranvm siue Historica Narratio, De Regiae SRI & Coronationis Regum Rom from 1620 , from 1640 the third edition of De bello Belgico with copperplate engravings in Antwerp , from 1772 the Miscellanea Borcetano- Aquisgranensia or collection of various the imperial Freye imperial city of Aachen with the rulership of Burtscheid credible documents, together with the addition of some peculiar legal practices that occurred at the last place in the common Weesen, three illustrated leather volumes from the 19th century on Rhineland's monuments of the Middle Ages and history of the Aachener Casino Club (1937). The scientific archive and reference library is divided into 43 subject groups and comprises around 5,000 publications.

Graphics

Watercolors , gouaches , drawings and prints are part of the graphic inventory comprising around 800 works, consisting of maps and 180 reproductions.

The graphic collection begins in 1492 with a woodcut showing one of the four Aachen sanctuaries, the Mary's Dress, above an Aachen city gate. A wood engraving of an Eifel map from 1544, an old colored etching of an Aachen city map from 1576, a lithograph of the Votive Church of St. Marien in Aachen made by the architect Vinzenz Statz in 1858, a xylography about the fire of Aachen by Carl- Maria Seyppel, drawn in 1881, as well as Leporellos from the carnival parades of the 19th and 20th centuries form this part of the collection.

painting

August Heinrigs provided the template for a romantic view of Aachen from Burtscheid, painted in oil on wood in 1842. Two watercolors by Joseph Carl Cogel from 1937 are also part of the painting, as are the 55 miniature panels of the German kings crowned in Aachen, of which 52 are a simplified version of the Kaisergalerie in Frankfurt's Römer ; the other three miniatures represent the emperors of the German Empire . The painting collection also includes the Jacques Königstein portrait by Wolf Ritz , the Crous portrait and the Georg Helg portrait.

Photographs

Almost 1,000 recordings were made by Hans Königs , some of them were taken before and around the turn of the century between 1880 and 1920, another section, e.g. Aachen buildings from 1942, for example, with Kaiserplatz and Jakobstrasse, which was destroyed in the war. Another important piece of the photography inventory is the photo album by the architect Eduard Conrads from around 1925 with insights into contemporary Aachen living culture.

AKV Collection Crous History Prize

Since 2012, the Crous Collection has been awarding the AKV Crous Collection History Prize annually for projects to research the history of the city of Aachen or the Euregio Meuse-Rhine.

The prize is advertised in three categories:

  • student
  • Private researcher
  • scientist

The submitted contributions, which can be freely selected with regard to era and topic, are scientifically assessed by the Historical Institute of RWTH Aachen University .

literature

  • Peter Stressig: From Aachen's past - rarities from the Crous collection . An exhibition in the Sparkasse Aachen, Zentrale Münsterplatz, in cooperation with the art antiquariat Collectors Cabinet, Aachen, from November 19 - December 10, 1993. Published by the Sparkasse Aachen, Emhart, Aachen 1993.
  • Marga van den Heuvel: Book inventory catalog 1. Manuscripts, documents, books, brochures, magazines and newspapers from 1521 to 2001 from the Crous Collection in Aachen. Vol. 1 . Edited by the Crous Collection, Verlag Mainz, Aachen 2001.
  • Marga van den Heuvel: painting of the 19th century / collection Crous Aachen . Mainz, Aachen 2002.
  • Marga van den Heuvel: watercolors, gouaches, drawings, graphics from 1492 to 2001 from the Aachen area and the border areas, as well as France, Italy and Croatia . Collection Crous, Aachen 2004.
  • Hans Königs, Michael Jaspers, Jutta Katsaitis-Schmitz: Looked Up - Aachen 1942 and 2007 . Edited by the Crous and AKV Collection, Aachen 2008.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Oldest text document in the Crous Collection .
  2. ↑ Kaisersaal in the Frankfurter Römer , in: Frankfurter Rundschau of January 5, 2012.
  3. ↑ Ludwina Forst: King's Way. In the footsteps of the first city curator, Hans Königs (1903–1988) . Thouet, Aachen 2008, ISBN 3-930594-33-1 .