Bremerhaven City Archives
The Bremerhaven City Archive is the administrative archive of the city of Bremerhaven in the state of Bremen . It preserves the records of Bremerhaven and its predecessor communities as well as non-governmental collections. With around 4.8 kilometers of archive material, it is one of the larger municipal archives in northern Germany.
history
The history of the Bremerhaven City Archives goes back to 1926. Two years earlier, the Prussian Lower Weser cities had been united to form the city of Wesermünde, which from then on enclosed Bremerhaven, which was part of Bremen. The files of the Prussian cities of Lehe and Geestemünde (with Geestendorf and Wulsdorf ) were collected in the new Wesermünder city archive. Hans Kischnick from Altona was appointed as the first archivist. One of his central tasks was the viewing and recording of the files delivered. After the archive was initially housed in the Geestemünde town hall, it was moved to the cellar of the Sparkasse Wesermünde-Geestemünde together with the city library in 1926.
In 1936 the move to the ground floor of the Ibbrigheim , a dormitory for single fish workers and later also for female forced laborers. With the incorporation of Bremerhaven in Bremen and the takeover of the city files, the capacity limit of the location was reached. The city archives found a new home in the Uhland School in Wesermünde-Lehe. During the Second World War , most of the stocks were stored in a disused ring kiln at the Achgelius brickworks in Sandstedt, where they survived the war unscathed. The files of the old district of Wesermünde burned during the air raid on the city on September 18, 1944 in the Geestemünde district office. Archive director Hans Kischnick, NSDAP member from 1933 to 1944, was classified as a fellow traveler in the course of denazification , condemned to a small atonement and later even classified as exonerated. For health reasons, Kischnick did not return to his post.
In 1949 the city archives moved into new premises in the basement of town house 1 on the premises of the Bremerhaven municipal authorities. In the same year, Karl Eikmeier was appointed as the new archive director. He was followed in 1955 by Wilhelm Stölting. The folklorist with a doctorate had held a post in the NSDAP as local group leader and district administrator and was unable to find employment in the post-war period due to his political stress. With the activity as archive director he returned to science. In his only two-year term in office, he published a large number of writings and was speechwriter for Lord Mayor Hermann Gullasch. From 1957 to 1965 the city archives were under the direction of August Meyer, who had previously headed the city youth welfare office from 1925 to 1945 and who was initially unemployed in the course of the denazification.
A new era in the development of the city archives began when Dr. Burchard Scheper in 1965. Under his leadership, the archive's urban history initiatives were massively expanded. In 1968 Scheper initiated the city archive's lecture series. In 1974 the first volume of a separate series was published. Scheper sought cooperation with the Free University of Berlin and the newly founded University of Bremen. For the 150th anniversary of Bremerhaven in 1977, after 14 years of work, his “Younger History of the City of Bremerhaven” was published. The book is still regarded as a standard work on urban history today. Archival pedagogy was also promoted under Scheper's direction. As a result of his initiative, the Bremerhaven City Archive was the first German municipal archive to receive an archive pedagogical position.
On the 60th anniversary of its existence, the Bremerhaven City Archives moved into their current premises in City Hall 5 of the Bremerhaven city administration. Hartmut Bickelmann headed the archive from 1991 to 2013 . He carried on the scientific work of his predecessor and, above all, expanded public relations. Historical city tours have been offered regularly since 1993. In addition, working groups for interested citizens have been set up.
The city archive has been under the direction of historian and archivist Julia Kahleyß since 2013. Through cooperation with public and private bodies, including the state center for political education Bremen, the Volkshochschule Bremerhaven or the Heimatbund der Männer vom Morgenstern, the social opening and networking was further expanded. Another focus of the work is the entry into the archiving of electronic documents.
Archive inventory
The holdings of the Bremerhaven City Archives comprise around 4,800 linear meters of files. They are divided into urban and non-urban documents.
Selected holdings from older times include documents and official books of the Lehe office. Urban documents of the predecessor communities up to 1945 include the registry of Alt-Bremerhaven and Wesermünde. Files of the city council and the magistrate form the modern city tradition. The non-urban collections include higher-level government documents as well as personal papers and private archives. The collections, which u. a. include an image archive, maps and plans, posters and newspaper clippings.
The Bremerhaven City Archives have a scientific regional library that can be used for research purposes.
Activities and publications
Since 1968, the Bremerhaven City Archives have regularly organized lectures on urban, regional and general historical topics. In 1973, the archive's first publication appeared with a bibliography on the city's history. In the "Publications of the Bremerhaven City Archives" and in the "Small Fonts of the Bremerhaven City Archives", 24 and 14 volumes respectively have appeared since then.
Historical city tours on various key topics have been taking place regularly since 1993. Interested recreational researchers and volunteer city chroniclers come together for regular working meetings. Several times a year there are courses on reading and writing historical writings as well as workshops on urban history topics, e.g. B. on Bremerhaven women's history offered.
Internships and themed tours are offered for schoolchildren.
The Bremerhaven City Archive participates annually in the projects for the Bremerhaven City History Day and is represented on the jury for the Federal President's history competition.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ History of the City Archives - Bremerhaven.de. May 28, 2014, accessed February 4, 2019 .
- ↑ Inventory overview - Bremerhaven.de. July 31, 2014, accessed February 4, 2019 .
- ^ Archive pedagogy - Bremerhaven.de. May 28, 2014, accessed February 4, 2019 .