Fonds SN13 - War Collection 1914 - 1918

As in many other cities of the German Reich between 1914 and 1918, the first plans for the systematic development of a war (commemorative) collection began in Bonn in February 1916 - and thus comparably late. According to the will of the city and at the instigation of the then Bonn city archivist Prof. Knickenberg and the Bonn Vaterland associations who played a decisive role in the project, the collection, which was to be made up of association and private holdings, was to form the basis for a war museum which was to be erected especially for this purpose and ultimately never realised. A call to the population printed in the Deutsche Reichszeitung on May 21, 1916 was hoped to result in numerous donations of private objects and documents from the wide context of the war ("memorabilia in the widest sense"). However, the reaction to this was rather subdued: The "Photographische Gesellschaft Bonn" regretted for lack of material - due to the strict prohibition of photography at the beginning of the war - to be able to make only a small contribution in the form of three photographs of the arrival of a military hospital train at the freight station. The scout corps in Bonn, already in possession of its own "collection of memorabilia, copies of documents on war activities", at least expressed its willingness to participate. The Bonn Fleet Association "Jung Deutschland" at least sent its pamphlets. Special consideration was given to the topic of "School and War", which was discussed in the Frankfurter Zeitung on 10 December 1915 in the style of an "Ostmärkische Ausstellung" (East Mark Exhibition), and to which a separate section within the museum was to be devoted. Schools in Bonn were encouraged to document school life that had been influenced and changed by the war (topics of instruction, recruitment of teachers, fallen teachers, gifts of love, etc.). In the case of existing collections, an inclusion in the municipal war collection should be examined.<lb/> In fact, however, hardly any school material seems to have found its way into the collection - there is nothing in the surviving holdings on this subject. Since, however, many school chronicles for the time of the First World War report very extensively, it can be assumed that at least in this way the war documentation demanded by the school council was taken into account. What was particularly desired for the war collection were "photographs of all kinds [...], pictures of events, especially from the first period of the world war, also of Bonners at the front or of temporary associations for the purposes of the war, such as the wool collector, the boy scouts, etc.", Field letters [...], drawings from the field, diaries, rarer prints with essays about things in which our Bonners were involved or which were written by our Bonners, descriptions of events at home and outside, e.g. how our heroes, whose pictures should not be missing, earned their decorations, also drawings, letters, jokes from children in memory of how the great war is reflected in the soul of the youth [...]". A special collection point was even set up to receive the objects and documents.<lb/> <lb/> In the end, the holdings (stock abbreviation: Kr) counted a mere 44 units of indexes, in addition to a collection of "war and war economics literature", which was presumably absorbed into the holdings of the Stadthistorische Bibliothek (partly still today under the signature abbreviation I g ...). In the twenties, an additional urban "special collection of war files" with 131 files from various municipal registries was created within the "Prussian period" holdings (stock abbreviation: K). In the 1930s, subsequent additions expanded the city's special stock to 149 units of registration, which were subsequently reduced by 26 units through cassations. In 2001, the non-urban and urban collections were combined to form the "War Collection 1914-1918" (stock abbreviation: SN 13). This was last supplemented in 2007 by a further two new entries to a total of 149 (8 linear metres) units of distortion.

Special stock. Files of various municipal registries (from the 1920/30s) as well as collections from associations and private collections.

Bonn City Archive

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