The Verein für Hamburgische Geschichte (VHG) is a

historical society A historical society (sometimes also preservation society) is an organization dedicated to preserving, collecting, researching, and interpreting historical information or items. Originally, these societies were created as a way to help future gen ...

founded on 9 April 1839, which is open to both professional historians and historically interested laypersons. The society's office and library are located in the .

History

The VHG was founded on 9 April 1839 by Hamburg citizens on the initiative of the . The first chairman of the society, which 62 people joined on the day of its foundation, was until 1865 the historian and Senate archivist

Johann Martin Lappenberg Johann Martin Lappenberg (July 30, 1794 – November 28, 1865) was a German diplomat and historian. Biography He was born at Hamburg, where his father, Valentin Anton Lappenberg (1759–1819), held an official position. He attended the Johanneum ...

. The number of members rose to 242 by the end of the year. From 1937, the archival councillor and later short-term head of the Kurt Detlev Möller as the first chairman. Möller swore the association to hostility towards the Jews in a lecture. To the 18 remaining Jewish members he sent a form in which they were to confirm their "Aryan" origin. Möller came under public criticism after 1945. This occurred not because of his

antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

, but because in a publication on the surrender of Hamburg he criticised the Reichsstatthalter and Gauleiter

Karl Kaufmann Karl Kaufmann (10 October 1900 – 4 December 1969) was a German politician who served as a Nazi Party ''Gauleiter'' from 1925 to 1945 and as the ''Reichsstatthalter'' (Reich Governor) of Hamburg from 1933 to 1945. Early life Kaufmann was the ...

, who had been in office throughout the Third Reich and was jointly responsible for all crimes in Hamburg, and the entire National Socialist leadership of Hamburg in his post-war account ''Das letzte Kapitel. Geschichte der Kapitulation Hamburgs'' ''with a mild account'' partially absolved of guilt and responsibility. This process led to the removal of Kurt Detlev Möller from his post as Head of the State Archives, which he had just taken up, by the Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg. However, the Verein für Hamburgische Geschichte stood by its chairman and kept him in his post until 1957. His Jewish members who were expelled at that time were only commemorated by the association in November 2007 during an extraordinary general meeting. The VHG celebrated its 175th birthday on 9 April 2014 with a ceremony at

Hamburg City Hall Hamburg City Hall (german: link=no, Hamburger Rathaus, ) is the seat of local government of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany. It is the seat of the government of Hamburg and as such, the seat of one of Germany's 16 state parliam ...

. The keynote speech was given by the New York historian

Volker Berghahn Volker Rolf Berghahn (born 15 February 1938) is a historian of German and modern European history at Columbia University. His research interests have included the fin de siècle period in Europe, the origins of World War I, and German-American rel ...

, who grew up in Hamburg. From April 2014 to March 2015, a travelling exhibition entitled "Anchored in the City - 175 Years of the Verein für Hamburgische Geschichte" was shown at several public places in Hamburg. In 2019, the association has around 1143 members, including the historians Frank Bajohr,

Hans-Werner Goetz Hans-Werner Goetz (born 16 July 1947) is a German historian who is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at the University of Hamburg. Biography Hans-Werner Goetz was born in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. From 1969 to 1974, Goetz studied history and ...

, Joist Grolle, Rainer Hering, Franklin Kopitzsch, Wolfgang Kopitzsch, Hans-Dieter Loose,

Angelika Schaser Angelika Schaser (born 1956) is a German historian. Life and career Born in Munich, Schaser studied history, geography and library science in Munich and Berlin. In 1985, she became a research assistant to Ilja Mieck at the Friedrich Meinecke I ...

and Barbara Vogel. The current chairperson is Rainer Nicolaysen. Vice-chairman is Dirk Brietzke. The Verein für Hamburgische Geschichte is one of the few German history and antiquities societies in Germany that can boast a young department. Over time, various contributions and presentations have appeared on the history of the association itself. The VHG is a member of the . Since 1864, the association has awarded the Lappenberg Medal.

Working groups and association activities

Library Committee The library of the VHG comprises about 13,000 volumes (as of 2020) on the

history of Hamburg Hamburg was founded in the 9th century as a mission settlement to convert the Saxons. Since the Middle Ages, it has been an important trading center in Europe. The convenient location of the port and its independence as a city and state for centur ...

, its districts and neighbouring regions as well as the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German to ...

. The Library Committee has the task of administering the library, taking in new books, cataloguing and signing them, arranging the holdings, deciding on new acquisitions, accepting donations (for example from budget liquidations), repairing damaged books. There are exchange partnerships with a number of Hamburg and non-Hamburg institutions for the exchange of new publications. The numerous duplicates from donations are offered to the members of the association in a book flea market. The holdings of the association's library have not yet been entered in the union catalogue of Hamburg libraries. The books can be viewed and borrowed on site in the association's rooms at the State Archives. Historical Excursions Committee The Committee for Historical Excursions cultivates the knowledge of Hamburg's history and its research in excursions and tours. These tours or trips are each prepared and led by two members of the committee and, depending on the topic, supplemented and supported by experts. The spectrum ranges from theme-related walks and bicycle tours, museum tours to round trips of several days through northern Germany or abroad. Working Group "Young Association" In order to counter a foreseeable ageing and loss of members, the VHG started in 2013 to recruit members among students and pupils (among others, the membership fee is waived for members up to the age of 28). The "younger" members (about 14–40 years old) meet regularly for regulars' evenings after museum tours and lectures. Recurring events include the colloquium "From the BA thesis to the dissertation", self-organised museum visits and further training, as well as participation in

pub quiz A pub quiz is a quiz held in a pub or bar. These events are also called quiz nights, trivia nights, or bar trivia and may be held in other settings. Pub quizzes may attract customers to a pub who are not found there on other days. The pub quiz is ...

zes. According to a study published in 2016, a good 200 of the 1,100 members belonged to the "young association" working group at that time. Working Group on Remembrance From 2007 to 2017, members of the VHG met to report, discuss and write down their personal memories on various topics. During this time, the work of the working group has resulted in several books dealing with topics such as Living in Hamburg, School Days in Hamburg or "Essen und Trinken in Hamburg". Stumbling Stone Research Group From 2013 to 2017, a group consisting mainly of association members researched the biographies of Nazi victims for whom Stolpersteine have been laid in the

Grindel Grindel (french: Grandelle) is a municipality in the district of Thierstein in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. History Grindel is first mentioned in 1147 as ''Crindil''. Geography Grindel has an area, , of . Of this area, or 41.2% i ...

district of Hamburg-Rotherbaum. In cooperation with the Hamburg Stolperstein Initiative the and the , the collected biographies and research results were published in the series ''Biografische Spurensuche''.

Publications

One of the main fields of activity of the VHG is the editing and publication of writings on the history of Hamburg. The main publication is the annual ' (ZHG). Essays, research reports and reviews are published in the journal. The members' magazine ''Tiedenkieker - Hamburgische Geschichtsblätter'', also published annually, contains smaller contributions on persons, institutions and events from Hamburg's history, as well as news from the life of the association. The predecessor of the ''Tiedenkieker'' was initially the ''Mitteilungen des Vereins für Hamburgische Geschichte'' (MHG), which was replaced in 1926 by the ''Hamburgische Geschichts- und Heimatblätter'' (HGH). Both ZHG and the ''Tiedenkieker''Digitised holdings of the Tiedenkieker from 2010
at the Hamburg State and University Library. and its predecessors, are searchable by full text search in the holdings of the . In addition to the periodicals, the ZHG also publishes scientific research literature and special publications in loose succession. Since 1969, the series ''Beiträge zur Geschichte Hamburgs'' has been published with 68 volumes so far (as of 2020). The books of the ''Hamburgische Lebensbilder'' have been published in 25 volumes so far. Since 2018, both series have been managed by in Göttingen.

Chairpersons

* 1839–1865 Johann Martin Lappenberg * 1867–1872 Wilhelm Hübbe * 1872–1888 Johann Friedrich Voigt * 1888–1912 Theodor Schrader * 1912–1937 Hans Nirrnheim * 1937–1957 Kurt Detlev Möller * 1957–1974 Jürgen Bolland * 1975–2005 Hans-Dieter Loose * 2005–2007 Udo Schäfer * 2007–2011 Joist Grolle * seit 2011 Rainer Nicolaysen

History

Working groups and association activities

Publications

Chairpersons

References

Further reading