City archive of Solingen

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The city archive in Solingen on Gasstrasse

The Solingen city archive was founded in 1926. After it was in the former Gräfrath Monastery (today the location of the German Blade Museum ) from 1940 to 1987 , it has since been housed in the former company building of the Stadtwerke in Solingen in the Höhscheid district.

history

Since the city of Solingen was granted city rights in 1374, the city's most important documents have been stored in the "jury box", to which only jury members had the keys. Due to the political reorganization under Napoleon at the beginning of the 19th century, the legal documents - files and documents - lost their official significance. A part was disposed of, other stocks were stored in a disorderly manner in the granary or in the basement of the Solingen town hall. The technical school for the Solingen steel goods industry , founded in 1904 , which was interested in maintaining the tradition of the cutlery industry and where there was more understanding of the city's historical heritage, finally took up the documents in its rooms. In 1909 the private scholar Henrich Kelleter (1853–1928) was commissioned to sort and inventory the documents.

From 1926, the historical documents were housed in the city ​​library that was opened in the same year . Georg Kemp (1891–1928) became the first full-time director of the library and was supposed to start building an archive, but had a fatal accident in 1928 on a mountain excursion. Through the merger of Solingen with Gräfrath , Höhscheid , Ohligs and Wald in 1929, the number of documents to be managed increased, at the same time the global economic crisis ended further expansion due to a lack of funds.

In 1937 the city council decided to appoint a full-time city archivist and to store the files and documents centrally. For this purpose the former main building of the company Weyersberg, Kirschbaum & Cie. (WKC) rented. Richard Erntges (1890–1968) was commissioned to set up the archive. Although he had no professional qualifications, he mastered this task “brilliantly” within two years with the help of so-called “ welfare workers ”. At the turn of the year 1940/41 the archive moved to the former Gräfrath monastery ; Some of the documents had to be housed in air raid shelters during the Second World War .

In 1946 a retirement home was set up in the monastery building , and the archive rooms were relocated to non-heatable rooms in the monastery; heating was not installed there until 1950. Martin Schäfer (1890–1982) was head of the archive and the city library until 1954, under whose successor Kurt Hartwig (1900–1962) the archive and local history department of the library were merged. The three directors of the archive who followed him were not trained archivists, but officials from the administration. From 1953 to 1970 the sculptor Lies Ketterer worked part-time in the archive. It was not until 1974 that Aline Poensgen (* 1940) became a designated archivist for the first time, and she held this post until 2003 as head of the “City of Memory”. Before she took office, the archive's premises were so cramped that historically valuable documents were repeatedly destroyed due to lack of space.

In 1987 the city archives moved from the Gräfrath monastery to the former operating building of the Solingen public utility in the Höhscheid district to make room for the German Blade Museum . As a result, the previous space could be doubled (1600 square meters). During the move, three kilometers of shelves of archival materials were transported, which in the new domicile had doubled in length by 2012. The archive has been headed by Ralf Rogge (* 1958) since 2003; it has around 20 employees (as of 2018).

Stocks

Archives holdings

The archive holdings consist of several departments. The historical archive includes documents from the city of Solingen from 1493 to 1858, the archive of “Freiheit Gräfrath” (1642 to 1879) and documents from trade and commerce (1640 to 1927). In the holdings of “urban provenance ” (from 1808) there are also documents from the earlier independent towns and communities such as Burg an der Wupper , Dorp , Höhscheid, Ohligs and Wald . The bequests include documents from Friedrich Hermann de Leuw , Carl Friedrich Goerdeler , Ludwig Czimatis , Emil Kronenberg , Walther Schulte vom Brühl and Ernst Martin Walsken .

Library

In 1954 the archive took over the entire local history department of the city library, comprising more than 6,000 volumes. Since 1926, the book holdings and acquisitions of the Solingen department of the Bergisches Geschichtsverein (founded in 1925) have been integrated into the local history library. The library is constantly being expanded and supplemented through purchases (new publications and antiquarian books), barter, donations (e.g. from Zwilling JA Henckels ), from bequests and from schools, especially the technical college for metal design founded in 1902.

With a total inventory of around 65,000 volumes, the library comprises 220 titles that were published before 1800. Around 2100 volumes come from the 19th century, mainly local and regional journals and series as well as periodical reports with around 80 titles and 800 volumes.

Image archive

The stock of the picture archive consists of around 230,000 images of the city history of Solingen and its inhabitants.

Goldberg parlor

On September 11, 1955, Homeland Day , the city of Solingen took over the sponsorship of the Silesian district of Goldberg . The city of Solingen undertook to create a location in the city archive for the Goldberger archive material and memorabilia collection. The collection in the "Goldberg-Stube" is regularly enlarged through loans and donations.

Exhibitions

  • 2011: stumbling blocks
  • 2018: women 68

Head of the Archives

  • Georg Kemp (1926–1928)
  • Richard Erntges (1937–1945)
  • Martin Schäfer (1948–1954)
  • Kurt Hartwig (1955–1962)
  • Hans Brangs (1962–1964)
  • Louis Scherr (1964–1969)
  • Heinz Löbbers (1969–1974)
  • Aline Poensgen (1974-2003)
  • Ralf Rogge (2003-)

literature

  • City library Solingen (Ed.): State and city history. A directory of books from the local history department . Solingen 1952.
  • Peter Elsner: Periodicals in the Solingen city archive. An inventory . Solingen 1985.
  • Peter Elsner: Solingen Bibliography. Literature about Solingen in the city archive . Solingen 1986.

Publications as editor or publisher (selection)

  • Dagmar Thiemler: Newspapers in the Solingen city archive. An inventory / . City Archives Solingen, Solingen 1984.
  • Johannes Motz: Solingen in the 1st World War. Documentation / . Ed .: Bergischer Geschichtsverein, Dept. Solingen. City Archives Solingen, Solingen 1984.
  • Jochem Putsch: From craft to factory. A reading u. Workbook on industrial history in Solingen . Solingen City Archives, Solingen 1985.
  • Ralf Stremmel: Political Posters 1870–1960. From the holdings of the Solingen City Archives . City archive Solingen, Solingen 1992, ISBN 978-3-928956-00-0 .
  • Paul Meuter / Ralf Rogge: Memoirs of a Solingen communist / Paul Meuter . City Archives Solingen, Solingen 1992.
  • Wilhelm Bramann: Coppel. History of a Jewish family in Solingen 1770–1942 . City archive Solingen, Solingen 1994, ISBN 978-3-928956-05-5 .
  • Ralf Rogge / Karl Theodor Haanen: Solingen in the hail of bombs. November 4th and 5th, 1944 . Wartberg, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2004, ISBN 978-3-8313-1282-5 .
  • Ralf Rogge / Armin Schulte / Kerstin Warncke: Solingen. Big city years 1929-2004 . Wartberg, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2004, ISBN 978-3-8313-1459-1 .
  • Ursula Kosinski: Motorization in Solingen 1900–1945. From automobiles, motorcycles and racing drivers . City archive Solingen, Solingen 2005, ISBN 978-3-928956-14-7 .
  • Ursula Kosinski: Motorsport 1945-2005. From Solingen automobile clubs and motor sports enthusiasts on two and four wheels . City archive Solingen, Solingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-928956-16-1 .
  • Jörg Becker (Ed.): Kino, Heimat, Solingen. About the heyday of cinema . City archive Solingen, Solingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-928956-18-5 .
  • Row: anchor and sword. From the past and present of the city of Solingen . Duisburg. From 1959.
  • Series: Obligation Protocols of the Court for the Office of Solingen . Solingen. As of 2011.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e 75 years city archive. (PDF) In: City of Solingen. Retrieved June 15, 2018 . (pdf)
  2. ↑ read ketterer (1905–1976). (PDF) In: soroptimist-solingen.de. Retrieved December 15, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Fred Lothar Melchior: My Solingen: "I prefer to stick to the old limits". In: rp-online.de. July 29, 2018, accessed November 1, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b Handbook of the historical book collections in Germany, Austria and Europe (Fabian Handbook): Stadtarchiv (Solingen). In: fabian.sub.uni-goettingen.de. Retrieved October 31, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Holdings: Image archive (Stadtarchiv / Solingen). In: fotoerbe.de. Retrieved November 1, 2018 .
  6. ^ Goldberg room. In: bkge.de. Retrieved October 31, 2018 .