The baroque Kreuzbergkirche, built in 1627 in the middle of the Thirty Years' War, stands on the Kreuzberg in the Endenich district of Bonn. More than a hundred years later, the Holy Stairs were built next to this church. The work of the famous Baroque master builder Balthasar Neumann was begun in 1746 and completed five years later. 270 years ago, in 1751, Elector Clemens August inaugurated the Holy Staircase he had donated.

The archival item for the first month of the new year is a photograph of the Holy Staircase taken by Bonn photographer Gerhard Sachsse in 1955.

The Holy Staircase can be viewed from the outside all year round through a barrier, but is only open on Good Friday and Holy Saturday and on September 14 for the patronal feast, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. It consists of three staircases - two narrow ones at the sides and a wide one in the middle. The steps of the wide, marble main staircase in the middle are designed so that Christian pilgrims as well as people of other faiths or non-believers can climb them on their knees. The side steps are intended for upright walking. The crucified Jesus stands at the head of the stairs. The ascent symbolizes turning to and approaching God - the kneeling ascent shows humility and internalizes that approaching God takes place in a world marked by imperfection and hardship.

The Holy Staircase in Bonn is a place of pilgrimage - it is one of many replicas of the Scala Santa at the Lateran Palace in Rome, which is the staircase from Pontius Pilate's palace that Jesus had to climb before his condemnation. Saint Helena had them brought to Rome in 326.

The sources of knowledge about the Holy Staircase in Bonn, which are readily available on the Internet, contain a wealth of interesting and fascinating details about the history and design of this beautiful building. The untrained author of these lines noticed during his visit to the Holy Staircase that the clock in the gable is painted. According to tradition, at a quarter to twelve it indicates the time when Pilate presented Jesus to the people. This scene is also depicted on the balcony of the outer façade.

The Bonn City Archive has a collection of 134 calendars, including a calendar from the Nazi era entitled "Praktisch sein leicht gemacht!" (Being practical made easy!) for the year 1941, which was published by Kaufhof Bonn. It is historically interesting - as a Nazi propaganda tool, it was an important means of disseminating the Nazis' ideology of blood and soil.

The calendar is aimed at the "German housewife", about whom Hitler said in 1936: "The world of the woman [is] the family, her husband, her children, her home" - this role is reflected throughout the calendar. Naturally, a calendar page is also dedicated to "Mother's Day", which was established in 1938. As many men were at the front - the calendar was produced in 1940, the second year of the war - the woman became an important mediator of National Socialist ideology and fought "heroically" as a woman and "German mother" for the national community on the "home front".

In the medium-sized tear-off calendar (dimensions: 16 x 24 cm) in portrait format, each calendar week is highlighted by a photo. The black and white or brown-toned calendar pages provide beauty and household tips on both sides, such as "Foot gymnastics and care" or "Proper sewing machine care". As the "German housewife" was above all a mother, advice on raising children is not neglected: in addition to an outline of "the most important events of the first months" of a child's life, knitting diaper pants, making calf wraps for fever, and setting up a school desk at home, everything existential is covered. To break up the actual subject matter - survival strategies in times of war - the editors have thought about recreation and leisure: the first calendar page shows cheerful skiers in an idyllic winter landscape. In addition, there are not only instructions on how to "properly" cellar potatoes, how to "build a greenhouse at the kitchen window from an old crate" or tricks for economical heating, but "first aid" measures are also listed.

Just how highly political the seemingly innocuous "housewives' calendar" was is made clear by the entries for certain events. Not only the propaganda campaign of the monthly "Stew Sunday" is noted in the calendar. Political events, such as the entry on January 30: "1933 Adolf Hitler becomes Reich Chancellor", the "Declaration of War by England and France on Germany" on September 3, 1939 or the "Return of the Saarland" on March 1, 1935 as well as the capitulations of various countries, are entered. The dates of birth and death of Nazi celebrities are also included in this printed work, which was primarily used for propaganda purposes.

The half-timbered house depicted on the picture postcard from the Bonn City Archives collection is the Zum Alten Keller inn, one of the oldest in Bonn. The year "1553" is emblazoned on two compartments, and it is actually mentioned for the first time around 1561. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is said to have stopped in there in November 1792: "in tobacco-smoking, mulled wine-sipping company" - as he later noted - he tried to dry his clothes and himself after the barge he had hired - he was on his way to Düsseldorf - was full of water and threatened to capsize.

"Gasthof & Restauration" can be read above the entrance door. Rooms with breakfast were offered as well as a - presumably inexpensive - "lunch table". The restaurant was located in Rheingasse, Bonn's old pub district, where people and goods flowed back and forth between the landing stage on the Rhine and the market day in, day out for centuries. Seen from the river, it was the second house on the right-hand side in the area of today's opera house. On October 18, 1944, the Alte Keller and with it a large part of Bonn's historic old town were destroyed in an air raid, the heaviest of the entire Second World War.

The photograph that provided the template for the picture postcard dates from 1918, the last year of the First World War. Two women and two men, possibly the long-time landlord Leopold Passmann, pose in front of the pub with guests or staff.

On closer inspection, you can see that the men in the photo are wearing mouth and nose protection - something we have been so familiar with for a year now. The reason for the measure was a viral disease that broke out in the USA at the beginning of 1918, which was brought to Europe by soldiers, spread rapidly across large parts of the world and was first officially reported in Spain in May 1918. This is why this disease, which developed into a pandemic, came to be known as Spanish flu or Spanish influenza. It was particularly rampant in Europe in the immediate theaters of war, but there were also numerous infections and corresponding measures on the home front. For example, the wearing of mouth and nose protection was ordered and large events were banned.

On October 16, 1918, a few weeks before the end of the war, the Kölnische Volkszeitung newspaper from Bonn reported that the number of people falling ill was increasing "sharply": "An average of 100 cases of illness are registered daily at the Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse. The management of the streetcars has announced considerable operating restrictions. All schools have been closed today. In many cases, the flu leads to pneumonia and thus to death."

That fall of 1918 was, as far as we know, the peak of the Spanish flu in Bonn, which did not finally subside until 1920. Worldwide, between 27 and 50 million people fell victim to it.

Medical science has now identified a number of similarities between the Spanish flu that raged a century ago and the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic that is currently gripping the world.

The handling and effects of the Spanish flu have not yet been researched in detail for Bonn. The men and women wearing face masks in front of the Zum Alten Keller restaurant are perhaps an incentive to do so.

With this year's April time slot, the Stadtarchiv and Stadthistorische Bibliothek wish all users a happy and, above all, healthy Easter 2021!

The Easter greeting drawn here was created by the Wismar painter and lithographer Friedrich Bremer (1860 to 1924), who was a patient at Dr. Franz Müller's "Sanatorium Schloß Rheinblick" in Godesberg in 1906. A postcard album with 202 drawings by the artist has been preserved in the city archives in the "Aennchen Schumacher" collection (SN 152). The mostly postcard-sized paintings and drawings mainly show Wismar and coastal motifs, but also include individual views of the Rhine and Godesberg.

Bremer ran a printing and lithography business in Wismar and produced postcards with predominantly Wismar views, including of the Wismar harbor. After his stay in a sanatorium, the painter, who was suffering from morphine and alcoholism, continued to have links with Bad Godesberg. He lived here again in 1908 and from 1914 to 1918, and his sister Ida Bremer, widowed Trendelburg, later also lived in Bad Godesberg.

The "Aennchen Schumacher" collection mainly comprises photographs and postcards, but also letters and newspaper articles as well as books with author dedications and documents (student) life in Bonn and Bad Godesberg from the end of the 19th century to the period before, during and after the First World War. Aennchen Schumacher had already bequeathed the extensive collection to the city of Bad Godesberg in 1930, which set up an Aennchen Museum in 1931. Due to wartime destruction, the museum was not rebuilt after the Second World War. In 1971, the collection was transferred to the city archives.

Anna Sibylla Schumacher, known as "Aennchen", was born in Godesberg on January 22, 1860. After the early death of her father Wilhelm Schumacher, she took over the management of the "Lindenwirtschaft" restaurant at the age of just 18 together with her half-sister Gertrud Rieck. Because of its favorable location at the foot of Godesburg Castle, but also because of the Lindenwirtin herself, the restaurant was a very popular student pub.

In 1925, Aennchen Schumacher was made an honorary citizen of Bad Godesberg. She died on February 26, 1935 and was buried in the castle cemetery with great public sympathy.

We owe most of the biographical information on the Wismar painter and lithographer Friedrich Bremer to the Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Wismar.

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes, Ne Ne Ne Ne Ne instead of ta ta ta taa - this is how it sounded for many minutes in 2013 to the amazement of the numerous guests at the beginning of Ilona Schmiel's farewell as director of the Bonn Beethovenfest in the Deutsche Welle premises.

The legendary recording of Joseph Beuys' Fluxus event from 1968 instead of a recording of the Beethoven Orchester Bonn, the Rhenish shaman instead of the lone revolutionary - a deliberate irritation, perhaps even a provocation?

In addition to their Rhenish origins, both are fitting for Beethoven and Beuys; moreover, Beuys' contribution to Mauricio Kagel's film Ludwig van Beethoven with the installation and performance "Beethoven's Kitchen" testifies to the artist's intensive engagement with the great composer.

Joseph Beuys, whose 100th birthday is being celebrated everywhere and of course also in Bonn, had many connections to our city.

Not only did he marry a Bonn girl, the now 88-year-old Eva, née Wurmbach, daughter of a zoology professor from Dottendorf, in 1959 in the double church in Schwarz-Rheindorf, but his artistic and political actions also attracted particular interest in Bonn and are documented in detail in the photo collection of the Bonn City Archive.

As early as 1973, the committed gallery owner and Art Cologne prizewinner Erhard Klein exhibited all of the action artist's multiples in Königstraße in Beuys' presence, including the famous sledge, and had many more exhibitions follow in the years to come, always with the request: make it too expensive...

In 1983, a campaign in connection with Beuys' ecological project Difesa della natura became famous, in which boxes of 12 rosé bottles with Beuys labels were to be sold at Klein for the benefit of the Free International University he had founded in Düsseldorf. The color photo by Franz Fischer shows Beuys at this very event. The gallery owner had forgotten to indicate on the invitation to whom the proceeds were to go, whereupon Beuys had the remaining invitation cards printed with the inscription ERHARD KLEIN UNKONZENTRIERT, signed and numbered them and offered them for sale. This triggered an artistic chain reaction that lasted several years: Albert Oehlen/Martin Kippenberger's edition ERHARD KLEIN VOLLKONZENTRIERT, Georg Herold with 10 vodka bottles ERHARD KLEIN KONZENTRAT, a music booklet by Friedrich Meschede ERHARD KLEIN KONZERTANT and finally the anniversary booklet written by Reiner Speck and Friedrich Schroers for the 20th anniversary of the gallery ERHARD KLEIN VOLL KONZENTRIERT.

Beuys' "expanded concept of art" encompassed his political and ecological commitment.

He propagated his ideas on direct democracy at Galerie Magers in 1973 and his concept on urban planning ("Stadtverwaldung statt Stadtverwaltung") at Bonn University in 1984 to an audience that was partly devout and partly skeptical.

The pop artist Andy Warhol immortalized him in 1980 after an encounter in Munich; the portrait was donated to the city by the Bonn gallery owner Hermann Wünsche for its art museum, which became the first address for the works of this artist through the acquisition of the Ulbricht Collection, supplemented by later purchases, and through the donation of the complete Beuys library by Erhard Klein. The museum's own website lists as many as 450 Beuys objects.

The Bonn City Archive has important and sometimes unique photographs, not only of the artist's Bonn appearances, mainly seen and captured by the (unrelated) photographers Camillo Fischer and Franz Fischer.

For example, Camillo Fischer found out about one of Beuys' early performances HAUPTSTROM UND FETTRAUM in Darmstadt in 1967 by pure chance and captured it on celluloid, the only documentation of this 10-hour event ever to be shown at the Bonn Syndikat in 1993. The photo shows part of this performance.

The legendary discussion between Beuys and the founder of the Artist Placement Group, John Latham, in 1978 at the Bonn Kunstverein about art as a social strategy was photographed by Franz Fischer, who accompanied and recorded numerous exhibitions and actions by Joseph Beuys, for example the sweeping action in Düsseldorf and also some private situations. The last photograph, taken a few days before Beuys' death in January 1986 after he was awarded the Lehmbruck Prize, was also taken by Franz Fischer and was the cover photo of the exhibition in the foyer of the City Hall to mark his 80th birthday in 2017.

The exhibitions in Salzburg and Vienna in 1994 by Camillo Fischer and the use of a large photo by Franz Fischer in the Zurich exhibition in 1993 and in the entrance area of the most important Beuys permanent exhibition at Schloss Moyland show how important and widely recognized both photographers are for documenting the work of this controversial artist.

Even after his death, Joseph Beuys continued to be present in Bonn with exhibitions, lectures and documentaries. On the occasion of his 100th birthday, the Bundeskunsthalle and the Kunstmuseum are honoring him with special exhibitions.

The photographs shown here of a Corpus Christi procession of the Stiftspfarre parish from around 1880 are among the early photographic images of Bonn's Nordstadt. The name Corpus Christi is derived from the Middle High German vrône lîcham (the Lord's [vron or fron] body).

The feast of Corpus Christi, which is still celebrated in the Catholic Church today, originated in the 13th century in the diocese of Liège. It is celebrated on the Thursday after the first Sunday after Pentecost. It is characterized by a procession through the streets and corridors of the respective parish in connection with a Eucharistic celebration, whereby the congregation accompanies the precious vessel(monstrance; Latin monstrare - to show) carried by a clergyman under a canopy ("heaven"), in which a consecrated host, the Blessed Sacrament, is displayed. Stops are often made along the way at traditional places, there is singing and praying, and the faithful are blessed. Today's theology interprets the festival as an image of the wandering people of God with Christ, the bread of life, in their midst.

The two photographs taken in quick succession from the same spot by an unknown photographer show Kölnstraße between Wilhelmsplatz (in the background) and Theaterstraße (in the foreground on the right) and Kasernenstraße (in the foreground on the left). Only a few steps separate those at the front of the procession from reaching the Stiftskirche, the starting and finishing point of the procession. Schoolchildren and children in their First Communion outfits, probably accompanied by their teachers, form the front of the procession. In the background, in the direction of Wilhelmplatz, you can see more flags and carrying crosses, and above all a never-ending crowd of people, women, men and children, members of church associations and music groups. Occasionally we see interested or curious passers-by at the side of the road, some protecting themselves from the strong sun with an umbrella.

It was precisely in the heated domestic political atmosphere of the Kulturkampf, which in the 1870s and 1880s - and even afterwards - put a lasting strain on the relationship between the Prussian-German state and the Catholic Church, that the Corpus Christi processions became veritable demonstrations in favor of the Catholic Church, which was perceived as persecuted.

The Nordstadt, often incorrectly referred to as the Altstadt, was only able to develop following the demolition in the first half of the 19th century of the medieval fortifications (in the area of Theaterstrasse and Kasernenstrasse) and the early modern fortifications in front of them, initially only slowly, then rapidly from the 1870s onwards, the so-called Gründerzeit. The majority of the multi-storey residential buildings on the left-hand side of the street date from this period. The large building in the right foreground is the garrison hospital, which had been in operation since 1839 and served as a customs office after the First World War until its destruction in the Second World War.

Once again this year, numerous students in Bonn and across the country will be graduating from school with their Abitur in July. In addition to the traditional compulsory subjects of math, German and English, each school offers a different range of natural sciences, languages, social sciences and artistic subjects. This means that everyone can put together a combination of their preferred subjects. However, every year we can only speculate and hope about the actual content of the exams.

Even, if not especially, this year the Abitur papers have once again made it into the headlines with a lot of criticism. A text in English because of the author's colloquial choice of words, the math problems because of their level of difficulty. It is always interesting to observe how the conditions of the exams, the compulsory reading and also the topics of the foreign language texts change from year to year. Many discover clear differences in the curriculum and the associated reading between themselves and their siblings. These differences are also very interesting to observe historically.

This is exactly what the Clara-Schumann-Gymnasium can do. The Clara Schumann Grammar School, opened in 1909 as a private school, is the oldest girls' grammar school in Bonn. Clara Schumann only became the namesake in 1945 and since 1973, with the introduction of coeducation, boys have also been attending the school. The records of the Abitur examinations, then still called Reifeprüfungen (school-leaving examinations), begin in 1939. School-leaving certificates and thus the subjects taught have even been handed down since 1915, i.e. since the school became a municipal school. In the spring of 1909, the first 10 female students wrote their final examinations at the then Realgymnasiale and gymnasiale Studienanstalt.

Unfortunately, the examinations from the class of 1909 are not available in the S03 collection. However, a report by contemporary witnesses in the commemorative publication "50 Jahre Bonner Mädchengymnasium" (Signatur: I f 387) shows the initial range of subjects. Math, Latin, English, French and German were taught. To the great surprise of the pupils, the Cologne commission also examined them in geography. For the time being, the pupils taught themselves PE.

The theses handed down from 1939 onwards document the requirements and developments in the subjects just mentioned, as well as in home economics and needlework, in 5-year stages. From today's perspective, the latter two subjects reflect the changing times the most. Sport in the final examination is also more of an exception today. The school also offered a wide range of languages, with final papers in Greek and Italian, which is no longer the case at some schools today.

It is only from 1980 onwards that final papers in the subjects that are more common today, such as history, geography, religious studies, philosophy and biology, have been handed down. Then also with the now familiar designations of basic and advanced course instead of the class numbers.

At the beginning of 1945, Dr. Robert Brühl, doctor and head of the obstetrics and gynaecology department at Herz-Jesu-Krankenhaus in Trier, received a message from Bonn University Hospital. The letter, dated 29 January 1945, came from the Women's Clinic, where Prof. Dr. Harald Siebke (1899 to 1964) had been director since 1936, and was signed by his assistant Ilse Schön.

The reason for the letter was that Brühl, who had studied in Bonn and was an assistant and lecturer at the Bonn Women's Clinic until 1936, had sent laboratory material to Bonn for examination. Schön informed Brühl that due to the destruction of the Women's Clinic and the Institute of Pathology in the course of the air raids, such examinations would only be possible once a laboratory had been set up in the College for Teacher Training in Görresstraße; this would still take some time. In the following, Schön reports on the emergency accommodation of the various departments of Bonn's hospitals in the city and the number of beds in each. Schön also informed Brühl that patients he wanted to send to Bonn would have to bring bed linen with them.

What makes this letter so valuable for Bonn's city history is the fact that it describes the situation of the hospitals in Bonn after the bombings and evacuations and provides an informative insight into the organization of medical care in the city just a few months before the end of the war. No other source provides such detailed information about the concrete effects of the destruction caused by the air raids on the daily work of Bonn's hospitals and the care of the population.

This letter came to the Bonn City Archives as a gift from the estate of Robert Brühl (1898 to 1976).

Literature: Ralf Forsbach, Die Medizinische Fakultät der Universität Bonn im "Dritten Reich", Munich 2006

From today's perspective, this picture album from the early days of National Socialism looks strange. So-called cigarette albums, which are still on the market today in the form of "Panini collector's albums", were originally used primarily for advertising purposes. During the Nazi era, albums were also "used as a propagandistic communication medium" (Ilgen/Schindelbeck, p. 98).

Albums of this type were published by companies such as Yramos or the Altona-Bahrenfeld cigarette picture service and had titles such as "Deutsche Heimat" (1932) or "Adolf Hitler" (1936).

The copy presented here, which was also published by Zigaretten-Bilderdienst Altona-Bahrenfeld and whose pictures were circulated via Salem brand cigarettes, is entitled "Kampf ums Dritte Reich. Historische Bilderfolge" and dates from 1933. 92 pages contain not only space for collectible pictures, which could be glued in at the designated places, but also texts and illustrations.

The pictures were selected by Heinrich Hoffman from Munich and the text was written by Leopold von Schenckendorff, who was also known as a poet and composer of Nazi songs.

In terms of content, the album deals with Adolf Hitler's rise to power and the NSDAP from the perspective of the National Socialists.

Starting with Adolf Hitler's early career, events relevant to the rise of the NSDAP such as the Hitler Putsch in 1923 and the Reichstag fire in February 1933 are described. The authors' classification of the latter event is interesting:

"The Communist Party of Germany pronounced its own death sentence; - 81 members of the K.P.D. excluded themselves from working for the people and the fatherland. The Reichstag building in Berlin, into which unscrupulous criminals threw the fire of insane destructive fury, stands empty and deserted today. The burnt-out dome rises warningly and admonishingly into the sky!" (S. 72)

The propagandistic purpose of the album becomes clear at this point. Blaming the German Communist Party (KPD) for the Reichstag fire was a key event in the consolidation of the Nazi regime. Even if it has not yet been possible to prove who caused the fire, the NSDAP was able to justify the decree issued by the Reich President on February 28, 1933 for the protection of the people and the state. This paved the way for a dictatorship through far-reaching restrictions on basic rights.

In addition to the chronicle of the seizure of power, the album also contains texts and images relating to the Hitler Youth and high-ranking NSDAP officials such as Joseph Goebbels.

From today's perspective, the album is a valuable testimony to what propaganda could look like at that time - in addition to the more well-known means such as media synchronization.

The copy, which was donated to the City Archive by the Military History Museum of the German Armed Forces in 2009, is complete and in good condition.

Sources:

1. Volker Ilgen and Dirk Schindelbeck, Die Jagd auf den Sarotti-Mohr, Frankfurt 1997
2. Schürmann, S. (2009, May 15): OPUS 4 | Collected Images of History. Historical motifs in everyday culture. Contemporary historical research.  https://zeitgeschichte-digital.de/doks/frontdoor/index/index/docId/1857 (opens in a new tab)
3. Bildung, B. F. P. (2018, February 26): Reichstag fire - on the road to dictatorship | bpb. bpb.de.  https://www.bpb.de/politik/hintergrund-aktuell/265402/reichstagsbrand (opens in a new tab)
4. Photos People - The Schenckendorff family. (2021): The von Schenckendorff family.  http://www.familie-von-schenckendorff.de/fotos-personen/#widget-e5ee5b2d-a50d-b079-34af-053c9e660e2a=page2 (opens in a new tab)

In keeping with the time of year - the "golden autumn" with its traditional winegrowers' festivals - the town archive presents a photo by the well-known press photographer Georg Munker (1918 to 2002).

The black and white photo in portrait format was taken in 1952 at the winegrowers' festival in Königswinter, which takes place every year on the first weekend in October. It shows a man dressed as the wine god Bacchus, who is moored in a boat with his entourage on the banks of the Rhine in front of the Königswinter-Godesberg ferry. With his two bacchantes in dirndls, the god of wine cheerfully greets the onlookers and waits to be received by the mayor, as can be seen from the context of the series of 25 photos.

The press photographer Georg Munker was one of Bonn's best-known photojournalists, whose photos were in demand and famous - his well-known portrait of Adenauer "winking" went around the world. Munker came from Schnaittach in Middle Franconia and moved to the Rhineland at an early age. After training as a craftsman, he became a newspaper correspondent here and worked for the "Bonn Rundschau" for 33 years (1946 to 1979). His main focus was on political events; for example, he photographed state visits by Queen Elizabeth II and President Kennedy, as well as German presidents, chancellors and sessions of the Bundestag. But he also captured daily life in Bonn, as the photo above illustrates: there are numerous pictures of topping-out ceremonies, village mayors, carnival presidents and shooting clubs.

The city archive has around 60,000 negatives of Georg Munker; there are also further negatives and slides in the Federal Archives in Koblenz. The Munker collection (DC17) is particularly significant because it shows Bonn's development as a federal capital - these are important documents of contemporary history and urban development in Bonn's post-war period up to the 1970s. The contact prints of the negatives have recently been digitized, making it much easier to access Georg Munker's photographic material.

Public address books contain various directories sorted by residents, streets and house numbers, companies and industries as well as authorities. Associations, doctors or religious communities may also be listed.

Address books have been kept in the Bonn City Archives since the beginning of the 19th century, when they were still known as sack calendars. These calendars usually measured 10 cm x 5 cm to fit in a trouser pocket.

The first part of the oldest calendar kept in the town archives, dating from 1804, lists the months of the respective year with details of name days, festivities, weekly and annual fairs as well as a calendar of the Jews. The second part includes a list of houses, the corresponding numbers and their inhabitants. On 23 pages, the houses in the town are listed from no. 1 to 1125. The houses from number 1126 onwards are located outside the town. The highest house number to be found in this directory is 1159.

The Sack calendars were published until 1854. In 1856/57, when a calendar/address book was not published every year, the first "Adressbuch der königlich-preußischen Universität-Stadt Bonn" was published, at that time with a brief history of the city. It was published by H. B. König'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, but the publishers and titles of these address books changed over time. In the beginning, only the former city of Bonn was listed in the address book, but from 1870 onwards, municipalities and suburbs were gradually added. The detailed history of the incorporation of suburbs and the current city structure of Bonn can be researched in the city archives. Address books from the period during the First World War are also listed in the city archives. However, for the period of the Second World War, more precisely between 1943 and 1946, there are no recorded address books, presumably due to resource savings.

In 1947, the authorities section for the entire Bonn Chamber of Commerce district (Bonn city and district, Siegkreis and Euskirchen district) was included for the first time.

Although the municipal reorganization took place gradually from 1969 onwards, the Bonn address book does not list the new districts of Bonn, Bad Godesberg, Beuel and Hardtberg until 1979. The last recorded address book in the city archive is from 2016.

Even though address books are no longer published today, they serve as an important source for historical research.

During the Second World War, many archives were destroyed, resulting in the irrevocable loss of literature, cultural and research assets.

For this reason, the printed and widespread address books are now considered the only source for determining people's places of residence, as well as for identifying occupations, names and house numbers. Address books also provide information on companies and tradespeople and thus reflect the economic history of a particular town.

Address books make a special contribution today in determining the last free residential addresses of victims of the Nazi dictatorship in the 1930s/1940s, not least for the laying of Stolpersteine, also by the Bonn Memorial.

Who isn't familiar with the cozy get-together on Christmas Eve, the regular opening of an Advent calendar or Santa Claus bringing the presents?

These examples are all customs that have been established over many years and are revived every year. Customs can vary from region to region and are therefore an important symbol of identification that shapes local and regional cultural styles. The term comes from the word "brauchen" (to need) and originally means "to have need of something" or "to require". Customs have the function of keeping memories alive as well as structuring time. In addition, they create an alternative world to everyday life and invite people to socialize, which strengthens the community.

The church festival calendar we know today developed on the basis of these customs. The Christian festive year is divided into Christmas, Easter and the general church season, beginning with the first Advent. The Christmas festive cycle, which is interesting for the December time frame, covers the period from the first Sunday of Advent to the feast of the Baptism of Jesus on January 6.

The two books "Rheinisches Winter- und Weihnachtsbuch" by Irmgard Wolf and Manfred Engelhardt and "Faszination Nikolaus : Kult, Brauch und Kommerz" edited by Alois Döring deal with the Christmas customs that have developed in the Rhineland.

The authors trace the history of familiar Christmas symbols such as St. Nicholas, Santa Claus and the Christmas tree and explore their origins and development.

Who would have thought, for example, that the figure of Santa Claus was brought to life by chance by the romantic painter Moritz von Schwind (1804-1871). His picturesque figure with a red coat, red cheeks and a white beard was first introduced as "Mr. Winter" and only later turned into the Santa Claus we know today.

The book "The Fascination of Santa Claus: Cult, Custom and Commerce" also sheds light on the commercial aspect that arose in connection with the Christmas custom. The sale of chocolate in particular is booming at this time of year. In 2000, 21,000 tons of unfilled hollow figures with Santa Claus as a motif were produced in Germany alone. The production of these figures takes place during the summer months.

The City Archive and the City History Library wish all readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Sources:

Döring, Alois (ed.) (2001). The fascination of St. Nicholas: cult, custom and commerce. Klartext-Verlag.

Wolf, Irmgard (2001). Rheinisches Winter- und Weihnachtsbuch : Brauchtum, Rezepte & Geschichten von St. Martin bis Lichtmess. Avlos-Verlag.

Döring, Alois (ed.) (2010). Towards the light : winter customs between Thanksgiving and Candlemas. Greven publishing house.