Central Cathedral Building Association in Cologne

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Central Cathedral Building Association of Cologne from 1842
(ZDV)
legal form Old legal association
founding 1842
Seat Cologne
purpose Promotion and maintenance of Cologne Cathedral
Chair Michael Kreuzberg
Members approx.17,500 (June 2018)
Website zdv.de
For new members: Pin Cologne Cathedral of the ZDV

The Zentral-Dombau-Verein zu Köln from 1842 , or ZDV for short , is a non-profit association for the promotion and maintenance of Cologne Cathedral . His motto is ... so that the cathedral stays with us! The 14th President has been Michael Kreuzberg since October 10, 2018.

task

The main task of the Zentral-Dombau-Verein zu Köln is to maintain and promote the Cologne Cathedral, one of the most important Gothic cathedrals in the world. The maintenance costs of the Cologne Cathedral amounted to around 10 million euros annually in recent years . The association bears an average of more than 60% of these costs; state and church pay for the rest. Today the ZDV has more than 17,500 members from all over the world, about half from Cologne - the rest is spread all over the world. The ZDV is non-partisan, non-denominational and independent. On November 11, 2017, on the 175th anniversary of its existence, the association welcomed its 17,000 members.

story

On September 3, 1840, several citizens of Cologne submitted a petition to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV to obtain permission to found an association to promote cathedral construction in Cologne. On November 23, 1840, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV gave his permission and at the same time promised to support the association with 10,000 thalers a year. The best-known names among the initiators were Sibylle Mertens-Schaaffhausen , Sulpiz Boisserée , Joseph Görres , Jean Marie Farina and August Reichensperger .

In January 1841, preparations began to found an association. Over a hundred friends of the cathedral met in Cologne's town hall and elected a preparatory committee. Five members were then appointed from this preparatory committee to draw up the association's statutes. On December 8, 1841, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV approved the statutes of the cathedral building association to be founded in Cologne by means of the “highest cabinet order”. Paragraph 1 of the ZDV statute, His Majesty Friedrich Wilhelm IV., King of Prussia: “Under the name Dombau-Verein an association is formed in Cologne, which has the purpose of providing monetary contributions and in every other appropriate way for the worthy To actively participate in the preservation and expansion of the catholic cathedral cathedral in Cologne according to the original plan. "

At the beginning of the next year, on January 15, 1842, there was a constituent meeting of the provisional committee, which decided to give every cathedral fan the opportunity to sign up for the election lists by February 9. Heinrich von Wittgenstein became the first president of the new Central Cathedral Building Association in Cologne from 1842 . Jacob Josef Nelles was appointed as a non-honorary financial administrator . In addition to the elected members of the board, the association's statutes also provide for born members, including the incumbent Cologne mayor , the incumbent Cologne cathedral builder , the incumbent archbishop of Cologne and the incumbent Cologne cathedral provost .

In December 1851 the idea of ​​a cathedral building lottery was discussed in the board for the first time. On February 8, 1852, the project was finally rejected with 23 to 10 votes, because it was feared that a lottery would look too much of ignoble motifs .

When the cathedral master builder Ernst Friedrich Zwirner died on December 22nd, 1861 , the Cologne Cathedral Gazette , the association journal of the cathedral building association, appeared with a black border on the front page, an honor that apart from Zwirner, only King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, who had died the previous year, had received.

On June 14, 1864, the board finally approved the establishment of a cathedral building lottery, which the board saw as an additional source of income. On September 4, 1865, the first drawing of the cathedral building lottery took place. The cathedral building association now raised 90,000 to 170,000 thalers annually for the cathedral construction. From 1842 to 1880 the ZDV contributed around 6.5 million thalers (equivalent to 20 million gold marks and, according to today's value, around 1.1 billion euros [2004]) to finance the cathedral building, making up around 75 percent of the total construction cost this construction period.

At the request of the Dombauverein, Kaiser Wilhelm I gave 22 captured French cannons to the Dombauverein on March 21, 1872, in order to cast a bell for the cathedral. In 1873 the first attempt to cast the imperial bell was made . The result was not satisfactory and a second casting attempt was made that same year. Only the third casting on October 3, 1874 brought a satisfactory result.

The last stone on the south tower of Cologne Cathedral was completed on September 14, 1880. The cathedral building association had planned August 15, 1880, in view of the day the foundation stone was laid on August 15, 1248, as the day of the completion ceremony. However, the emperor let this date pass and instead set October 15, 1880, the birthday of his brother Friedrich Wilhelm IV., As the day of the completion ceremony, by means of a cabinet order.

The celebration of the completion of Cologne Cathedral took place on October 15, 1880 in the presence of the imperial couple and almost all German princes. The Archbishop of Cologne Paulus Melchers and the Cologne Cathedral Chapter were not present .

In January 1902, cathedral builder Richard Voigtel prematurely stated that the cathedral would not need any restoration for the next 100 years and that the annual cost would hardly exceed 13,000 marks. But already on October 16, 1903, cathedral master builder Bernhard Hertel submitted an expert opinion that highlighted the dangerous weather damage to Cologne Cathedral. So it happened that on May 20, 1906, after a high mass in Cologne Cathedral, a large, heavy chunk of stone fell in front of the main portal of the cathedral and barely missed the people leaving the cathedral. Only now did the public become aware of the cathedral builder's warnings and the first restoration work began.

On the night of May 31, 1942, the cathedral was hit by fire bombs. The Cologne Dombauhütte , with the founding banner of the Zentral-Dombau-Verein from 1842 stored there, burned down to the foundation walls.

The legal basis of the Zentral-Dombau-Verein zu Köln is the cabinet order of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, which is still valid today, so the association is not entered in the register of associations and is therefore one of the so-called " old law associations ".

In 2012 the ZDV made € 3.78 million available for the maintenance of Cologne Cathedral. This is around 58% of the total cost of the cathedral construction works of € 6.5 million; In 2016 it was 3.8 million euros.

literature

  • Magazine: Kölner Domblatt . Yearbook of the Zentral-Dombau-Verein (82nd episode appeared in 2017)
  • Klaus Hardering: The founding of the Central Cathedral Building Association in Cologne 1840/42.
  • Kathrin Pilger: The Cologne Central Cathedral Building Association in the 19th century. Constitution of the bourgeoisie through formal organization. Cologne 2004. sh-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-89498-118-1 .
  • Wolfgang Cortjaens, Jan De Maeyer, Tom Verschaffel (eds.): Historicism and cultural identity in the Rhine-Maas area. The 19th century in the field of tension between nationalism and regionalism. Leuven University Press, 2008.
  • Carolin Wirtz: "That the whole area around the cathedral should be given a worthy design". The Central Cathedral Building Association and the uncovering of Cologne Cathedral (1882–1902) (= research on Cologne Cathedral, Volume 2). Cologne Cathedral Publishing House, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-922442-64-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Markus Frädrich: 17,500 members support the cathedral. We welcome the 17,500th member! , accessed October 5, 2018.
  2. ↑ Michael Kreuzberg. Zentral-Dombau-Verein, accessed on October 11, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Homepage Kölner Dom News from November 10 , 2017 : Zentral-Dombau-Verein reaches 17,000 members , accessed on October 5, 2017.

Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 30.3 "  N , 6 ° 57 ′ 16.2"  E