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After the Second World War, thousands of displaced persons and refugees from the East German territories found a second home in Bocholt. Most of them came from Silesia, East Prussia and Pomerania. The catastrophic conditions at the time did not make life easy for the new arrivals, as they came completely destitute to a town that had suffered 85% destruction during the war and whose bombed-out inhabitants were in the process of rebuilding. The entire population of Bocholt was inspired by the desire for a new beginning. The displaced persons also joined this fighting spirit. The city administration of Bocholt set up an office for displaced persons. In 1951, for example, 267,000 Deutschmarks were made available to the refugees from the municipal budget for maintenance aid, household assistance and livelihood support. On 31 December 1955, the Bocholt Expellee Office registered 3,910 displaced persons and 555 Soviet zone refugees in Bocholt.

The separation from their homeland and homesickness forged the displaced persons close together. They met in groups and helped each other. Landsmannschaften were formed in the Federal Republic of Germany and also in Bocholt, organised according to the regions from which the refugees and displaced persons came. In 1949, for example, the Silesian Landsmannschaft was founded. Further organisations followed. A lively exchange developed among them. On the first Sunday in September, they celebrated the "Day of the Homeland" together.

In 1955, the expellees erected a memorial to their dead at the cemetery in Bocholt. It was important to them to exchange memories at the gatherings, sing songs about their homeland together, perform folk dances and preserve the culture of their first homeland. The annual May devotion was also an experience for many. Later on, the existing Landsmannschaften in Bocholt merged to form the Vereinigte Landsmannschaften, Kreisverband Bocholt. They made a significant contribution to the opening of the "Ostdeutsche Heimatstube" on 26 April 1981.

The generation of parents who had to leave their East German homeland in 1945 has since passed away. The subsequent generations are fully integrated here in the West. Those who experienced flight as children are no longer young today. Of the formerly very active members of the Landsmannschaften, only a small circle of friends of around 25 people remains. They met regularly once a month in the Bocholt City Museum, Osterstraße 66. On 14 October 2008, this circle disbanded for reasons of age.

Lit:
Chronicle of the Bocholt area 1975-1999, compiled by Wolfgang Tembrink (Bocholter Quellen und Beiträge, Volume 9, published by the City of Bocholt, City Archive) Bocholt 2001.
Bocholter-Borkener Volksblatt, 15 October 2008, p. B2.
Sources: Stadtarchiv Bocholt: Administrative reports of the city of Bocholt from 1951 and 1955.

The Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL) is a local authority association with around 12,500 employees working for the 8.5 million people in the region. With its 35 special schools, 19 hospitals, 17 museums and as one of Germany's largest providers of assistance for people with disabilities, the LWL fulfils tasks in the social sector, in assistance for the disabled and young people, in psychiatry and in culture, which are sensibly carried out throughout Westphalia.

The nine independent towns and 18 districts in Westphalia-Lippe are the members of the LWL. They support and finance the Regional Association, which is controlled by a parliament with 100 members from the municipalities.

The agricultural school existed from October 1922 to 31 December 1974 and also included the horticultural vocational school for the former Borken district from October 1929 to Easter 1962. At a time of intensive development in agriculture, its tasks were to teach the next generation of professionals and to provide farm advice, for which purpose fertiliser and variety trials as well as soil tests were carried out. The school and especially its director Josef Jasper promoted, among other things, the conversion of cow stalls to short-high stalls, the establishment of bull farming cooperatives and the horticultural Veiling Bocholt as well as the introduction of milk control

In 1950, two additional employees were added to the business management advisory service, which now dealt with the introduction of tractors and milking systems and the intensification of fertilisation and crop protection, among other things. The former agricultural college building at Dinxperloer Straße 56 is now used by the August Vetter Vocational College.

Lit:
Josef Michels, Aus der Geschichte der Landwirtschaftsschule Bocholt, in: Unsere Heimat.
Yearbook of the Borken District 1986, Borken 1986, pp. 43-44.

Privy councillor, born 6.10.1769 Bocholt, died 26.8.1843 Münster. Father legal representative and administrator of the White Monastery, educated by the Bocholt Minorites, studied Roman law, German history and state and feudal law in Münster (1788-1790), from 1790/91 German law and history in Göttingen. 1792 Doctorate in Münster and higher state examination, authorised to practise as an advocate throughout the Hochstift. Lawyer in Bocholt.

From 1801 representative of the city in criminal and fiscal matters. 1802 Trustee and advisor to the new sovereigns (Salm-Salm and Salm-Kyrburg). 1809 Appointed court councillor to the newly organised government and court in Bocholt. 1811 Member of the joint court chamber of Salm, by imperial French decree French public prosecutor for the court in Rees. After the end of the Napoleonic era, co-operation with the Prussian Chief President von Vincke.

Director of the district court in Borken, then to the Münster government (Privy Councillor). Order of the Red Eagle III class by Friedrich Wilhelm III, later also II class, honorary citizen of Bocholt. His inheritance went to the poor of Bocholt, from which the foundation "Langenbergscher Armenfonds" was established. Langenbergstraße, the former Langenberg School and Langenbergpark are named after L.

Lit:
B. Lensing, Privy Councillor v. Langenberg a great benefactor of Bocholt in: UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 2, (1951), H. 10, p. 190-191.

Langenbergpark, located on today's Adenauerallee (formerly Nordallee), served as a cemetery from 1807 to 1908. It was moved to Blücherstraße and is now the city's main cemetery.

The so-called Doodenhüsken, where the dead were laid out before burial, still stands on the south side of Langenbergpark. Until the end of the war, it was used as a men's sanatorium. A small burial ground with memorial stones has been preserved in the far north-east corner. On the southern edge is a playground and in the centre of the park is the so-called Meckermann, a stone sculpture with an inscription.

The park is known for its magnificent trees, some of them exotic, along which a nature trail organised by the Verein für Heimatpflege Bocholt e. V. leads. Twice recently, a festival of light has been held in the park, with hundreds of candles spread across the lawns and visitors singing along to the songs.

he park was also known as the Soviet Paradise in 1945 because the liberated Russian prisoners liked to spend time there in the summer of 1945.

The park is named after the town's benefactor, councillor Dr Aloysius Franziskus Bernardus van Langenberg, born in Bocholt in 1769.

The Langenbergschule emerged from the "Old Town School System", which in 1818 included the "First and Second Catholic Main Elementary Boys' School" in the former Minorite Monastery on today's Langenbergstraße and the "First and Second Catholic Girls' School" on Gasthausplatz. By the middle of the 19th century, the number of pupils had increased to such an extent that an extension to the convent building and a new building on Gasthausplatz became necessary. In the following years, the town relieved the "Altstadtschule" with further school buildings, but this was not enough in the long term. In 1888, the town bought the factory and the Sommer factory owner's house and set up additional classrooms there.

From 1 January 1900, the school was given a full-time headmaster, Ferdinand Haake, who ran it for 25 years. Under him, the school was remodelled and extended once again.

In 1930 it was named "Langenbergschule" after the town's great benefactor Aloys van Langenberg.

After the destruction on 22 March 1945, the classes were scattered throughout the town and housed in school buildings that were still standing. It was not rebuilt in the city centre, but was given the first new school building after the war in Langenbergpark next to Diepenbrockheim (Stenerner Weg).

In the major school reform of 1968/69, the Langenbergschule became a Catholic secondary school under headmaster Alex Maier and had such an influx of pupils that some of the classes had to be moved to the Kreuzbergschule on Münsterstraße. Mr Maier was succeeded as headmaster by Gerhard Cebulla. After the dissolution of the Kreuzbergschule, the Langenbergschule used this location as the "Langenberg II" system. In 1988, it celebrated its 170th anniversary under its then headmaster Gerhard Cebulla. As a result of the general decline in pupil numbers, the gradual reduction began in the 1988/1989 school year and the Langenberg School was closed in 1991.

Lit:
Barbara Kreilkamp, Zur Entwicklung des Volkschulwesens in und um Bocholt bis zum Dritten Reich, in: UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 30 (1979) H. 3, p. 15-22.
Gerhard Cebulla, Das Schulwesen der Altstadt Bocholt, publisher: Förderkreis der Langenbergschule Bocholt e. V.

It commemorates the honorary citizen of Bocholt, Dr Aloys Franz Bernhard van Langenberg (1769-1843).

Historic houses:

No. 25

Two-storey detached town house with gabled roof and pantile roofing. Rectory of the Liebfrauen parish. Built in 1784 as a Latin school for the Minorite monastery. 1811-1865 privately owned. 1865-1893 owned by the parish of St George and used as a "higher girls' school" and "infant care centre". After remodelling in 1893, home of the parish rector and from 1901 parsonage for the first parish priest (1901 - 1913) of the Liebfrauenkirche, Reinhold Rohlmann (1848 - 1913). Destroyed in 1945. Rebuilt in 1952/53 by pastor (1934 - 1964) Clemens Dülmer (1885 - 1967). The roof zone was changed during reconstruction. Plaster façades with five times three symmetrical window axes, with blind windows on the east side. The street façade with central entrance is divided by pilaster strips and cornices. The central axis is emphasised like a risalit. The mullioned windows with moulded, perforated stucco frames. The window parapets on the upper storey with plaster mouldings.

No. 49

Two-storey town house with a tent roof and pantile roofing. Built around 1900, the plaster façades above the basement base on the street side with three window axes and a central entrance above a recessed staircase. The street façade is divided by pilaster strips and cornices. The pilaster strips are decorated with Art Nouveau ornamentation. The central axis is emphasised like a risalit. The windows and the house entrance have moulded, perforated stucco frames. Main cornice with dentil frieze under the roof base.

Lit:
Wilhelm Seggewiß, Bocholter Straßen erzählen Geschichte, in: UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 39 (1988), H. 2, p. 49.
Gerhard Schmalstieg, Straßennamen in Bocholt nach nur hier bekannten Personen, in: UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 55 (2004) H. 4, p. 53-72. UNSER BOCHOLT 1981, H. 3, p. 37, and 2000, H.2, p.36 and 38-39. UNSER BOCHOLT 1981, Heft 3, p. 37.

Karnevalsverein Lachparade Bokelt-Ost e.V. Lachparade Bokelt-Ost e.V. (LaPaBo) is a registered association that has been cultivating carnival traditions in the east of Bocholt since 1978. The association's activities cover the entire range of carnival activities: show dancing for children up to the age of 10, guard and show dancing for juniors (up to the age of 16) and seniors (from the age of 16), solo dancing, carnival speeches and parody, singing, float and stage construction and a sewing circle to make the dance costumes and Rose Monday parade costumes.

The LaPaBo's foolish beginnings go back much further than 1978, to the beginning of the 1950s. During this time, the organised carnival of the Lachparade in the east of Bocholt developed from the initial spontaneous carnival celebrations of the parish youth of St. Cross and the KAB of the parishes of St. Cross and St. Paul. While the first hall events took place in the Kolpinghaus and Paulusheim Bocholt, they later moved to the hotel restaurant "Am Erzengel" on Münsterstraße, where the annual LaPaBo carnival is still held today.

The LaPaBo aims to incorporate the traditional Bocholt carnival, the Bocholt dialect "Bokelts Platt" and the Bocholt local colour into its foolish performances and activities. The principle is that all carnival artists work exclusively on a voluntary basis and free of charge.

In 1912, the Capuchins founded a convent in Bocholt on Hemdener Weg. Ten years later (1922/23), a convent church was built. Finally, in 1957/58, the convent built the new church with the patronage of St Laurentius of Brindisi.

From 1961-2000, the parish was an independent parish rectorate. The parish priests came from the Capuchin convent. The priests were involved in parish and school pastoral care. A number of them taught at St Joseph's Grammar School. In addition to their work in the parish and school, the Fathers also took on temporary pastoral work in the parishes around Bocholt.

Around 2000, the Capuchins gradually left the convent in Bocholt until it was finally dissolved in 2001. This led to the parish of St Laurentius of Brindisi finally merging with the parish of St Georg on 1 July 2001. The statue of St Laurentius was led into St George's Church in a solemn procession. The parish church building on Hemdener Weg was converted into an auditorium for St Joseph's Grammar School.

Concerts and theatre performances also take place here today. The space is also used as a youth church "Believe", where church services for young people are held once a month.

Lit:
Alexander Kotschetkoff, Hugo Stahl, Das Kapuzinerkloster in Bocholt, in: UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 51 (2000) H. 3, p. 37-40.
Roland Engelbertz, O. Cap., 75 years of Capuchins in Bocholt - 1912-1987, Borken 1987.

This street was named after the Jewish preacher and teacher Leo Nussbaum (1868-1940) in 1995.

Lit:
Gerhard Schmalstieg, Straßennamen in Bocholt nach nur hier bekannten Personen, in: UNSER BOCHOLT Jg. 55 (2004), H. 4, pp. 53-72.