In the estate of Bonn photographer Franz Fischer, a painted art postcard by the artist from 1985 has turned up among countless photographs of the painter Martin Noël and his work.

It is addressed to Franz Fischer and contains thanks for photos, possibly from a recent visit by the Bonn Kunstverein to his studio.

Martin Noël chose a painting by Francis Bacon "Portrait of Isabel Rawthorne in a Soho Street. 1967", which is in the Berlin National Gallery, as his model. Noël took over the contours of the female figure in the Bacon painting and painted over them in black felt-tip pen, while the other original elements of the picture have been rendered unrecognizable by black amorphous overpainting. In the top left corner of the postcard, as was often the case at this time, there are four rows of stars or crosses. The overpainting of the Bacon painting with felt-tip pen belongs to the early phase of his work, when Noël was still experimenting with painting and working figuratively, before turning to woodcuts and abstraction from the end of the 1980s.

The fact that Noël chose a portrait by Bacon of all people is probably due to his admiration for this painter, whom he held in high esteem alongside the old masters Rembrandt and Goya and the master of abstraction Otto Freundlich, as he admitted in an interview.

The small format of the postcard as an image carrier can often be found in his early works, for example in his first exhibition in the electoral gardener's house in 1984, in his contribution to the exhibition "Mythos Beethoven" in 1986 in the Galerie Hennemann or in the overpainting of a postcard showing August Macke's "Rhein bei Hersel".

In addition to the painting, the inscription on the back of the postcard is interesting:

MARTIN NOËL (1956 - ) UNTITLED 1985

The name of the painter, Francis Bacon, as well as the title and date of the original painting are crossed out.

To the right above the exhibition location ("Nationalgalerie Berlin") are the words "Hopefully soon", a testimony to the pronounced self-confidence of the then 29-year-old artist.

In fact, he received a scholarship from the city of Bonn in the same year, the Max Ernst Scholarship from the city of Brühl in 1987 and the City of Bonn Art Prize in 1992. A first exhibition in 1984 at the Kurfürstliches Gärtnerhaus was followed by presentations in the renowned Hennemann and Erhard Klein galleries, as well as in Germany and abroad, most recently in 2020 on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his death a major exhibition at the Bonn Art Museum "paint, print, paint" and finally since December 2021 "Martin Noël - Essentials" at the Albertina in Vienna, certainly a highlight in the public perception of the Bonn painter.

His self-assessment has therefore proven to be quite correct, even if his early death brought his work to an abrupt end.

Franz Fischer accompanied the painter photographically from his first public appearance until shortly before his early death. As early as 1985, he documented the visit of the Bonn Kunstverein to Noël's studio, photographed the award ceremony of the Max Ernst Scholarship in Brühl, including the installation of the associated exhibition, and the painterly design of the facade of the Windeck bunker in 1988. Numerous photographs of further exhibitions followed, especially in the Bonn area, up to Noël's installation in the church of St. Hildegard in 2006.

The world-famous astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm August Argelander was born on March 22, 1799 in the then East Prussian port city of Memel - now Klaipėda in Lithuania. He lived in Bonn from 1836 and died here on February 17, 1875; he was buried in the Old Cemetery.

Argelander began studying at the University of Königsberg in 1817, where he initially studied cameral science. Inspired by the lectures of F.W. Bessel, one of the most important astronomers of the 19th century, he soon turned his attention to astronomy. After completing his doctorate, Argelander took over the management of the observatory in Turku, Finland, in 1823 and was appointed full professor at the newly established University of Helsinki just five years later. Finally, in 1836, he accepted an appointment at the University of Bonn. Building on the astronomical research at the University of Bonn, which began here immediately after the university was founded (1818), he established the astronomical institute here.

From 1840, Argelander was also in charge of the construction of the university observatory on Poppelsdorf Allee, which gained worldwide fame in the 19th century. Initially, he used a small pavilion from the electoral period as an observatory for his observations, which was located near the Old Customs House, as the completion of the Bonn observatory was delayed until 1844. At the fortress building, he determined the position of stars and their apparent brightness and developed the so-called "Argelander step estimation method" for visually estimating the luminosity of stars.

In the 1950s, he finally succeeded in systematically cataloging the positions and brightnesses of around 325,000 stars. This catalog, known worldwide as the "Bonn Survey", was long regarded as the standard work of astronomy. The work, which was published in three thick volumes in 1859, was only recently acquired by the Bonn City Archives in an old edition, namely the second edition from 1903. The city archive also owns a rare first edition of Argelander's twenty-three-page Bonn treatise "De fide uranometriae Bayeri dissertatio academica" from 1842.

Another important contemporary document in the city archive is a portrait of the astronomer, who was elected Rector of the University of Bonn in 1850 and 1864. This is a well-known print (shelfmark: DA06_4523-1) from 1852, made by Adolf August Hohneck. This sheet belongs to the extensive "masterful lithograph series of Bonn professors", in which Christian Hohe also participated.

Today, the Bonn Observatory is part of the "Argelander Institute for Astronomy at the University of Bonn" - but it is not only the institute that was named after him: "Argelanderstraße" has existed in Bonn's Südstadt district since 1881, firmly anchoring his name in the city's everyday culture; furthermore, a moon crater and an asteroid bear his name.

Wilhelm Klaes (1867-1941) was a good photographer. Several dozen glass negatives, which the Bonn City Archive recently received as a gift from his descendants, bear witness to this.

His childhood home was in Kölln (now Püttlingen) in the Saarland. From 1896 to 1926, he was employed at the Bonn University Library, initially as an "expedient", later calling himself a library clerk. He had been married to Johanna Buchsieb since 1902. The couple had three children and lived in the house they owned at Rittershausstrasse 12, a street that had only been laid out and built on at the beginning of the century. He lived in this stately Südstadt house for almost 40 years, until his death in 1941, the year of the war.

The high quality of the surviving images shows two things: Wilhelm Klaes had a good eye and solid photographic equipment, which was anything but inexpensive at the time. The photos show his family, including a number of self-portraits, as well as views of Bonn and the surrounding area. The Rhine Bridge in Bonn, completed in 1898, the double church in Schwarzrheindorf and the Siebengebirge mountains were apparently particularly popular motifs.

The pictures, all taken around 1900 by the non-professional photographer Wilhelm Klaes, are an important addition to the photographic collection of the Bonn City Archive.

Welcome to a culinary journey through time! Together we will visit Rhineland cuisine from 1840 to 1994.

The first stop takes us to the year 1840, when the book "Vollständiges rheinisches Kochbuch" by Josef Stolz, who worked as a chef in a court kitchen, was published. On 364 pages, the book contains a total of 661 recipes for sauces, soups, vegetable side dishes, flour and egg dishes, dumplings, baked goods, yeast pastries, pies, meat and fish dishes, preserves, compotes, creams and liqueurs. In addition to many Rhineland dishes, Josef Stolz also collects international dishes in his book, which he has discovered on his travels abroad.

Due to the fact that he is an experienced chef, it can be assumed that this book is written for chefs. This is also reflected in the way his recipes are formulated. In some of the instructions included, the quantities are sometimes vague and subject to the cook's interpretation. Phrases such as "as much as necessary", "a good handful" or "take as much as is enough for a plate" are taken for granted.

In honor of the monarchs of the time, this book also contains recipes such as royal soup, Prince Friedrich cake and Kaiser cream. Other recipes already refer to their regional location in their names, such as Hessian rice porridge or Koblenzer Pastetchen. Some other interesting recipes, which are probably no longer so common today, are: egg porridge, brown rice soup or sweet potato casserole.

At this point, we leave Josef Stolz's kitchen and travel on to the year 1912, when the book "Neues rheinisches Kochbuch" by Wilhelmine Hohenstein was published. The cover design of this book is remarkable. It shows three housewives preparing various dishes together. Also in the picture is a little boy who, like one of the housewives, wants to taste the soup. This book is aimed at the simple housewife and accordingly also contains instructions and explanations of terms.

"The first requirements in cooking - whether the housewife herself or a cook is involved - are order, cleanliness and attention." (Hohenstein, p. 1)

In the preceding chapter "Old and new; all kinds of useful hints", the author gives the reader useful tips and discusses the increasingly popular kitchen chemistry. Here, the reader is introduced to products from Maggi and Dr. Oetker, among others. At that time, there were already 30 different varieties of Maggi soups. Hohenstein makes the following comment on the subject of puddings:

"The same applies to puddings, which many housewives still think belong on the table on Sundays at most. But this is a mistake and an injustice to children. Because puddings contain sugar, which a child's body needs to strengthen its muscles." (Hohenstein, p. 9)

Accordingly, this book contains a wide selection of 19 recipes for different puddings, such as milk pudding, potato pudding or prince regent pudding. Many of the above-mentioned areas were also covered by Hohenstein. However, there are also differences, so this book contains recipes from the sausage, frozen food and salads categories. In addition to hearty soups, there are also sweet fruit soups.

Another leap in time takes us back to 1994, where we find the book "Kulinarisches Paradies Rheinland: Küchengeheimnisse, Rezepte und andere leckere Geschichten" by Kristiane Müller. This is "a cookbook and reader that introduces foreigners to regional cuisine and allows locals to rediscover many old recipes and anecdotes". Some of the recipe titles and small supplementary, amusing stories were written in the Rhenish dialect. The presentation of the recipes has changed considerably compared to the other two books. Whereas in 1840 and 1912 the recipes were still written exclusively in continuous text, there is now a list of ingredients at the beginning of the text, which gives the reader an overview. On its 125 pages, it contains recipes such as Ädäppelzupp (potato soup), Stampes (potato and sauerkraut casserole), Pannekooche met Flöns (pancakes with black pudding), Himmel un Äd (heaven and earth, oven dish with potatoes and apples), rheinische Heringstipp (fish dish) and Aachener Printen (pastries).

The window of opportunity closes and we end up with rediscovered, old recipes in our own kitchens at home.

By definition, a travel guide is a reference book that contains information about a city, region or country. Today, these are colorful and attractively designed, with lots of pictures and tips on how to make your trip a real highlight. Of course, these days they are also available digitally in the form of blogs, audio guides or GPS tracks.

Images play a special role in today's travel guides. In the travel guides from 1913 and 1926, the focus was more on the information content in the form of text. In terms of content, every visitor will find everything that makes Bonn a worthwhile destination.

As in modern travel guides, the city of Bonn is explained to readers in historical terms, with facts and figures. Here, too, there are tips on which sights are definitely worth a visit and a suitable route along these highlights is presented.

Bonn's museums are presented and there is an overview of the electoral buildings, monuments, fountains and theaters.

Walks and excursions are also described, as are sports activities and the usual information such as transport, libraries, newspapers, banks and cemeteries.

Of course, the listings of hotels, cafés, restaurants and guesthouses are a must. Special is the listing of all schools, churches, hospitals and a description of Bonn's education system, which is no longer of interest in today's travel guides.

The Stadthistorische Bibliothek's collection includes travel guides on Bonn and the surrounding area from various decades. But also themed travel guides such as "Architekturführer Bonn", "Esoterische Reiseführer Nordrhein-Westfalen" or "Stadtrundgang durch Bonns jüdische Geschichte".

When you hear the name "Schiller", you probably associate it primarily with the cities of Weimar and Jena.

Many people are perhaps unaware that Bonn also played quite a big role for the family.

On September 27, 1823, Ernst von Schiller married Maria Magdalena Pfingsten (widowed von Mastiaux), 14 years his senior, in St. Remigius, thus creating a close connection between the Schiller family and Bonn.

His wife came from one of the most important families in the Bonn region. Ernst von Schiller liked to visit their ancestral estate, the Schevastehof in Vilich, often.

He was born in Jena in 1796 as the second eldest child of Friedrich Schiller and Charlotte von Lengefeld. After being ennobled in November 1802, the family was allowed to call themselves "von Schiller".

From 1813, Ernst von Schiller studied law in Jena.

In the years that followed, his career took him to Cologne and Trier, among other places, before the family finally returned to Bonn towards the end of his life.

Like his father before him, he also suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis throughout his life and died in Vilich in 1841 at the age of just 44. It was his wish to be laid to rest next to his mother, who had also died in Bonn in 1826. You can still visit his grave of honor in the Old Cemetery today (Section I, No. 4).

His widow outlived him by around twelve years and was buried in the Melaten Cemetery in Cologne in 1853.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the town twinning between Bonn and Oxford. In the beginning, the partnership was more at a municipal level, with exchanges about the work of the city administrations and the planning of future projects, for example in environmental policy, as well as support for the reconstruction after the Second World War. Cultural exchange first began with the introduction of the Bonn-Oxford Weeks in the 1970s. The cities alternate annually in organizing these weeks of encounter.

According to the anecdotes of the organizers from Bonn and the headlines of the time, the Oxforders from Bonn were often delighted with the carnival and, of course, beer. In the mid-70s, plans were made to serve Kölsch beer in Oxford together with the honor guard of the Vaterstädtischer Verein. However, it was never to reach Oxford. The beer, donated by a local brewery, was not granted entry to the islands and was confiscated by British customs. However, so as not to disappoint the people of Oxford, a local brewery in Oxford was asked for help at short notice. Without further ado, Morrels Brewery cooled its own beer to the temperature it was used to in Germany and added oxygen. The beer was well received by the Oxford colleagues, naturally as a promised German beer, and the confiscated Kölsch was taken back to Germany on the return journey.

In 1987, the people of Bonn were thrilled by the exhibition of replicas of the crown jewels in the Old Town Hall. To view these, the people of Bonn sometimes queued in long lines stretching all the way to the market square, as around 11,500 people visited the exhibition in total. But here, too, almost everything failed due to transportation. The replicas were transported to Germany by car and the customs officers could not believe their eyes when they opened the trunk. The London police were contacted in a hurry and every item was scrutinized to make sure that everything really was a replica. However, unlike the Kölsch, the fake jewels were to make it to their destination after all.

This year, two weeks of celebrations are taking place to mark the anniversary of the town twinning. Oxford kicked things off with celebrations from June 15 to 19 and the city of Bonn is inviting you to join in the celebrations from August 24 to 28.

For more information on the development of the town twinning, take a look at our annual poster on this topic (to be found in the display case at the entrance to the city archive). Further anecdotes and press documentation on the Oxford Week in 1987 can be found in our library holdings under the shelfmarks 97/361 and 87/602.

Until now, not much was known about the existence of a drama school in Bonn. The publication by Schultze-Reimpell, the most comprehensive publication on Bonn's theater history to date, only mentions that the director Erich Thormann (1946-1951) thus realized a wish of his interim predecessor Albert Fischer (director 1919-1932, 1945/1946).

In the course of an inquiry sent to the city archives in 2021 about Hannelore Mabry, a German women's rights activist and actress (1930-2013, née Katz), it was found in an account book of the Bonn Drama School that a Miss Katz paid school fees in 1950 (N41/1055).

The account book also includes a poorly structured "hand file" on the theater staff (especially Thormann). There is also an undated printed document on the drama school. Thormann and Hermann Wedekind (head director 1946-1951) are named as those responsible. In addition, the aims and structure of the theoretical and practical lessons are formulated and the costs for school fees are listed (800 DM in monthly installments of 80 DM). However, both left the Bonn theater on July 31, 1951 and the drama school ceased to operate. This is documented in a registered letter to the Bonn tax office dated January 28, 1952, which can be found in the second "hand file" on the drama school (N41/1055).

This document, which mainly contains financial details, e.g. balance sheet lists and fee statements between 1946 and 1950 for the tax office, also reflects the replacement of the Reichsmark by the Deutsche Mark in the course of the currency reform.

In the statements of May 20, 1948 for the accounting period from January 1 to March 31, 1948, for example, Intendant Thormann is listed with a fee of 450 RM, as well as the fencing master Lorenz Metzger (employer is the university), with a fee of 330 RM. Mrs. Grete Schaun-Wedekind, wife of head stage manager Wedekind and teacher of speech technique (self-employed) receives RM 1005. The director and actor Carlheinz Caspari receives RM 290.

This is followed by two further statements for the tax office, one with the fees from April 1 to June 20, still in RM. The last statement, drawn up on January 26, 1949 for the period from June 21 to December 31, is then shown in DM. This breakdown was made necessary by the currency conversion on June 21, 1948, when salaries were converted 1:1. Thormann is no longer listed here, Caspari with DM 357, Metzger with DM 287 and Grete Schaun-Wedekind with DM 896.

It cannot be ruled out that the history of the Bonn drama school can be further supplemented. The estate of Hermann Wedekind is in the Saarbrücken State Archives. Unfortunately, it is still undocumented and unorganized, as correspondence relating to the inquiry about Mabry revealed.

References and illustrations

• Schulze-Reimpell, Werner; From the court theater of Cologne to the stages of the federal capital. 125 years of Bonn city theater; Bonn 1983. sign. 84/8
• StABN N41 No. 1054; N41 No. 1055
• For further information on Hannelore Mabry and Hermann Wedekind see Wikipedia

Productive and publicly present into old age, she transcended the boundaries of art genres. As her numerous volumes of poetry show, language was almost as important to her as painting and performance.

Hilla Jablonsky also left her mark in both art forms in the Bonn City Archive and the City History Library: The Franz Fischer estate contains originals and letters as a gift to the photographer, in addition to many photographs taken at exhibitions or in the studio. Several editions of her poems are in the possession of the Stadthistorische Bibliothek as well as a series of exhibition catalogs.

The Macke Prize winner's beginnings as an artist were characterized by the difficulties typical of women of her generation. Since art academies were closed to her as a woman after the Second World War, she took lessons from Aleksej von Assaulenko, later from Cameron Hoover and Franz Radziwill and finally from Albrecht Paris-Gütersloh, painters who represent a wide stylistic range and who also had a recognizable influence on her early paintings, before Hilla Jablonsky found her very own style.

"The century of women's art has begun. Their sources of strength are being brought to the fore", the petite woman confessed, surprising us time and again with her powerful performances and wall-filling paintings.

Her mature work is classified as informal painting, a categorization that she felt was restrictive. She herself described her paintings as "luminous poetry", a reference to the fusion of artistic genres in her work.

In 1969, she exhibited for the first time in a gallery near her then home in Bremen, and from the 1970s onwards throughout Germany and in other European countries. Since moving to St. Augustin, she has also presented her brightly colored works many times in Bonn, where she co-founded the Women's Museum, was a member and later honorary chairwoman of Gedok and served as a juror to help women gain more visibility in the art world according to her convictions.

In 2008/2009, the Women's Museum dedicated a major retrospective to her and a further exhibition to mark her 95th birthday, which Hilla Jablonsky spent in her regained northern German homeland, Leer, where she died in August 2019. Reinhild Jacobsen manages her estate in Bonn.

Quotes from: Catalog of the Women's Museum "Hilla Jablonsky", Bonn 2009.

Colors collected
Words known
that is
fortification
around my storerooms
I have
light
tower
light towers
dreamed
nothing
knows me

(from Hilla Jablonsky: Lightships - Poems. Dülmen 1988)

Fairy tales are fantastic stories that are not necessarily tied to a specific place or time. In their original form, they were passed down orally and only later written down by the Brothers Grimm, for example. A distinction is made between folk tales and fairy tales. The folk tale is a fairy tale that has been passed down from generation to generation and is based on old myths. It differs from the artificial fairy tale in that it cannot be attributed to a clear author. The artificial fairy tale is also not bound to traditional narrative types and motifs.

For example, these two books "Rheinische Märchen: neu erzählt von Paul Weitershagen" and "Grimms Märchen op Bönnsch-Platt" by Herbert Weffer fall into the category of folk tales.

The two Bonn authors Ernst Moritz Arndt and Wilhelm Matthießen fall into the category of artistic fairy tales.

Ernst Moritz Arndt came from a rural background and spent his childhood on the island of Rügen. He spent his youth traveling, among other things. During his travels, the world had changed, as Napoleon had become ruler of France after the revolution. His book "Spirit of Time" aroused Napoleon's wrath and ensured that he could not move freely in Germany for the next few years. After the war, he became a teacher of history at the newly founded university in Bonn.

The fifth volume of the "Master of Fairy Tales" series, "Arndt's Fairy Tales", is in the possession of the City Archive and the City History Library. It contains a total of 6 fairy tales:

• The nine mountains near Rambin
• The snake king
• Snowflake
• Witt Düweken
• The strong Hans
• The kings of the animals

We would like to share a short summary of the fairy tale "Snowflake" with you:

"Snowflake was the daughter of the King of India. But when her mother died, the king remarried and Snowflake got a wicked stepmother. The stepmother, who was an evil witch, bore the king two daughters who were ugly as hell. The witch was so enraged by Snowflake's beauty that she chided her with the words:

"Snowflake fly away!
Fly through the world!
Cold today and warm tomorrow!
Sleep in no man's arms,
Who has not been faithful to you
Was faithful to you without change."

turned into a snowflake. So Snowflake flew around the world in search of love. At first without much success, but then she heard a wailing young man who, like her, was looking for great love. The young man was a noble prince from the land of Arabia. Snowflake, who was so moved by him, sat down gently in his hand, in which she melted into a puddle. The prince, who recognized his love in Snowflake, hurried to the nearest village and had a vessel made in which he could carry Snowflake directly over his heart. And so the five years passed and Prince Bisbiglio's love for Snowflake was tested in various ways, but he was always faithful to her and Snowflake turned back into the beautiful princess."

Born in Gmünd in 1891 and raised in Düsseldorf, the author Wilhelm Matthießen was one of the most widely read German children's and young adult authors for decades. After leaving school and completing his military service, he studied philosophy and theology in Bonn and Berlin. In addition to his scientific work on Paracelsus, he had already begun publishing his fairy tales in 1918. These first appeared in the magazine "Der Zwiebelfisch". The fairy tale book "Die Katzenburg" first appeared in 1928 and is set in the Kottenforst near Bad Godesberg, where Matthießen lived with his family.

In addition to "Die Katzenburg", our collection also includes "Das alte Haus", "Die glücklichen Inseln", "Die grüne Schule" and "Im Turm der alten Mutter". In some of the fairy tale books, his fairy tales are interwoven as part of a story and are told to the children by one of the protagonists.

In German-speaking countries, the Christmas market tradition dates back to the 14th/15th century. The Nuremberg Christmas Market and the Dresden Striezel Market, which were established at that time, are still well-known throughout the region today. It is not known when the first Christmas market in Bonn took place. What is certain is that the medieval Christmas markets have little in common with the amusement markets of today. At that time, people stocked up on the necessary means to survive the winter.

In the 17th/18th century, Christmas as a whole became more important and the markets were transformed from supply markets into bourgeois family and traditional meeting places, with food, drink and children's toys taking center stage.

The earliest known document on Bonn's Christmas market history is dated December 3, 1926. It is a contemporary witness report in the Generalanzeiger. It describes the St. Nicholas market "half a century ago". According to this, around 1876, a few stalls were set up at the fountain (meaning today's market square) selling toys and treats to the children.

After the Second World War, a Christmas market was held on Münsterplatz again for the first time in 1949. Peter Rieck also recalled this in the Generalanzeiger on December 4, 1982. He operated the first ride there: a hand-operated children's carousel, which he turned for five pennies until the children were satisfied.

The Christmas market on Münsterplatz, as we know it today, has only existed since 1972. Over the years, mainly Christmas trees were sold there. It was only at the suggestion of the showmen's association that the Bonn city district committee approved the expansion to a Christmas market at the beginning of 1972. However, CDU committee member Wershoven asked that the Christmas market be "limited in a sensible way (Christmas decorations, bakeries)".

Over the last 150 years, Bonn's Christmas market has not only changed its location, but also its function and the range of goods on sale. Today, it offers a sales area for handicrafts and a place to get together in a pre-Christmas atmosphere.

Sources used:

• Zug. 1859/5: "Other markets and events".
• ZA 134/2271: "Landscape of ruins" and a carousel. The first Christmas market after the war - Peter Rieck was there.
• ZA 61/61: St. Nicholas Day and St. Nicholas Market half a century ago.
• Generalanzeiger from December 12, 1949.
• Generalanzeiger from December 9, 1968.

The horizontal black and white photo (8.7 x 13 cm) on baryta paper, which shows an interior with a decorated Christmas tree in front of which 17 soldiers are posing, was taken by an unknown photographer. The picture is handwritten on the back with the inscription "Erinnerung an Weihnachten 1911" and bears the note "Unteroffizier Corps 4. Hus 7", which indicates that the 17 soldiers are non-commissioned officers of the 4th Eskadron of the 1. This was the 1st of the hussar regiments from the Rhine Province, which was formed in 1815 as the 7th West Prussian Hussar Regiment from units of the former Silesian National Hussar Regiment, among others. Hussar Regiment No. 7 was subordinate to the 15th Division and from 1857 bore the name of the commander-in-chief, Prussian King and later German Emperor Wilhelm I, as an addition. The hussars took part in the Wars of Liberation of 1813/15, the German War of 1866, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 and finally in the First World War.

Initially, the garrison of this cavalry unit of the Prussian army was in Poznan (now Poland); from 1852 until it was disbanded in 1918, it was based in Bonn, which is why the soldiers were popularly known as the "Bonn Hussars". Their barracks were located on Friedrichsplatz, today's Friedensplatz, in the so-called "Sterntorkaserne". After its demolition, the Hussars moved to the "König-Wilhelm-Kaserne" at Rheindorfer Straße 108, now Graurheindorf Straße, which was also demolished in the post-war period - incidentally, there is still a "Husarenstraße" in Bonn-Castell to this day.

The squadron and regimental drill of the Hussars took place in Hangelar in 1911, while brigade drill was held at the "Elsenborn" military training area, as well as the subsequent maneuvers in the Schleiden district in the Eifel region.

The Prussian Major August Ludwig Leopold von Schlözer (1859-1946) tells the story in his book "Vorwärts! Life! Aus meiner Bonner Husarenzeit" (1938), he tells many anecdotes about the Bonn Hussars. Von Schlözer joined the Bonn Hussar Regiment in the spring of 1890, initially as a first lieutenant, then from 1896 as a supernumerary cavalry captain, a year later he became head of the esquadron and finally received his promotion to major in 1905. In his autobiography, we learn from him how the famous hussar battle cry "Lehm op" came about:

Their shout "Lehm op" came from the brickmakers, past whose pits the exadrons rode to drill on the "sand", it became an honorable war cry in 1866 and was known as such throughout the army, especially in the Franco-Prussian War. (Schlözer, p. 69)

The Bonn Hussars with their "smart" uniform - the Russian blue Attila, decorated with golden buttons, lemon yellow cords and red trim, and the ponceau red Kolpak (hussar cap) - were very popular in Bonn and fully integrated into Bonn's "better" society. The city archives therefore have numerous documents relating to the hussars in Bonn: not only many images showing them in photos, graphics, postcards, posters or medals, but also literature and numerous concert programs with the band of the hussar regiment and files - such as the "house files" on the conversion of the hussar barracks in Graurheindorfer Straße.