History of the Wittgenstein Heritage Society
The history of the Wittgenstein Heritage Society dates back to 1913. At that time, the „Verein für Geschichte und Volkskunde Wittgensteins” was founded, which soon had 700 members. The main goal of the association was stated in its name: Research into the history of Wittgenstein. At that time, this was mainly served by the publications in the „Mitteilungen”. The First World War, which set in shortly after its foundation, and the economic situation thereafter led to an end of the activities of the association as early as 1927 – however, the club was not dissolved. Subsequently, the opportunity arose to publish historical contributions in the magazine „Das schöne Wittgenstein” published by the Schmidt printing house in Laasphe, until the Second World War drew a final stroke. Professor Wilhelm Hartnack, who, like his father Karl Hartnack, was very concerned with researching the history of Wittgenstein; he came back to Laasphe after the Second World War. After the currency reform, together with pastor Gustav Bauer, he tried to revive the old historical society under a new name as the „Wittgensteiner Heimatverein”. However, the time was not yet ripe for this.
It was not until 1954 that there were concrete approaches, which finally led to success on 14 April 1956. A new statute of the „Wittgensteiner Heimatverein e.V.” was adopted. The chairmanship was taken over by the Oberkreisdirektor Mr. Gustav Richter. From now on, the publication of the association was the magazine „Wittgenstein – Blätter des Wittgensteiner Heimatvereins”. In 1963 Mr. Gustav Richter relinquished the chairmanship, followed by Oberkreisdirektor Mr. Wilfried Lückert, who headed the association until 1990. From 1990 to February 2015, lawyer Mr. Gerd Karpf was chairman of the association.
Since April 2015, Mr. Otto Marburger has been the 1st Chairman. As a field of work of the resurrected association, the goals of 1913 were taken up in an extended form: The research and presentation of Wittgenstein’s history and regional studies. Since then, the issues of the magazine „Wittgenstein” and larger supplements and special publications have served this purpose. The first supplements were: „Das Wittgensteiner Landrecht” and „Die Berleburger Chroniken”, both frequently quoted volumes. In addition, other special publications such as „Die Vogelwelt Wittgensteins” by Mr. Albrecht Belz and Mr. Heinz König or the four-volume history of Bad Berleburg in the period between 1900 and 1949 by Heinz Strickhausen were published.
