Wilhelm Münker

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Honorary grave in Hilchenbach

Wilhelm Münker (born November 29, 1874 in Hilchenbach , † September 20, 1970 ) was a co-founder of the German Youth Hostel Association and an active conservationist .

Life

From 1903 to 1921 he was chairman of the SGV local group Hilchenbach. Together with Richard Schirrmann and Julius Schult , also high-ranking SGV association members, he founded the German Youth Hostel Association in 1909, primarily to support the association's own youth work. From 1900 onwards, he had already been instrumental in creating an accommodation network for hikers and youth groups in the Association of German Tourist Clubs. In 1918 he became head of the home and nature conservation committee of the SGV general association.

Another concern for him was the preservation of the homeland and its nature. In 1911 he bought an area to protect it at his own expense. SGV adopted this concept and has acquired over 300 hectares of forest to date in order to be able to put it under nature protection. In 1947 he was a co-founder of the German Forest Protection Association .

In 1944 he became the first honorary citizen of the city of Hilchenbach . In 1958 he founded the Wilhelm Münker Foundation for Health , Hiking , Nature Conservation and Homeland Care .

Münker was also head of the “Committee for the Rescue of the Deciduous Forest ”. It was thanks to him that he recognized the dangers of compaction with the resulting soil acidification and deterioration of the water balance very early on , and counteracted it by promoting the establishment of mixed deciduous forests . The youth hostel in Hilchenbach, the first "unofficial" youth hostel in Germany founded by Münker, bears his name.

In his book “Even more outdoor advertising? Nurturing the home or reducing public space ”(1st edition 1951, 3rd edition 1952) vigorously and in detail against the increasing advertising in shop windows, on billboards, on advertising pillars, in cinemas and against wild billboards.

The Wilhelm-Münker-Weg was created in his honor . The Wilhelm-Münker-Jugendhof is the official guest house of the SGV.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Paul Bohl (Ed.): 125 years of hiking and more: 125 - German Hiking Association ... we're celebrating: 125 years in motion! Edited on behalf of the Association of German Mountain and Hiking Clubs. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg, 2008, ISBN 978-3-86568-221-5 , p. 22f.
personal data
SURNAME Münker, Wilhelm
SHORT DESCRIPTION Co-founder of the German Youth Hostel Association and active conservationist
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Hilchenbach
DATE OF DEATH 20th September 1970