fonds N 2, 1850-1978 (251VE) Foreword Biographical The grandfather of Richard Feiber was a medical officer in Castellaun in the Hunsrück region. Richard Adolf Robert Feiber, Protestant, was born on 27 May 1869 in Koblenz as the son of Captain Robert Feiber and his wife Helene, née Michael ( 1911). In May 1906 Feiber moved to Bergisch Gladbach, first into the Gasstraße and to 20.02.1909 finally into the Gronauerstraße 25 (today Hauptstraße 17) into the newly built house ("Feibersche Haus"). Richard Feiber married Martha Margaretha Viktoria Feiber, née Westphal (15.06.1875 in Bergisch Gladbach, 11.05.1946) on 26.09.1896. The following children emerged from the marriage: - Elsbeth (23.02.1901 in Wesel, 24.07.1942 in Lublin, engaged to medical soldier Gerhard Wolters) -Roland (11.01.1904 in Wesel, Dipl.-Ing., 21.01.1990 in Bergisch Gladbach), married Else Unruh. Children: Helga Roswitha (1939) and Turid (1942) -Gerda (04.08.1909 in Bergisch Gladbach, married Walther Armin Heinrich Gehnen from Porz on 26.11.1932, 12.05.1993) -Friedrich Robert Helmuth (*23.09.1897 in Bergisch Gladbach, died as a war volunteer as a result of wounding on 06.06.1915 in Sainghin/North of France) Feiber began his military career in 1879 as a cadet in Oranienstein and from1884 in Groß-Lichterfelde. In 1887 he joined the infantry regiment 57 Herzog Ferdinand von Braunschweig as a port midshipman and worked from 17.02.1894 to 18.12.1895 as an educator at the cadet school in Bensberg. From 1896-1899 Feiber attended the war academy and was promoted to captain in 1903. On 10.04.1906 he retired from service, but was reused in 1914-16. From April 1906 Feiber worked temporarily for the Köttgen Cie. company. Paul Köttgen was the brother-in-law of Richard Feiber. On 1 July 1906 Feiber became the company's authorised signatory. In Wesel Feiber was city commander for 19 years in military service as captain (since July 1903) and later as major. He belonged to the Infantry Regiment 57 Duke Ferdinand of Braunschweig (8th Westphalian). About this regiment, Feiber compiled a list of all the records on the basis of personal and historical data collected. In January 1915 Richard Feiber received the Iron Cross after having successfully participated as a captain in the Battle of Soissons. On 31 July 1916 Feiber was finally released from military service. In 1935 the "Ring of former Bensberger" was founded, an association of former Bensberger cadets. Feiber belonged to her and helped organize the regular cadet meetings. In 1947 he wrote an extensive documentation about the history of the Bensberg cadet house. For the "Ring of former Bensbergers", Feiber wrote honorary books with 671 names of former Bensbergers, which Feiber completed on April 20, 1944. The original intention was to create a memorial for the fallen of the First World War. However, this could not be achieved. Over time the project became a memorial for the Kadettenhaus Bensberg in the form of a book of honour. Initially, only the cadets at the Kadettenhaus in Bensberg and the fallen soldiers of the First World War from Bensberg were to be included. However, Feiber extended this requirement to the wars and colonial battles before the First World War. In addition to the cadets, he also included the officers and teachers who had worked at the cadet house in his line-up. As leader of the circle of friends of former cadets ("Ring former Bensberger") Feiber was significantly involved in the design of the cadet memorial room in the Bensberger castle. The room burned to the ground on March 2, 1942. Furthermore, from November 1918 Feiber was first deputy chairman, then until 1933 chairman of the Kreiskriegerverband Mülheim am Rhein, of which he was last honorary leader. In 1909/10 Feiber was chairman of the local group Bergisch Gladbach of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Sprachverein. In this function he was also a temporary member of the small subcommittee of the city's construction and finance commission for proposals for street names in the city of Bergisch Gladbach. From 1 April 1919 to 31 March 1925 Feiber was a member of the school committee of the higher educational institution. In the 1920s, Feiber was a member of the assessment commission in Bergisch Gladbach, whose task it was to assess the damage caused by the occupation. He was also a commercial judge from July 1920 to July 1923 and a labour judge from 1 June 1927. Until 1931 he was chairman of the Gewerbliche Vereinigung and until 1927 board member of the Arbeitgeberverband der Metallindustrie. Feiber in der Gesellschaft Erholung e.V. Bergisch Gladbach was also a member of the Executive Board. There he was chairman from 1914-1917. For the moved town councillor Wilhelm Pennartz Richard Feiber moved on 07.04.1925 as a substitute man in the town council. He belonged to the party "Wirtschaftliche Liste" (WL). At the election of the city council on 17.11.1929, Feiber entered the city parliament as a member of the Liberal Association Bergisch Gladbach (LV) (until 1933). After that, he wasn't a city councillor anymore. He joined the NSDAP in April 1933, but was expelled from the party in 1934. From 1933 Feiber was a local group leader of the local group of the Reichsluftschutzbund, founded on 5 August 1933 in the Bergisch Gladbach town hall. Feiber was involved in the Protestant parish of Bergisch Gladbach. Like his father-in-law Friedrich Westphal, he was churchmaster (from January 1933), but later resigned from this office. Richard Feiber passed away on 11.09.1948. The history of the collection and its holdings About Mrs. Herta Jux, née Meese, 8 archive cartons and 3 large folders were initially placed in the city archive at the beginning of 1990. Later, further documents were handed over. The documents handed over all originate from the so-called "Feiber¿sche Haus" ("German House") at Hauptstraße 17. Herta Jux, great-granddaughter of Friedrich Westphal about Elisabeth Köttgen, née Westphal and widely also related to Richard Feiber, wrote an essay about this house in the Rheinisch-Bergisches Kalender. Today the house is owned by the daughter of Prof. Dr. Ulrich and Herta Jux. In the above-mentioned transfers there were many letters from the families Feiber, Westphal and von Oven. The letters from Feiber's immediate family remained in N 2, whereas the letters and all other documents concerning the extensive Westphal family and von Oven respectively reached N 14, the estate of Friedrich Westphal. The newly formed estate N 10 Maria Grosch was the result of a further bundle of letters and documents that had long been kept in the city archives under the (unlisted) estate of Malotki of Trzebiatowski. During the First World War the celebrations wrote each other daily, sometimes several times a day. There was a lively exchange of letters between the married couple Richard and Margaretha Feiber and between Helmut Feiber and his parents Richard and Margaretha. Richard Feiber's letters are more about war from a personal point of view, whereas his war diaries give an impression of the everyday life of a military trainer. Military and military history is a thematic focus of the collection. Feiber has dealt intensively with the history of the infantry regiment Duke Ferdinand von Braunschweig (8th Westphalian) No. 57. He reworked the regimental history for this regiment and created a list of all regiments for this regiment. The preparatory work for this can be found in the inventory. Of local historical importance is Feiber's commitment to the furnishing of a cadet memorial room in the New Bensberg Palace in the 1940s. The list of members of the Kameradschaftliche Vereinigung Bergisch Gladbach may also be of local historical interest. Another focus of the collection is on files relating to the various administrative activities that Richard Feiber carried out on behalf of his family members. For the four tribes of the descendants of Friedrich Westphal, Feiber was responsible for the administration of the common hereditary property in Bergisch Gladbach. The extensive file on this subject sheds light on aspects of Bergisch Gladbach's city history, particularly with regard to the distribution of land, urban and development planning, the significance of the so-called Trasskaule and the effects of the global economic crisis on the value of inherited property. Last but not least, these files also provide information about family history. Richard Feiber continued with the matters that had not yet been concluded upon the death of Friedrich Westphal. This concerns above all the asset management for his mother-in-law Christiane Westphal, and thus in close connection, the regulation of matters concerning the Oven¿schen Stiftungsfonds. Feiber was predestined for these tasks due to his diligence and his comprehensive expertise. Beyond Bergisch Gladbach the documents of Feiber, which deal with family research, are of importance. Feiber has collected extensive information about the families Feiber, Westphal and von Oven. References The maps and plans from the estate of Feiber which exceed a certain size can be found in the map holdings under K 1/1422-1425 and K 1/1428. In the photo collection of the Gerhard Saffran collection belonging to R 5 there is the photo collection of Richard Feiber (signatures L 105/1-25). On the photos L 105/49, L 105/110-111 you can see Richard Feiber himself. Gerhard Saffran and Richard Feiber met when Feiber was busy building the cadet memorial room in Bensberg Castle. Saffran helped him get some remembrance material. In addition, the Saffran Collection also contains the honorary books I and II of the Royal Prussian Cadet House Bensberg, which Feiber wrote in neat handwriting (signatures R 5/26-27). These honorary books, which contain a compilation of biographical data and military careers of the former Bensberg cadets, are based on genealogical research on the cadets. There is a file with the signature R 5/28 about this. A document about the Kadettenhaus Bensberg by Richard Feiber can be found in the archive library under the signature WM 236 or in the collections of the archive under S 6/166. The list of members of the Kameradschaftliche Vereinigung Bergisch Gladbach (Comradeship Association Bergisch Gladbach) includes a sound cassette recording of conversations between the son Roland Feiber and the archive director Ellis Kreuwels (T 3/10). An oil painting in a wooden frame, which had originally been handed over with the estate documents, was handed over to the Villa Zanders Municipal Gallery. It is a painting by Carl Schön: The warship S.M.S. Iltis in front of the Takuforts during the defeat of the Südforts on 17.6.1900. It was a gift from Admiral von Lans to the Ring of former Bensbergers for the new cadet memorial room, presented on 12.4.1942. Richard Feiber continued the affairs perceived by him after the death of his father-in-law Friedrich Westphal. These include, for example, negotiations that have not yet been finally concluded, property matters and the administration of von Oven¿ family support funds. If in part of these files the basis or the majority of the documents were created by Friedrich Westphal, they were recorded at N 14. The following files in estate N 14 Friedrich Westphal were further processed by Richard Feiber: -N 14/114 Documents on the internal relationship of Friedrich Westphal as a partner in the Zanders company and as a negotiating partner in property matters -N 14/108 Administration of the Hausarmenfonds donated by Caroline von Oven née Moll, widow of Carl Engelbert von Oven, by Friedrich Westphal - N 14/109 Financial support for Margaretha Feiber née Westphal and her husband Richard Feiber by Friedrich Westphal Michael Krischak April 2009

Inventory description: Dept. 159 Herrnsheimer Dalberg-Archiv (files, official books) Size: 1943 units of description (= 27 lfm = 201 archive cartons, 2 large cartons, 2 lfm oversized formats - own inventory: 1878 VE, remainder in Heylshof = 64 VE, with sub-VE in total) 2015) Duration: 1445 - 1866 Zur Familie und Herrschaft Dalberg (Note 1) The family of the chamberlains of Worms, later called 'von Dalberg', belonged as an influential family association to the episcopal ministry of Worms. Since 1239 she held the hereditary office of the chamberlain of Worms; this was later associated with economic-financial privileges in Worms, court rights and the Jewish Court in Worms. Since the 14th century, the family has succeeded in expanding various ownership complexes between Niederelsass and Hunsrück, with a focus on Wormsgau. This also includes the expansion of power in the towns of Herrnsheim and Abenheim, which began in the 14th century, through the acquisition of feudal rights and property (2). The dominion complex with Herrnsheim and Abenheim was predominantly surrounded by Electoral Palatinate territory. Around 1460 a castle was erected in Herrnsheim (castle) and a surrounding wall was built around the village; between 1470 and 1492 a chapel of the local parish church of St. Peter was converted into a burial place, which has led to the development of the situation of a small residential town in Herrnsheim, which can still be seen today from the buildings and the townscape. Today's Herrnsheim Castle, owned by the town of Worms since 1958, was built together with the important English landscape garden in two construction phases from 1808 to 1814 and from 1820 to 1824. The dominion of Dalberg is a typical middle imperial knighthood territory. Since the late Middle Ages, the Dalberg dynasty had provided the fiefdoms of the Electorate of Mainz and Palatinate and held important ecclesiastical offices, including the bishop of Worms, Johann von Dalberg (1445-1503). The family split into different lines and branches. Outstanding persons for whom the collection contains material are Carl Theodor von Dalberg (1744-1817, Elector of Mainz, Grand Duke of Frankfurt); Wolfgang Heribert von Dalberg (1750-1806, Minister of State in Mannheim, Director of the National Theatre); Johann Friedrich Hugo von Dalberg (1760-1812, bishop and humanist); Emmerich Joseph Duc de Dalberg (1773-1833, diplomat and politician). In 1883 John Dalberg-Acton sold Herrnsheim Castle with all its interior and the park from his family's estate to Cornelius Wilhelm Heyl (Cornelius Wilhelm Freiherr von Heyl zu Herrnsheim), a leather industrialist from Worms, due to financial shortages (3). Thus also the library stored there and the documents and files of the Herrnsheimer Dalberg Archive of the previous owners were transferred to the buyer. After the death of his father in 1923, D. Dr. jur. Cornelius Freiherr Heyl zu Herrnsheim took over the castle, which he officially moved into in April 1929 (4). In the years of the Second World War the documents were relocated several times for safety reasons and probably suffered incomprehensible, but rather smaller losses (5). Until it was converted into an apartment, the Dalberg Archive was housed in a special archive room locked with an iron door in the castle, then in the library in the tower room on the first floor. When Siegfried Freiherr von Heyl zu Herrnsheim, son of D. Dr. jur. Cornelius Frhr. Heyl zu Herrnsheim, sold the castle to the city of Worms in July 1958 (6), the documents, files and official books of the Dalberg archive kept in boxes and bundles were not part of the sale. However, it was to be left on loan to the town on the basis of an agreement with the community of heirs (in autumn 1959) and an inventory was to be taken before a corresponding contract was concluded (7). This work was done by Carl J. H. Villinger (8), who handed over his summary list with the disaggregation to Dr. Georg Illert on 3.7.1964 (9). The draft of the loan contract was completed to the satisfaction of both parties at the end of 1965, so that there was nothing to prevent it from being concluded the following year. On 19 July 1966, lawyer H. Ramge, in his capacity as joint executor of the will, surprisingly approached the city with the offer that it could purchase the Dalberg Archive and the library holdings of Herrnsheim Palace from the estate of D. Dr. jur. Cornelius Freiherr Heyl zu Herrnsheim (10). With the support of the Landesarchivverwaltung Koblenz, which prepared an expert opinion on the basis of Villinger's list, the value was determined and one year later - in July 1967 - the documents were sold to the city. Thus, the Dalberg Archive, which according to the decree of the Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate of 13.7.1961 had been entered into the state register of nationally valuable archives, could remain in Worms as a closed collection (11). A more detailed inventory should then be made, which was completed before the archive was moved to the city archive for security reasons. Villinger had compiled a detailed list of the contents of the 39 archive boxes, the qualitative condition of which was indicated from good to partly very poor, and of the remaining archive documents (12). On the basis of this list of Villingers, the lack of various documents and files as well as individual letters from correspondence series and gaps in official book series could be ascertained (13). In 1980 Siegfried Freiherr Heyl zu Herrnsheim handed over 14 sealed parchment documents and in 1985 his daughter, Mrs. Cornelia von Bodenhausen, another 72, partly decorative documents from the former possession of the treasurers of Worms Freiherr von Dalberg to the Foundation Kunsthaus Heylshof (14). The documents kept there were examined with the consent of the then Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Frhr. Ludwig von Heyl, as part of the project for the Dalberg Regestensammlung under the auspices of Hess. Staatsarchivs Darmstadt microfilmed in Darmstadt in 1985 and included in the Regestenwerk (15). The further written material lying in the Heylshof such as files, correspondence etc. could be taken into account in the preparation of the present repertory (16). Some files, which were offered at an auction in Heidelberg in 1984, could be bought with the support of the Altertumsverein Worms (17). Also in 1994, with the financial support of the Kulturfonds der Wormser Wirtschaft, the city was able to acquire 23 official and accounting books from private sources, which were added to the collection. With the help of this material, gaps in existing series could be closed again. Among these acquisitions was also the inventory "Verzeichnis der Urkunden, Schriftstücke etc. des Kämmerer-Dalbergarchivs Schloß Herrnsheim...", compiled in 1919 by Heyl's librarian and archivist Wilhelm Graf, in which he [until then] had only recorded the documents (18). For the use and recording of the Dept. 159 This inventory, Dept. 159, comprises the Herrnsheimer Dalberg Archive (files and official books), which, together with the other inventories, Dept. 159-U Herrnsheimer Dalberg Archive (documents) and Dept. 159-P Dalberg Plan Collection, comprises the entire collection of the archive of the chamberlains of Worms Freiherr von Dalberg, formerly kept in the Herrnsheimer Palace. As a complex aristocratic archive within the holdings of the Worms City Archive, it is of supra-regional importance. It reflects the work of a knightly aristocratic family with its lordly function and family ties. After the takeover of the material by the city of Worms in 1967, the directory prepared by C. J. H. Villinger served as a finding aid for years. In the archive, the bundles and official books of No. 1 - No. 428 were numbered consecutively and recorded in a corresponding list. While the documents (No. 1 - No. 323, plus sub-numbers (19)) already registered in 1919 by the Heyl's librarian and archivist Wilhelm Graf in document folders with numbers and title entries were initially easy to use, the files and folders with short titles and box numbers contained in the remaining archive boxes were relatively reliably findable, but only vaguely citable due to missing individual signatures. After in the 1980s the processing of the Dalbergian document holdings in Darmstadt, Worms (Stadtarchiv, Heylshof, Pfarrarchiv Herrnsheim) and in other archives had been implemented under the auspices of the Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt, a more precise indexing of the files was started as a further project (20). Dr. Jürgen Rainer Wolf of the Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt processed the documents kept in the other archive boxes of the Worms Dalberg Archive, which were brought to Darmstadt for this purpose. However, only a part of the boxes (21) was opened, and each box was given a number with sub-numbers separated by slashes for the individual pieces contained therein. However, the work did not come to a conclusion. With immediate effect Wolf's finding aid, which also included official book series, had to be used in addition to the directory compiled by Villinger (22). From then on, the use of the holdings was regarded as a particular challenge, especially since there was also a link between the holdings of documents and files. This was because, at the time of the document project, the comprehensive record of documents also included the documents lying dormant in the files, the location of which was then not reliable or only difficult to secure (23). At the beginning of 2011, due to the unsatisfactory usability of the inventory on the one hand and due to the discontinuous and inconsistent depth of distortion on the other hand, the complete new distortion of the file inventory was decided and completed in October 2012. The signatures should not be changed completely, but as many as possible should be preserved and the link with existing old signatures by means of concordance should of course be guaranteed. The titles were recorded directly in the Augias archive program, at the same time the documents were embedded in acid-free archive folders and boxes. "The numbering of the convolutes was retained as signatures and, if necessary, sub-numbers separated by slashes were assigned as soon as the mostly extensive fascicles contained various individual folders. "The official records retained their signatures. "The Wolf's units of description with their signatures (no. 430/1ff - no. 440/1ff) were taken over, sifted through and the existing title recordings were deepened and supplemented on the basis of the newly recorded pieces. "Documents (24) possibly in the files, which were considered in the Dalberger Regesten volumes, were seized with the title admission both over the old signature, and usually with reference to the sequential number in the second volume of the Dalberger Regesten (25). "The further archive boxes not yet taken up by Wolf were continued and listed according to the given pattern, i.e. each further archive box received a new number (No. 442ff (26)) and the individual files, folders etc. preserved therein were provided with sub-numbers, separated by a slash. "The unlisted material found at the end of the inventory was then added with consecutive signatures. "The Dalberg letters purchased on various occasions in the 1970s, mainly letters from Carl Theodor von Dalberg, which had been integrated into the collection at the time, also remained with the new indexing in Dept. 159. " The documents kept at Kunsthaus Heylshof were recorded and selected pieces digitized (27). The digital copies were integrated in the Worms Municipal Archives into the collection of Dept. 159, since the pieces of their provenance can be attributed to the former Herrnsheim Dalberg Archive. In the case of the originals, the signatures of the city archives were noted, while the numbering used in the Heylshof (28) was recorded as an "old signature" in the title recording. This enables targeted access to the originals at Heylshof if required. "Within the scope of the registration work also the files of Dept. 159 N were dissolved (29) and inserted into Dept. 159 (now Dept. 159 No. 852 - No. 884). These are files, correspondence and family papers (mainly on the Petersau donation and the Tascher affair), which obviously also belonged to the Dalberg Archive in the past. These once formed the inventory of Dept. 158 of Dalberg, which must have existed before 1967, about its origin, i.e. (pre-)provenance before transfer into the archive, but no information is available. During the title recording it became apparent that the inventory did not have a coherent structure and that the development of a system would only make sense after completion of the work. The classification was finally drawn up on the basis of the main points of content. The assignment of each individual unit of description to the corresponding classification group then took place in a final work step, after the completion of which a real overview of the contents of the present tradition and its meaning in its entirety could be obtained. Contents The documents that were last kept in the library tower of Herrnsheim Castle before being transferred to the Worms City Archives essentially comprise archival documents relating to the Herrnsheim Dalberg Line. By the marriage (oo 12.1.1771) Wolfgang Heribert von Dalbergs with Elisabetha Augusta nee Ulner von Dieburg (30) as well as by connections of the Dalberger with other families further document and file material was added. The collection of Dept. 159 as part of the Herrnsheimer Dalberg Archive comprises the file and official book tradition, the temporal focus of which clearly lies in the 18th and the first half of the 19th century. The early material (from 1249) is mostly copies of documents. A copy in which a large number of documents were recorded between 1249 and 1469 (31) deserves special mention here. Temporal "runaways" in the 20th century came about through subsequent additions to the holdings. On the one hand, various correspondences and records had been added sporadically at the time of the von Heyl family (32) and on the other hand, in connection with the purchase of Dalberg letters, the corresponding correspondence had been left with the letters (33). The most closed collection within the Dept. 159 is the archive material dating back to Emmerich Joseph von Dalberg (1773-1833). Due to the fact that with him the Herrnsheimer Dalberg line died out in the male tribe, after the death of his father Wolfgang Heribert all administrative matters of the Herrnsheimer line and after the death of his uncle Carl Theodor von Dalberg as his universal heir were incumbent upon him the order and administration of his inheritance including the Regensburg endowment. Furthermore and especially in Dept. 159 there is the diplomatic estate of the Duc de Dalberg with numerous memoirs, correspondence and rich material (targeted collection, own records etc.) on the (foreign) policy of France and other European countries. In addition, its business activities are richly reflected, not least in the activities of the Paravey Bank.