Heraldic Association "Zum Kleeblatt"
The heraldic association "Zum Kleeblatt" from 1888 zu Hannover eV is an association for the care of heraldry , i. H. of heraldry, heraldry and heraldry law .
Club history
founding
When interest in heraldry revived in the German Empire in the 19th century , Privy Councilor Friedrich Warnecke , who came from the Hanover / Hamelin area, tried to create an institution in Hanover that would deal with the forgotten heraldry, heraldry and should deal scientifically with the law of arms. However, Warnecke first went to Berlin and founded the heraldic association Herold there in 1869 . A group of heraldists remained in Hanover, who maintained contact with Warnecke and worked out the plan with him to also found a heraldic association in Hanover.
In 1888 the plan was finally implemented. With the support of Warnecke, the sculptor and heraldist Heinrich Ahrens and Hermann Grote , curator of the Royal Hanover Coin Cabinet, prepared the establishment of a heraldic working group. It was officially founded on December 4, 1888 by Ahrens and seven other heraldists or artisans and artists who were enthusiastic about history and art . The association "Zum Kleeblatt" is one of the "pioneers of organized friends of the coat of arms" ( Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung ). An annual foundation festival with numerous specialist lectures still reminds us of the day it was founded. After it was founded, the number of members rose rapidly and, in addition to Warnecke and Grote, Maximilian Gritzner , Adolf Matthias Hildebrandt and Hugo Gerard Ströhl also joined the association.
Development up to the Second World War
The response to the association was great. In the first year after it was founded, 79 cities asked for information about their coats of arms. The processing of the inquiries resulted in so much material that the chairman at the time prepared the publication of a register of coats of arms of the cities in the province of Hanover in 1891. Since 1890 the "Heraldische Mitteilungen" have been published by the association. Four years after it was founded, the association had 160 members. Specialist lectures were taken into account beyond the national borders. Crown Prince Ernst August , then Duke of Cumberland , and Prince Albrecht of Prussia , Regent of Braunschweig, loaned heraldic material for an exhibition in the Provincial Museum in 1898 .
The 25th anniversary was celebrated from February to March 1914 with a nationally noted heraldic exhibition in the hall of the Hanover Trade Association.
The First World War , inflation and the global economic crisis endangered the association, but in 1928 it again had many members. Since 1929, the publications were made in the Hanover history sheets . The continued work of the coat of arms brought increased activities and publications. As early as 1906, a splendid register had been created for the association, in which all the family crests of the members were to be included. Members could draw their coat of arms themselves or have them drawn in. While the Heraldic Association initially only created a coat of arms collection or a coat of arms for its members, membership was no longer required for the entry of a coat of arms in the Lower Saxony coat of arms .
With the abolition of heraldic offices as nobility authorities in the German federal states, the last state influence on the use of coat of arms and registration disappeared from 1918 to 1920. In Germany, family heraldry was now primarily maintained by the heraldic associations. Every citizen could have his or her traditional or newly adopted family coat of arms entered in the coats of arms, which were run by them independently of private pursuit of profit. In the countries influenced by German heraldry, however, there was never a central main coat of arms register , at least as far as civil coats of arms were concerned. The attempt made by some heraldists, presumably "recognizing the true interests of German heraldry" and in recognition of the primacy of a certain association and its coat of arms, to force almost all recognized heraldic associations and institutions to renounce their own coat of arms roles, was not enforceable . In Germany, for example, there are a number of coats of arms of more or less importance as well as countless commercial coat of arms institutions. In the last few decades a certain professional exchange between the professional associations (so "Herold" and "Zum Kleeblatt") and individual recognized, commercially active heraldry companies can be observed. The mutual endeavor to achieve good heraldry seems to be in the foreground.
Destruction of the library in World War II and reconstruction
During the Second World War , the extensive library of the Heraldic Association "Zum Kleeblatt" was destroyed together with the Hanover City Archives . In the post-war period, however, an extensive archive could be built up again. The connection between the city archive and the Heraldic Association, which has existed since Friedrich Leonhardt's term of office as 1st chairman of the association and at the same time director of the city archive in Hanover, continues, so that the non-profit association can still set up the heraldry archive owned by it in the city archive Hanover .
When the flag and coat of arms were to be created for the new state with the formation of the state of Lower Saxony , the heraldic design of the state coat of arms was assigned to the heraldist and club member Gustav Völker , whose design was accepted by the state. Many municipalities in northern Germany were provided with local coats of arms, drafts for the Lower Saxony flag and the flags of the other federal states were made. Since then, the association has been particularly concerned with family and communal heraldry throughout Germany. The venue was the Künstlerhaus in Hanover. The New Heraldic Messages (= yearbooks) were published. In 1984 the Kleeblatt also followed , an association magazine for heraldry and allied sciences that initially appeared quarterly and since 2006 it has been published twice a year.
The club celebrated its centenary in 1988 under its then 1st chairman and later honorary chairman Erhardt Haacke (1921–2011) with a large festive event in the town hall of Hanover with greetings from the state government , the state capital as well as many friendly heraldic and genealogical associations. Heraldic exhibitions and lectures in Hanover and Braunschweig followed .
today
Today the “Zum Kleeblatt” association operates nationwide and has members in Germany and abroad. The publications that appear regularly, such as the magazine, yearbook and website on the Internet, have a large readership. The association regularly organizes the lecture and training event Heraldik Pur as well as heraldic-historical excursions in Hanover .
The association has a reference library in Hanover (Calenberger Neustadt), which is open to interested parties every first Saturday of the month. Voluntary advice on the founder of the coat of arms also takes place here. However, the association does not conduct research on behalf of private individuals for old family coats of arms and genealogical sources. For this, reference is made to free heraldists. These usually work on a fee basis under private law and are focused on different coats of arms.
Naming
The name "Zum Kleeblatt" goes back to the heraldist Warnecke, who suggested the name soon after the foundation and in allusion to the Hanoverian city coat of arms, interpreted as a clover leaf. For reasons of tradition , this name has been retained until today.
coat of arms
For the 25th anniversary of its existence in 1913, the previous club coat of arms, which until then showed a green clover leaf on a golden background, was increased by a golden herald's staff in a red shield head, a helmet with a green, gold and red helmet bulge, green, gold and red and gold helmet covers as well a growing red lion with a golden herald's staff between its paws as a crest. The colors of the Heraldic Association have been green-gold-red since then.
Cooperation with the Herald and other institutions
Dealing with the so-called historical auxiliary sciences, genealogy , heraldry and sphragistics , requires transnational research and the study of the relevant literature abroad.
In German-speaking countries, the association maintains traditional contacts with the Heraldic-Genealogical Society of Adler in Vienna and the Swiss Heraldic Society .
In addition, the two old heraldic sister associations “Zum Kleeblatt” and “Herold” have been working more closely together again in recent years. After a discussion and the presentation of their associations at the German Genealogy Day 2005 in Hanover, the chairman of the Herold, Heinrich von Lersner , and the lawyer and heraldist Dieter Müller-Bruns agreed on another good cooperation for the association "Zum Kleeblatt". At the initiative of members, there was repeatedly an open exchange that was widely recognized in the professional world. The promotion of the good contacts between Berlin and Hanover was u. a. also continued by the publicist and heraldist Arnold Rabbow , board member and honorary member of the “Zum Kleeblatt” association, member of the Académie internationale d'héraldique and honorary member of the Herold.
Web links
- Heraldic Association "Zum Kleeblatt" from 1888 in Hanover
- Voluntary heraldry in the association “Zum Kleeblatt” - Wappenrecht: Wappenstiftung, management authorization and passing on
- Literature from and about the heraldic association "Zum Kleeblatt" in the catalog of the German National Library