The Easter market
© Stadtarchiv Bocholt
The viewer is in Osterstraße, looking west towards the Ostermarkt. Osterstraße continues to the right and Königstraße can be seen to the left.
In the centre you can see the Easter market, where from 1896 only meat and cheese were sold, and apparently - given the baskets - also live farm animals.
At the turn of the century, the Easter market and its neighbouring streets were also the site of the funfair, where small merry-go-rounds, show and adventure stalls were set up.
Behind the market vendors stands the house of the clockmaker Köster. The row of houses on the right begins with the Mühlfelder toy shop (far right), followed by the Wendholt residence. This is followed by the textile goods shop A. Weyl.
The row of houses on the left begins with the office of the daily newspaper "Grenzwarte", followed - barely recognisable - by the Bocholt branch of the Westfälischer Bankverein and the house of the workers' hospice.
Listen to a conversation about the Bocholt cityscape in 1910 and the living and working conditions of the citizens at that time!
Sources of the audio files
Excerpts from the health commission's situation report, prepared by district physician Dr Julius Munsch
Eduard Westerhoff, Time of upheaval. A time of upheaval. Contributors to Bocholt's social history of the imperial era, Bocholt 2003 (Bocholter Quellen und Beiträge, 12), p. 103.
On the living conditions of textile workers (tuberculosis and other diseases, alcohol addiction, low life expectancy, cramped living conditions and bed sharing)
Eduard Westerhoff, Time of upheaval. A time of new beginnings. Contributors to Bocholt's social history of the imperial era, Bocholt 2003 (Bocholter Quellen und Beiträge, 12), pp. 103-104.
Hermann Josef Stenkamp (ed.), Das Arbeiterhaus. Textile Museum in Bocholt, Essen 2006, pp. 62, 112.
Birgit Seemann, Jeanette Wolff's biographical and political development up to 1933, in: Bernd Faulenbach (ed.), "Habt den Mut zu menschlichem Tun". Die Jüdin und Demokratin Jeanette Wolff in ihrer Zeit (1888-1976), Cloppenburg 2002, pp. 43-60, here p. 44.
On the law concerning the amendment of the Industrial Code
Eduard Westerhoff, Time of upheaval. Time of upheaval. Beiträger zur Bocholter Sozialgeschichte der Kaiserzeit, Bocholt 2003 (Bocholter Quellen und Beiträge, 12), p. 163.
