Thomas Liessem

Thomas Liessem (born September 9, 1900 in Cologne , † September 20, 1973 in Cologne ) was one of the most influential carnivalists and organizers of the Cologne carnival .

Professional background

Thomas Liessem was the son of a master carpenter. Before completing his apprenticeship as a confectioner, Thomas Liessem volunteered for the air force in 1917 during the First World War . After returning from captivity, he founded a liqueur factory in 1918, which he converted in 1919 into a commercial agency for well-known branded spirits and a beer wholesaler.

Beginning in the carnival

Thomas Liessem with company in front of the triumphal arch in Paris on January 8, 1941

He came into contact with the Cologne Carnival as early as January 7, 1923, when he drew attention to himself as a handcrafted speaker at an “appeal” by the Rote Funken . He was so impressed by the 100th anniversary show of the Rote Funken that he has since “completely fallen for the carnival. I became a Red Funk and had the heart to climb the Bütt. ”In 1925 he founded the“ Small Cologne Carnival Society ”, and on November 1, 1929 he was appointed President of the“ Accompanying Corps of His Tollity ”(today's Prinzengarde Cologne ).

Carnival in the time of National Socialism

In 1932 he joined the "National Socialist German Workers' Association" (carrier of the NSDAP ), between 1933 and 1935 he was also a member of the "SA Riding Corps". Liessem tried to counteract the recognizable appropriation of the Cologne Carnival by the National Socialists. On May 25, 1935, Liessem gathered the presidents of the most important Cologne carnival societies in Cologne's “Café Füllenbach” in order to obtain their approval for a 15-page paper he had produced. He suggested setting up a festival committee, which was accepted by a majority. On June 4, 1935, the Lord Mayor of Cologne announced that he had approved the establishment of the festival committee. This meant that the Cologne Carnival Association desired by the National Socialists and controlled by them . V. lapsed. With the consent of the Nazi Gauleiter Josef Grohé , a new festival committee of the Cologne Carnival was founded in June 1935, which Liessem took over as chairman and held it until 1939.

As early as the 1933/1934 session, open anti-Semitism was shown with a car moving under the motto “The last ones leave”. For the meetings Liessem issued the instruction that in the hand-made speeches “the leaders of today's official and municipal bodies ... must remain untouched”. After the war, Liessem counted among his merits that in 1933 the National Socialists prevented the regulation of the Cologne Carnival. However, historians today assume that Liessem and train conductor Carl Umbreit had worked closely with the National Socialist authorities since 1935, partly under pressure, but mostly out of conviction. In particular, there was cooperation with Gauleiter Grohé, who also had the last word in the motto. In the statutes of the festival committee of the Cologne Carnival of June 5, 1935 it was stipulated that the procession should be developed and carried out in close cooperation with the honorary committee for the Rose Monday procession, which included representatives of the municipal authorities, industry and culture. In joint meetings, the mayor or his representative were presented with the train's motto and the individual carriages. He had to approve it.

Liessem initiated the official inauguration of the Carnival Prince on February 20, 1936, the "Prinzenproklamation". Nazi greats were present here, but not allowed in uniform. In the last days of his life in August 1936, Willi Ostermann wrote down the text of the refrain Heimweh nach Köln with the first stanzas in the hospital and presented them to his friend Liessem, who completed the last stanza after Ostermann's death on August 6, 1936 on the basis of his notes. During the funeral, Liessem performed the chorus of the song for the first time at the open grave at the end of his obituary. The last song Heimweh nach Köln , written by Ostermann, appeared posthumously in 1936 together with Och, wat wor dat earlier beautiful en Colonia (Gloria GO 27405), the A-side sung by Liessem and the B-side by Ostermann.

Especially in the Carnival Monday procession in 1938 with the motto “Die Welt im Narrenspiegel”, Nazi foreign policy was not satirized , but supported by propaganda . Liessem could not prevent the break of tradition with the representation of a virgin by a man, because from 1938 women were recruited from the " German Labor Front " for this purpose . During the Nazi era, Liessem organized four parades (1936 to 1939). On November 9, 1939, the festival committee chaired by Liessem decided to stop all carnival activities due to the outbreak of war.

Liessem's resistance was not directed against the Nazi regime and its goals, not even against racist politics, but against the threat to the independence of the Cologne carnival societies and aimed at their own responsibility for the organization of the Cologne carnival and the Carnival Monday procession . The alleged " fool's revolt " therefore served more to maintain the power of the Cologne carnivalists. Liessem had formally managed to maintain self-administration for the Cologne Carnival, but in terms of content he adopted a party-conforming line.

After the war

In December 1947, the denazification office in Cologne imposed a two-year ban on speaking and appearing against Liessem, even if he had "essentially joined the party for business reasons". With that he had also lost his office as President of the Festival Committee. Liessem had testified to lawyer Hubert Lenz: “I am a member of 4 sports clubs and do not do any sports. I belong to three choral societies and can neither sing nor play. As a member of the NSDAP, why should I have become ... politically guilty? The only association to which I belong out of inner conviction and enthusiasm is the Cologne Prinzengarde. ”During the Nazi era, Liessem organized four parades (1936 to 1939) and then from 1949 to 1953. On February 28, 1949, the first Rose Monday procession after the war took place again through the streets of Cologne under the direction of Liessem. Referred to as an “extended cap ride”, Liessem put together 12 cars under the motto “Mer sin widder do un dunn wat mer künne” (We're back and doing what we can). In November 1949 he took over the sponsorship of Tommy Engel , whose father Richard "D'r Rickes" was a member of the Cologne dialect group De Vier Botze, which was active from 1933 .

In 1952 he became chairman of the “Cologne Carnival Citizens Committee” and in the same year introduced the term “à la suite” as a separate body part of the Prince's Guard for special sponsors. At the end of 1953 Liessem became president of the Bund Deutscher Karneval e. V. (BDK) after the founding of this umbrella association. In the main lecture he warned against a not grown, but artificially organized carnival. After the carnivalist Karl Küpper - who had been banned from appearing since January 1939 - in a hand-made speech on January 1, 1952 in the Sartory halls, among other things, targeted the requests for compensation from German expellees, Liessem, as chairman of the Cologne Carnival Citizens' Committee at the time, imposed a de facto ban on appearing against Küpper, in which his "derailments" were rejected and the member companies advised against engaging Küpper as a speaker.

In 1954 Liessem again took over the chairmanship of the festival committee and the presidency of the Prinzengarde. In the same year, Ferdi Leisten took over the position of train conductor. With the founding of the “Great Senate” in 1954, Liessem opened up an important source of money for the Cologne Carnival, sponsored by entrepreneurs and industrialists and led by Jan Brügelmann . In January 1957, President Liessem ensured that the “Festival Committee” returned to its original name “Festival Committee of the Cologne Carnival of 1823 e. V. "accepts.

Grave in the Melaten cemetery

As BDK president after the storm surge in Hamburg in 1962, Liessem had strictly refused to make a Germany-wide decision for or against the execution of the Rose Monday procession. In 1962, Liessem resigned from his position as President of the BDK, after which he remained its honorary chairman. He immortalized his memories in 1963 in the book Camels and Mimosas . In April 1963, he handed over the office of President of the Festival Committee to Ferdi Leisten. The office as President of the Prinzengarde 1906 e. V., which he had held since 1929, he gave up in May 1963. In 1968, Liessem - meanwhile without office - ensured that carnivalist Horst Muys was banned from appearing through the festival committee because he had presented shoddy jokes.

Liessem died just a few days after his 73rd birthday, leaving behind his wife Karoline and son Werner Liessem (1934–2015). He is said to have been a member of 30 carnival clubs during his lifetime. His grave is in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne (hall 35).

Works

Books

• Willi Ostermann. Life and work of the Rhenish folk song writer . Josef Höfer Cologne, 1936. 2nd, revised edition 1951. New edition (extended by notes) as: Willi Ostermann - A life for the happy song on the Rhine . Cologne: Willi Ostermann Verlag, 1958. ISBN 3-87252-232-9 .
• Koelsch Thiater . Cologne: Greven 1953.
• Camels and mimosas . Cologne: Dumont Schauberg 1966.

vinyl record

A-side homesickness for Cologne , 1936 (B-side: Willi Ostermann, Och wat wor dat earlier still en Colonia ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Fool boss with a deep brown vest . In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , May 6, 2013
2. ^ History from 1923 to 1947 . ( Memento of the original from April 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. The red sparks 
3. ↑ Carl Dietmar, Marcus Leifeld : Alaaf and Heil Hitler: Carnival in the Third Reich . December 2009, p. 80 ff.
4. ↑ Carnival in NS fools boss with deep brown vest In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , May 6, 2013.
5. ↑ Wolfgang Benz (Ed.): Handbuch des Antisemitismus , Volume 4. 2011, p. 222.
6. ↑ Heil Hitler and Alaaf . In: Der Spiegel . No. 9 , 1998, pp. 80 f . ( online ).
7. ↑ Thomas Liessem . In: Der Spiegel . No. 8 , 1958, pp. 47 ( online ).
8. ↑ Wolfgang Benz (Ed.): Handbuch des Antisemitismus , Volume 4. 2011, p. 222.
9. ^ Wilhelm Staffel: Willi Ostermann . 1976, p. 83.
10. ↑ Cologne Carnival under National Socialism
11. ↑ Who should pay for that? In: Der Spiegel . No. 1 , 1950, p. 8 ( online ).
12. ↑ Tommy Engel, Bernd Imgrund: Du bes Kölle , October 2012.
13. ^ Joseph Klersch: Volkstum und Volksleben in Köln , Volume 1, 1965, p. 150.
14. ↑ Fritz Bilz: Unadjusted and rebellious - The Cologne carnivalist Karl Küpper . 1st edition. 2010, pp. 106-107.
15. ↑ Carnival and Katzenjammer . In: Die Zeit , No. 10/1962
16. ^ Advertisement by Werner Liessem | We are sad. Retrieved April 22, 2020 .