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There is ample proof that the people of Bocholt are not inferior to the people of Berlin when it comes to inventing names and designations for certain things. For example, they called the house of the manufacturer Anton Tangerding, who kept the altarpieces for the hail processions, the "Vatican", and the landlord was of course "Pius".

When he started to build factory flats for his weavers on Wertherstrasse, the estate was quickly renamed "Rom", a name that has stuck to this day. So where was this "Cafe Wellblech" located? Older Bocholters will certainly remember the Bocholt-Aalten-Lichtervoorde steam tramway. At the terminus, on today's Meckenemstraße, roughly opposite the Volksbank building, there was a green-painted building made of corrugated iron.

Perhaps the official name of this corrugated iron hut did not have the right ring to Bocholt ears. A suitable term was invented for Bocholt. - And for those who still don't know what it was, there was a clearly visible sign with Prussian-style instructions on the way out: "Before leaving, please tidy your clothes!"

In 1976, the Carl-Isert-Weg was named after Carl Isert (1895-1956), the first managing director of the Bocholt Association for Local History.

Lit:
Wilhelm Seggewiß, Bocholter Straßen erzählen Geschichte, in: UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 40 (1989), H. 3, p. 57.
Gerhard Schmalstieg, Straßennamen in Bocholt nach nur hier bekannten Personen, in: UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 55 (2004) H. 4, p. 53-72.

The caricaturist Kurt Cerny was known far beyond Bocholt. His work was published in over 400 national and international magazines and newspapers. His trademark was the bulbous-nosed man with the not quite closed nose. Kurt Cerny knew how to recognise the weaknesses and vanities of his fellow human beings through precise observation and how to portray them in an accurate and indulgent, but never hurtful way.

For Bocholt newspaper readers, he created the characters "Ohme and Bännätzken", who commented on local events in the Bocholter-Borkener-Volksblatt every weekend from 1955 until his death in 1979 in a critical but always funny way. Cerny captured these two Bocholt characters with their typical idiosyncrasies so accurately that they became an integral part of the Bocholt carnival and lovingly poked fun at the people of Bocholt.

Another of Cerny's works are the exercise boards along the trim trail in Bocholt's city forest. Here he makes the female figures look extremely attractive and positive, while the men do their exercises with their tongues hanging out and often scowling, a sign that he did not take his own gender and therefore himself quite so seriously.

Kurt Cerny died on 6 November 1979 at the age of 66.

The history of the town of Bocholt is closely linked to the Christianisation of our homeland. It was initiated by the baptism of the Frankish king Clovis in 496. The Christianisation of the peoples on the other side of the Rhine was of interest to the Merovingian kings for political reasons. The mission was carried out by Irishmen and Franks and Gallo-Romans educated in their spirit.

New Christianisation tendencies of the Carolingians can then be seen under the reign of Pippin the Middle (d. 714). Missionaries trained in Ireland took up their missionary endeavours in West Friesland without success. Around 690, the two St Ewalds paid for their advance into the Saxon land in the area around Bocholt with their lives.

Effective missions in Germania on the right bank of the Rhine also failed to materialise in the middle of the 8th century. When Charles took up his regiment in 768, the Saxons threatened the borders of the empire. Several campaigns against them were necessary. In 779, the Saxons attempted to stop King Charles' advance at "loco qui dicitur Bohholz" or "Buocholt".

After Charlemagne's victory over the Saxons, the Münsterland and Bocholt were assigned to the diocese of Utrecht when the mission territories were divided up. It is considered certain that Abbot Bernrad was active as a missionary in the western Münsterland from there around 780 - around 25 years before the diocese of Münster was founded.

The main church of St George in Bocholt is generally considered to have been founded by the first Bishop of Münster, Ludgerus. However, it was probably founded around 800 by the Bishop of Utrecht. Archaeological excavations in the church, which was destroyed in 1945, did not reveal a wooden building as the first church, but only the remains of a stone building from the 11th/12th century.

After Bernrad's death (790), Charlemagne appointed the missionary Ludgerus to proselytise in the Münsterland. By the time he was consecrated Bishop of Münster in March 804, the Christianisation of the Münsterland was essentially complete.

Lit:

Manfred Becker-Huberti, Die Christianisierung des Westmünsterlandes, in: UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 30 (1979) Sonderheft, pp. 12-18.
Heinz Breuer, St George in Bocholt, in: UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 37 (1986) H. 3/4, p. 8 ff.
Heinz Terhorst, Chronik zur Bocholter Kirchengeschichte von den Anfängen bis 1900 (Bocholter Quellen und Beiträge, vol. 8), Bocholt 1998, p. 5 ff, p. 8 f, p. 10 f.
see also: Cemetery, Frankish-Saxon

At the end of the 19th century, the large increase in the number of parishioners made it necessary to build a new Protestant church. This was built in neo-Gothic brick style on the site of the burnt-down Schwartz spinning mill on Münsterstraße.

The architect was Julius Otter from Wesel. The foundation stone was laid on 1 July 1900 and the church was consecrated on 15 November 1901. The building was designed with two naves, and the option of a second side aisle was only abandoned in the 1950s. The church was declared a monument in 1983.

The interior of the "Evangelische Kirche" (since 1963 "Christuskirche") has changed its appearance several times. Originally whitewashed, the church was given a colourful paint job in 1926, which was whitewashed over in 1953. Finally, in 1991, the interior was given its current appearance with the uncovering of the rust-coloured clinker bricks.

• Bells: Bochumer Verein (1951);
• Organ: Breil (Dorsten, 1974);
• Windows (designs): Johannes Theissing (Bocholt, 1951) and P. Thol (Berlin, 1952 - 1954).

Literature: Winfried Grunewald, 100 Jahre Christuskirche Bocholt, (1901 - 2001), in: UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 52 (2001) H. 2, p. 4-20 (with details of sources and further literature).
www.christuskirche-bocholt.de

In 1947, the Kreuzberg School - a municipal primary school - had to be divided due to the constantly increasing number of pupils. The school district north of Münsterstraße was assigned to the Kreuzbergschule, the southern district to the newly founded school in memory of the cardinal, the "Lion of Münster", who died in 1946. The new school was opened on 29 October 1947.

Headmaster Clemens Drees (born 1894) became the first headmaster. Initially, pupils from both schools were taught in shifts in the old building of the Kreuzbergschule, which was built in 1908/09. The new building, constructed in 1928, was completely destroyed during the war, but was reopened in 1952. In the meantime, the Kreuzberg School had been established as a girls' school and the Clemens August School as a boys' school. The latter moved into the old building in 1952, but was given two additional classrooms in the new building.

Headmaster Drees retired in March 1960 and was succeeded by Clemens Brinkmann.

From 1960, a new community centre was built in the new settlement area of Heutings Esch, for which Prof. Gottfried Böhm was selected following an ideas competition organised by the town. Construction of the new school began in 1962 and the first phase of construction was inaugurated on 8 November 1963, followed by the second phase in July 1969. A separate school district was set up for the then boys' and girls' school, which included the parish of St Paul.

During the reorganisation of the school system in NRW, the school was converted into a Catholic primary school on 1 August 1968. In the following years, the number of pupils grew so much that in 1970 the school was divided by decision of the town council. The Pestalozzi School was created as a Christian community primary school. Parents had a free choice of enrolment.

On 23 July 1986, headmaster Clemens Brinkmann retired and was succeeded by Alfred Lennartz. In 1996, the school became a reliable half-day school with care from 7.30 am to 2.00 pm. Today it is an open all-day school and offers childcare until the afternoon. On 26 February 2007, headteacher Alfred Lennartz left the school and the new headteacher is Barbara Schweers.

Source: www.clemens-august-schule.bocholt.de

In May 1844, the first Clemens Sisters took up their duties at the Barmherzige Anstalt in Bocholt. They belonged to the Order of Nurses founded in Münster in 1808, which had set itself the task of providing care and nursing for sick people in its own institutions in view of the inadequate health care in the country. In Bocholt, an association was founded in 1842 to establish an institution that would provide help and care to the poorer sections of the population in the event of illness. Until then, people who were destitute or could not be cared for at home had been accommodated and cared for in the infirmaries of the Bocholt poorhouse.

With the funds raised by the association, a building was purchased in 1843 and the Barmherzige Anstalt was established. Membership fees from the association members, charity events and testamentary donations in favour of the hospital ensured the continued existence of this institution. In 1852, Cardinal Melchior von Diepenbrock donated his birthplace on Osterstraße to the now state-recognised and legally independent hospital, where it was housed for a good twenty years.

In 1874/75, the St Agnes Hospital building was constructed on Schonenberg. Due to Bocholt's rapid development into an industrial city, it was repeatedly extended. During the two world wars, the Clemens nurses cared for wounded and sick soldiers and civilians there. When the hospital burned down completely on 22 March 1945, the sick and wounded were accommodated at Hambrock Manor, in the forest recreation centre and in the city forest camp. Over time, the building on Schonenberg, which was rebuilt by 1953, no longer met the requirements of modern medical care, so the hospital was moved to the new building in Bocholt-Stenern in 1985. The Clemens Sisters still work there today.

Lit:
Reginfrieda, Sister Marie, Die Clemensschwestern im St.-Agnes-Hospital Bocholt, in UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 36 (1985), pp. 61-64.
Mechthild Theilmeier-Wahner. Astrid Strathausen, Hans D. Oppel, Frauen in Bocholt im Wandel derZeit, in: UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 42 (1991), H 3, p. 31.

Helga and Werner Sundermann

The Clemens-Dülmer-Weg commemorates Clemens Dülmer (1909-1967), honorary citizen of Bocholt, provost and pastor of the Liebfrauen parish.

Lit:
Wilhelm Seggewiß, Bocholter Straßen erzählen Geschichte, in: UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 40 (1989), H. 3, pp. 62-63.
Gerhard Schmalstieg, Straßennamen in Bocholt nach nur hier bekannten Personen, in: UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 55 (2004) H. 4, p. 53-72.

After the Langenbergschule was dissolved in 1991, the Clemens-Dülmer-Schule is the successor school to the first and oldest school in the city of Bocholt, the Altstadtschule. It was created during the reorganisation of the school system in NRW, when the former Langenbergschule was divided into a Catholic secondary school and a Catholic primary school. The primary school moved into the old Bodelschwingschule building on Ostwall, which was retained as a Protestant primary school and moved into the extension. The school district of the Langenberg primary school was expanded to include part of the school district of the Diepenbrockschule, which became a Montessori school for the whole city of Bocholt. Mrs Anna Bergmann became the first headmistress.

On 21 January 1969, the school was renamed Clemens Dülmer School in memory of the priest of Liebfrauen, Provost Clemens Dülmer, who died in 1967.

Rector Bergmann retired on 28 January 1971 and was succeeded by Rector Clemens Schürholz.

Since the beginning of the 1972 school year, the school has provided mother-tongue lessons for Spanish children, and later also for Serbian, Croatian, Albanian and Russian children from the entire city area. In 1970, the school itself only had 4 foreign pupils, by 1971 it had 20, and in 1991/92 there were 43 pupils of various foreign origins, 23% of all pupils at the school.

Headmaster Clemens Schürholz retired in 1992 and was succeeded by headmaster Hermann Anschlag, who ran the school until the end of the 1999/2000 school year. He was succeeded by headmistress Ingrid Achtzehn in 2001.

Following the closure of the Bodelschwingh School, the Clemens-Dülmer School was also able to use the extension building from 1989.

Since 1 February 1995, the school has been a " reliable half-day school" offering childcare from 7.30 am to 1.45 pm.

Since 1 August 2009, the Clemens-Dülmer School has taken on the pupils of the Edith-Stein School.

Lit:
Chronicle of the Clemens-Dülmer-School 1968 to 2007, Chronicle of the Bocholt area, compiled by W. Tembrink, Bocholter Quellen und Beiträge Vol.9, published by Stadtarchiv Bopcholt, Bocholt 2001, p. 234.

Even before 1800, Levy Coßmann Cohen bought the "Stennekes Kamp" on the Westend to build a (hand) spinning mill for his sons David and Levi Michael.

In 1823, Salomon Silberberg, married to Engeline Coßmann Cohen, took over the business.

In 1844, the land and buildings were sold to August Cornelius Tangerding. In 1863, Cosmann Cohen and David Zaudi founded a new company under the above-mentioned name, still producing with hand looms. In 1872 they switched to industrial production. The first factory was located on the corner of Kaiser-Wilhelm-Str./Karolingerstr. The residential building was at Kaiser-Wilhelm-Str. 22. The company had another factory on Industriestr. at the address of the Ferdinand Schüring weaving mill.

In 1924, the company had 600 looms. In 1929, the owners Emil Cohen, Max Cohen and Carl Magnus closed the business without any economic constraints. There were no male successors in the family.

Lit:
Eduard Westerhoff, Die Bocholter Textilindustrie. Unternehmer und Unternehmen, 2nd revised edition, Verlag Temming Bocholt 1984, 255 pp.

Hermann Cohen, born in Bocholt in 1887, suffered from polio and could only get around with the help of a wheelchair. After graduating from St George's Grammar School in 1907, he studied Modern Philology in Berlin and Münster. He later helped many Jewish friends to emigrate from Germany by teaching them English.

He himself was unable to emigrate. Together with the last Jews from Bocholt, Hermann Cohen was deported from Bocholt to the Theresienstadt ghetto on 27 July 1942, where he was murdered on 27 April 1943.

Crispinus and his brother Crispinianus - members of the Roman aristocracy who had converted to Christianity - helped missionaries in Gaul. In Soissons, they practised active charity as shoemakers and were tortured and beheaded in 287 as early Christian witnesses to the faith. They later became patron saints of shoemakers.

The shoemakers' guild that exists today was founded in 1406 as the second craftsmen's guild in the town of Bocholt. The first Bocholt Crispinus Festival took place in the same year.

According to oral tradition, in later times a shoemaker had his workshop in the tower of St George's Church in Bocholt. This man recognised a fire in the church tower at an early stage. His quick and considered action prevented greater damage. (Whether this event is connected to the fire in the church tower caused by a lightning strike on 5 May 1593 is not known). In gratitude, the Bocholt Shoemakers' Guild, now known as the Crispinus Guild, was granted the privilege of ringing all the bells of St. George's Church every year on the eve of the Crispinus Festival (25 October) from 5.00 to 6.00 pm and celebrating a mass for the guild's deceased on the morning of the feast day. Afterwards, all master craftsmen, journeymen and apprentices working in the shoemaking trade meet for the traditional sausage meal.

Due to time-related interruptions in times of war and hardship, the 350th Crispinus Festival could only be celebrated in 1980. To mark this festival, a statue of St Crispinus carved in Kevelaer was placed on a pillar in the north aisle of St George's Church. Crispinusplatz and Crispinusstraße are also located in the neighbourhood of the church.

Sources:

Fritz Lindenberg, Der Goldene Boden Die 10 Gildenbriefe der Stadt Bocholt, here: Guild letter of the shoemakers' guild from 1406, Grabenstätt 1967.
Hans Terworth, Die Geschichte der Crispinusgilde, unpublished manuscript n.d.
Heinz Terhorst, Chronik zur Bocholter Kirchengeschichte von den Anfängen bis 1900, vol. 8, p. 83 (Bocholter Quellen und Beiträge), Bocholt 1998.
Accompanying text to the Crispinus statue in St George's Church, Bocholt.