H

Born Bocholt 23.9.1924, died ibid. 25.7.2007. Clergyman; son of the retired captain and later factory owner Hermann Haertl (1885-1967). In 1943, Rupprecht Haertl passed his Abitur at the municipal grammar school for boys in Bocholt, then studied theology and entered the Benedictine monastery in Schweiklberg/Vilshofen as Oblate Father Godehard OSB on 22 August 1951. One month later, Rupprecht Haertl was ordained a priest in Münster on 29 September 1951.

He was then sent to Warendorf St Marien for four years as chaplain. From 1955, he worked as a vicar in Oelde St. Johannes and from 1963-1964 as a vicar in Telgte St. Clemens and pastor at St. Johannes, before becoming pastor there and parish priest in 1965. Between 1968 and 1980, he worked as a parish priest and temporary assistant in Lüdinghausen-Seppenrade St Dionysius, then as parish priest of St Johannes in Bislich, where he initiated the local museum.

From 1991, Rupprecht Haertl lived as pastor emeritus in the local parish of St Josef. Until the beginning of 2007, he worked as a pastor in the Cardinal Diepenbrock Foundation and held services in the St Agnes Chapel on Schonenberg. He was a member of the Bocholt Holy Cross Brotherhood Confraternitas Bocholdiensis and, together with Josef Zormaier, wrote the "Genealogy and Family Chronicle of the Pummerer and Haertl" in 1993.

Rupprecht Haertl was buried in the Bislich cemetery on 2 August 2007.

In 1886, the farmers' harvest was destroyed by storms, hailstorms and thunderstorms. A great famine set in and many people emigrated to America. It was therefore decided to replace an existing hail cross in the middle of the farmers' fields on Nesseweg, now Benningsstiege, with a new hail cross.

In 1960/61, all paths were relocated in the course of land consolidation and the hail cross was given a new location on the corner of Vennweg and Pannemannstraße.

Lit:
Pfarrgemeinde Maria Trösterin (ed.), 50 Jahre Maria Trösterin Mussum, Bocholt (2000), 74 p. see also: procession, hailstorm celebration

When the primary schools were divided into primary and lower secondary schools, the primary school children in the municipality of Barlo in the Liedern-Werth district were initially allocated the rooms of the Marienschule on Barloer Ringstraße on 1 August 1970 and the Barlo pupils in years 5 - 9 attended the Josephschule in Binnenheide as part of the planned Stenern lower secondary school. The buildings had to be swapped at the end of the first half of the year due to a decision by the local council. The new building in Stenern never materialised.

In several school community meetings, the parents successfully fought to retain the secondary school site in Barlo. In 1973, three more classrooms were added to the Marienschule by extending the attic and in 1974, four pavilion classes, a teaching kitchen and a work and physics room were added. All classes now had lessons in Barlo.

In 1975, the new gymnasium was finally put into operation. As part of the municipal reorganisation, the municipality of Barlo was incorporated into Bocholt in 1975 and the secondary school was given the name Hamaland-Schule because the previous name was not to lead to confusion with Mariengymnasium. When the required two-stream capacity was no longer guaranteed, the parents' protest was unsuccessful. The Hamaland School was dissolved on 1 August 1991 and affiliated to the Hohe Giethorst School. However, the Hamaland School building continued to be used until 1996.

Headmaster of the Hamaland School:

• 1970 - 1980 Ignatz Berger
• 1980 - 1991 Gerd Wiesmann

Lit.: Commemorative publication 20 years of Hamaland School

Haus Hambrock, formerly Haus Büling, is located in the north of the town of Bocholt in the district of Stenern in a lowland area surrounded by several moats. The property covers around 55,000 square metres and the estate itself consists of the manor house, a gatehouse, a barn and an extensive deer park.

It was built between 1180 and 1222 as a former episcopal-munster fiefdom. It was first mentioned in documents in 1390 as the property of the Bocholt ministerial family van den Haghen.

Over the centuries, the owners changed: Büling House passed to the Dutch Hambrock family through marriage in 1573 and remained in their possession for almost 200 years. In 1709, Lambert Jobst von Hambrock built the house that still stands today. The year of construction can still be seen in the double coat of arms above the entrance portal.

In 1751, Robert Hendrick von Hambrock sold his property to Dr Cornelius Hagemann. After inheritance disputes, the great-grandsons sold the property, which then passed through several hands until it came to Dr Theodor Hagedorn in 1895. In the following years, a large part of the property was sold. The rest was acquired in 1913 by Ewald Hegerfeld from Bochum, who restored the aristocratic residence. In 1927, St Agnes Hospital in Bocholt acquired the estate, formerly known as Haus Büling, which was used as a farm and convalescent home, and finally as a retirement home for the hospital's nurses (Clemensschwestern). As such, it was renovated in the eighties of the last century at a cost of around six million DM.

In 2003, the last nuns moved out and the 40 rooms - including three lounges, the house chapel inaugurated in 1930, various kitchens, bathrooms and vaulted cellars - on a living space of 1,200 square metres stood empty. The last five nuns spent their twilight years in the nursing home of the Anholt hospital. Gut Hambrock was therefore deserted and, due to the lack of possible uses, was increasingly becoming a cost factor for St Agnes Hospital. The board of trustees decided to sell the estate with the aim of securing its continued existence, taking into account the requirements of landscape and monument protection.

The St. Agnes Hospital Bocholt Foundation therefore sold the Hambrock estate in the Stenern district on 12 March 2007 to a company based in Bocholt, which wanted to set up a training centre for its employees in the existing premises. In the longer term, the estate was to be made accessible to the Bocholt population again in its rural idyll.

Lit:

Anton Schmeddinghoff, Haus Büling, in: Heimatkalender des Kreises Borken, 4th year (1927), pp. 28-35, Valder 1984, pp. 380-387.
Stefan Selhorst, Haus Büling, in UNSER BOCHOLT 2nd vol. (1951), H 11, p. 215. Anna Lindenberg, "Gottes Mühlen mahlen langsam", in: UNSER BOCHOLT; 10th vol. (1953), H 4, pp. 30-32.
N.N., Manor houses in and around Bocholt, Haus Büling gen. Hambrock Vol. 10 (1959), H. 4, p. 30.
Stenern - Haus Büling Gut Hambrock, article in: Wilhelm Rave, Bearb. u.a., Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler von Westfalen. Ed. by W. Rave, vol. 46, Borken district, (Münster 1954), pp. 447-450.
Herbert Welling in: Gut Hambrock - Stiftung St-Agnes, illustrated book commemorating 80 years of ownership (1927 - 2007), Bocholt 2007.

Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Hamelberg promoted the development of local agriculture and forestry in Spork, which was characterised by vast, low-yield heathland, among other things. Shortly after 1800, he acquired the Gries farm and subsequently seven neighbouring farms and built Haus Heidefeld. He introduced stable feeding, which had previously been unknown in the area, and purchased good breeding stock from the Netherlands and the Lower Rhine, thus increasing his livestock every year. He devoted himself to afforestation with pine trees, neglected fruit growing, especially by planting apple trees, the cultivation of vines - a first for the local area - and the development and maintenance of paths and country roads.

In order to boost sales of agricultural produce and save the farmers long journeys, he had a grain brandy distillery and a windmill built, the famous Sporker Bockwindmühle, and settled a blacksmith. After his death in 1834, Georg Ferdinand von Hamelberg, who later became district administrator of the Borken district, took over the Heidefeld estate.

Lit:

Anna Lindenberg, Haus Heidefeld. Families in the borderland, in: UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 15 (1964), H. 4, pp. 22-26.
Werner Sundermann, Anecdotes about the lieutenant colonel Freiherr von Hamelberg at Haus Heidefeld, in: UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 15 (1964), H. 4, pp. 27-29.

Hamelbergstraße is intended to commemorate the district administrator Georg Hermann Ferdinand Freiherr von Hamelberg (1798-1870).

Lit:
Wilhelm Seggewiß, Bocholter Straßen erzählen Geschichte, in: UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 40 (1989), H. 3, p. 61.
Gerhard Schmalstieg, Straßennamen in Bocholt nach nur hier bekannten Personen, in: UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 55 (2004) H. 4, p. 53-72.

Entry in the commercial register on 21 Oct 1897.

One year later, the spinning mill with a sizing plant was built at Werther Str. 78. The company was shut down in 1916 and sold to Hammersen, Osnabrück, in 1918. At the beginning of the Second World War, 35,000 spindles and 360 looms were in operation, which were shut down in 1941. The first looms started up again in April 1946, with one weaver operating four looms at an hourly wage of 0.75 Reichsmark. In 1992, the company was taken over by Dierich-Holding AG, Augsburg, and finally closed with 75 employees in March 1993.

Lit:
Aus der Geschichte und zum Wiederaufbau der Firma F.H.Hammersen in Bocholt, in: Unser Bocholt,4.Jg.(1953),H.6,p.191-204.
Eduard Westerhoff, The Bocholt textile industry. Unternehmer und Unternehmen, 2nd revised edition, Verlag Temming Bocholt 1984, 255 pp.

In 1983, five historical hand grenades were found in a rubbish pit at the "Altes Stadthaus" (now Crispinusplatz) during excavations by the Bocholt Archaeological Group. The examination of the finds in the laboratory of the Imperial Palace of Paderborn provided clues as to the method of manufacture, construction and intended use of the weapons. Three of the grenades are made of non-ferrous metal (bronze). The other two are made of cast iron. Wooden pins for the firing mechanism had been preserved in the iron examples. This makes these hand grenades unique examples of early German weaponry. The hollow pellets were manufactured by casting in two-part moulds.

Remains of textile were found on all of the specimens. This was evidently a seal between the firing pin and the metal to protect the powder charge from moisture penetration. Another special feature of the find: The weapons did not come from a magazine depot. The Bocholt hand grenades are all filled with powder and were therefore ready for immediate use.

Dating of the hand grenades: Around 1600.

They were probably intended for the conflicts of the 80-year Spanish-Dutch War, which began in 1568. Bocholt was severely affected several times, especially in 1598, when a Spanish army under the command of Field Marshal Mendoza besieged the town and occupied it for months after its capture (Spanish Winter). It is possible that the people of Bocholt wanted to use hand grenades in defence.

Lit:
Herbert Westphal, Handgranaten aus der Zeit um 1600, in: UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 38 (1987) H.2/3, p.52-54.

Craft businesses in Bocholt represent a significant part of the local economy. This can be seen from the number of businesses registered in 2005 alone. Almost 800 businesses are registered in the so-called full trades, whether or not they require a master craftsman's licence, and around 250 are registered as similar trades. This results in an approximate number of employees in the trades of around 7,000 people.

Bocholt's skilled trades are centred on the main construction and ancillary building trades, as well as metalworking. The number of craft businesses is so large that not all of them can find employment in the city and the surrounding area. Craftsmen from Bocholt are mainly employed in the Ruhr area and on the left bank of the Lower Rhine within a radius of around 80 kilometres. Work in the neighbouring Netherlands is rather rare, but there is a definite upward trend.

Lit:
Karl-Heinz Büning, Das Handwerk im Raum Bocholt, in: UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 23 (1972), H. 1/2, pp. 54-56.
Karl-Heinz Büning, Die Entwicklung der berufsstandlichen Organisationen in Handwerk und Kaufmannschaft in Bocholt 1900-1975 (abridged version of the chronicle of the same name), in: UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 35 (1984), H. 1/2, pp. 74-82.

Craft guilds are the successors to the guilds and guilds of the Middle Ages. Such guilds have been documented for Bocholt since 1386, and their activities are described in the book "er Goldene Boden" by Fritz Lindenberg.

The first new guilds were founded in Bocholt in more recent times in 1899 with the bakers' and confectioners' guild, painters' and decorators' guild, tailors' guild, shoemakers' guild and in 1900 with the builders' guild and the butchers' guild. In the following years, more and more guilds were founded. While the above-mentioned trade guilds existed in Bocholt, there was also a free trade guild to which all other trades belonged. Such independent guilds were also founded in Rhede and Dingden.

The year 1934 saw the end of the free guilds and the principle of professional competence, i.e. the respective trades, was introduced. On 01.09.1934 there were 22 such guilds in Bocholt.

Today, the number has fallen to 15 because in some trades, which were still numerous in 1934, there are now only a few or no businesses left, such as clog makers, millers and wheelwrights.

Today there are guilds in Bocholt for all numerically significant trades, some of which only cover the narrow area around Bocholt, while others cover the entire district of Borken. Other tasks initially included the promotion of members, but also the promotion and supervision of apprenticeship training, including the organisation of journeyman's examinations. Around 500 journeyman examinations are held in the Bocholt trade guilds every year.

Lit:
Fritz Lindenberg (ed.), Der Goldene Boden, Drei Linden Verlag Fritz Lindenberg, Bocholt, 1967.

Otto Hensel was born on 13 January 1903 in Bagnowen, Sensburg district in East Prussia. He came to Bocholt by marriage in 1929. Here he became a member of the Socialist Labour Party, a left-wing split from the SPD, in 1931. From 1933, he smuggled SAP publications from the Netherlands into the Third Reich, for which he was arrested in January 1935 and sentenced to 10 years in prison in July 1935. He spent his sentence in Münster prison until 1941, then in Waldheim prison in Saxony from 1941-45, followed by a few weeks in Leipzig. When the prison was transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, he managed to escape in April 1945. He made his way to Bocholt, where he was one of the co-founders of the local KPD. He sat on the city council appointed by the British in 1945. In the local elections on 16 October 1946, Otto Hensel was elected as the only KPD city councillor. In August 1948, he declared his resignation from the KPD in protest against Soviet Russian policy towards Germany and the forced unification of the KPD and SPD in the Soviet zone. In the same year, he founded the completely insignificant Independent Labour Party. In 1961, he joined the German Peace Union. From the founding of the general trade unions in Bocholt in October 1945, he was a member of the executive committee and a member of the Bau-Steine-Erden industrial trade union. From 1950 to 1969, he was managing director of the DGB administrative office in Bocholt. Otto Hensel died on 4 August 1979 and there has been an Otto-Hensel-Straße in Bocholt since 7 November 1996.