Association for local history Schwelm
The Verein für Heimatkunde Schwelm eV was founded in Schwelm in 1890 and is one of the oldest homeland associations in Westphalia . According to the statutes, the purpose of the association is to disseminate knowledge of local history from the past and present. To this end, members of the association conduct research on local and regional issues and convey the results through publications, lectures, exhibitions and excursions. Since 1951, the association's own publications have included a regularly published annual volume with articles on a wide range of topics from history, culture and science. The association currently has around 340 members (2019).
history
The foundation of the Verein für Heimatkunde Schwelm (VfH) followed in 1890 on the 300th anniversary of the town of Schwelm. For the festive occasion, committed citizens had organized an “antiquity exhibition”, which met with great public interest and led to the idea of a local history museum to be established permanently. The VfH was founded on June 16, 1890, primarily with the aim of realizing this museum project. It was initially also known as the "Museum Association".
Co-founder and first chairman of the association was high school teacher Dr. Wilhelm Tobien (1837-1911). Coming from the Königsberg area, Tobien came to Schwelm as a teacher in 1869 and, among other things, took care of the establishment of a public library (1872) and an educational association (1874). From 1887 onwards, he laid the foundation for the Schwelms town archive through a professional evaluation of an attic find in the town hall. Tobien became known far beyond the city as a historian, author and educational politician. Schwelm made him an honorary citizen in 1891.
The founding of the Association for Local Lore in Schwelm was part of the new “ home movement ” in Germany. Appeared towards the end of the 19th century, it presented itself as a counter-reaction to the dawn of the industrial age with its perceived excesses of uprooting, materialism , belief in progress and the destruction of nature. The supposed cultural decay, above all, educated middle-class circles wished to counteract the idea of proven ideals from the Enlightenment period a. The theme of reflection, preservation and preservation found itself materialized in the idea of home. Similar homeland associations were founded in many places, including the Schwelmer Verein as one of the earliest of its kind in Westphalia.In Schwelm, a sense of home and awareness of local and regional history had been particularly pronounced since the 18th century and the much-respected homeland research of the resident Friedrich Christoph Müller .
The VfH became one of the city's clubs with the largest number of members. Above all, merchants, manufacturers, teachers, pastors, doctors and pharmacists anchored the association in the educated middle class. The main concern of the association was initially the museum project, which received tremendous support in the form of objects from private property, including furniture, household items, documents, books, weapons and coins. The steadily growing collection put the association in need of having to provide temporary accommodation in private houses, hotels, school buildings, attics and back rooms due to the lack of its own premises. Politics and administration of the city commented on the association's concern as a pastime of "some gentlemen" with "old junk" and, despite good economic circumstances, were unwilling to set up a permanent home for the planned museum. The struggle for a place to stay was to continue for decades and be the focus of the association's work. In 1909 a permanent exhibition room in an official building of the city could be moved into for the first time. It had to be returned a few years later.
The First World War with its outcome of defeat and humiliation led to a renewed upswing in the idea of home in Germany. Support and identity can be found in what has been handed down and proven. During this time, the VfH became a member of the newly formed Westphalian Heimatbund , from now on using the advantages of a large and structured network of equal efforts. Monument protection and nature and landscape protection also increasingly found their way into this .
From 1923 and for a quarter of a century, Dr. Emil Böhmer (1884–1966) chaired the association. Born in Elberfeld, he was a high school teacher and since 1913 head of the city archive in Schwelm. Böhmer carried out research and publication for the association with great intensity and built on the high standard of content that Tobien once established. He made his own name as well as that of the VfH known far beyond the city limits. Böhmer worked as managing director of the Westphalian Heimatbund from 1946 to 1956, among other things, with offices and honorary posts in the local history area of the city and region. In 1954 he became an honorary citizen of Schwelm.
The association's “Annual Gifts” series, an annual collection of articles on the latest research in local history, printed in booklet or book form, goes back to Boehmer's initiative. The series initially appeared in five episodes from 1934 to 1938, after a war-related interruption again from 1951. Since then it has been regularly reissued under the title “Contributions to the local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings” , in 2019 in the 68th episode. The high demands in terms of content and the wide range of topics make the series the figurehead of the association and ensure that it is also related to universities, museums, institutes, libraries and archives. Club members receive the annual gift free of charge.
During Böhmer's time, the association's own museum was also upgraded, which from 1923 found a new and spacious home in the attic of a Schwelm school building on Potthoffstrasse. The abundance of collected folklore objects, here artfully arranged in a series of thematic “rooms”, gave the Schwelmer Museum the reputation of being one of the best in Westphalia. In the new location, too, vermin and climatic rigors threatened the population, so that the fight for premises continued. In 1937 the museum moved into its own building in Schulstrasse, together with the city archive and the local library. In the following year, the association gave the museum to the city of Schwelm for cost reasons, but remained the ideal sponsor. The museum and archive survived the Second World War and a bombing of Schwelm unscathed.
In the aftermath of the war, the concept of home took on a negative character and was associated with a backward and provincial sentiment. Nonetheless, Böhmer succeeded in getting the association's work going again from 1947 with lectures, excursions and publications. His successor as chairman of the association was Prof. Dr. Wilhelm von Kürten, who put his own focus on topics of geography and cultural landscape . The number of members of the association began to develop positively from 1950 and doubled to over 500 members by the end of the century.
In 1962, the museum moved into spacious and stylish accommodation in the old knight's house Martfeld . Gerd Helbeck worked here in the 1980s and 1990s as director of the museum and city archive, and also as the association's chairman. Helbeck continued research and publication for the association at the high level of Tobiens and Boehmer. His own 700-page main work on city history ( "Schwelm - History of a City and its Surrounding Area " ) was published by the VfH in 1995 and is one of the standard works by Friedrich Christoph Müller ( "Choragraphie von Schwelm" , 1789), Peter Heinrich Holthaus ( “Church and School History of Schwelm” , 1831), Tobien ( “Pictures from the History of Schwelm” , 1890) and Böhmer ( “History of the City of Schwelm” , 1950).
The main focus of the association's work is research by active association members as well as the publication of the results via printed works, lectures, guided tours, excursions and hikes. In addition, the association maintains a historical library with around 2500 volumes in Haus Martfeld. The board of the association consists of the 1st and 2nd chairman, secretary and treasurer, plus an advisory board with around 10 members. In 2002, the association's office moved from Haus Martfeld to Haus Hauptstrasse 10.
Publications of the association
Periodicals
- "Annual gift of the Association for Local Lore Schwelm", 5 issues 1934–1938 (Ed. Dr. Emil Böhmer)
- "Contributions to the local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings / New Series", published annually since 1951 (2019: serial no. 68)
- "Martfeld-Kurier", published irregularly since 1987 as small-format printed matter, printed in large numbers and given free of charge
Special publications (selection)
- Gerd Helbeck: Museum Haus Martfeld Schwelm - Catalog . 1985 (Published as issue 35 in the series "Contributions to the local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings")
- Gerd Helbeck: Jews in Schwelm. History of a minority from the beginnings in the 17th century to National Socialism . Schwelm, 1988 (134 pages)
- Gerd Helbeck: Schwelm. History of a city and its surrounding area, volume 1: From the beginnings in the Middle Ages to the collapse of the old Prussian rule (1806) . 1995 (688 pages)
- Lutz Koch , Markus Sachse, Stefan Voigt : Learning through stones and plants. The Zuckerberg in Ennepetal as an extracurricular learning location . Articles on local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings, 1st special issue, 2007 (116 pages)
- Günther Voigt: Schwelm - Views of a City through the Decades . 1987 (128 pages)
Association chairman since 1890
| 1st chairperson | 2nd chairman | ||
| Dr. Wilhelm Tobien | 1890-1904 | Wilhelm Sternenberg | 1890-1904 |
| Wilhelm Sternenberg | 1905-1920 | Benedikt Mertensmeyer | 1905-1908 |
| Dr. Max Hasenclever | 1920-1925 | Prof. Dr. Heinrich Jurging | 1909-1910 |
| Dr. Emil Böhmer | 1923-1950 | Ernst Zimmermann | 1911-1923 |
| Dr. Wilhelm von Kürten | 1950-1966 | Ferdinand Möller | 1924-1928 |
| Kurt Wollmerstädt | 1966-1980 | Hermann Wollmerstädt | 1928-1935 |
| Gerd Helbeck | 1980-1983 | Dr. Albano Müller | 1935-1945 |
| Dieter Wiethege | 1983-1989 | (vacant 1945–1948) | |
| Günther Voigt | 1989-1992 | Dr. Albano Müller | 1948-1954 |
| Gerd Helbeck | 1992-1996 | (vacant 1954–1960) | |
| Dr. Burkhard Dietz | 1996-1998 | Helmut Fey | 1960-1963 |
| Anne Peter | 1999– | Kurt Wollmerstädt | 1963-1967 |
| Karl Albert Siepmann | 1967-1973 | ||
| Gerd Helbeck | 1974-1980 | ||
| Dieter Wiethege | 1980-1983 | ||
| Gerd Helbeck | 1983-1992 | ||
| Dieter Wiethege | 1992-1994 | ||
| Anne Peter | 1994-1999 |
swell
- Gerd Helbeck: 1890 to 1990: One hundred years of the Schwelm Local History Association. History of a local society and its museum . In: Contributions to the local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings, issue 40, 1990. pp. 8–83
- Dieter Wiethege: The foundation of the association for local history Schwelm in 1890. In: Contributions to local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings, issue 30, 1980. pp. 5–20
- Kurt Wollmerstädt: 75 years of the Schwelm Local History Association . In: Contributions to the local history of the city of Schwelm and its surroundings, issue 15, 1965. pp. 18–32
Web links
- Homepage of the VfH
- Historical library of the VfH in Haus Martfeld (web portal of the city of Schwelm)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wollmerstädt p. 20
- ^ Karl Ditt: From the Heimatverein to the Heimatbewegung. Westphalia 1875–1915 . In: Westfälische Forschungen 39/1989, pp. 235–236. Quoted from Helbeck p. 65
- ↑ Helbeck pp. 28-29
- ↑ cf. Homepage of the association
- ↑ Association for local history presents a variety of activities . In: Westfalenpost (Schwelm) June 6, 2018, accessed May 22, 2020