European Year of Cultural Heritage in Germany with W. Lindley in the background

In March 2017, the President of the German National Committee for the Protection of Monuments, the Minister of Culture of Brandenburg and the Minister of State for Culture invited the volunteers to participate in the European Year of Cultural Heritage in 2018. This year's project takes place in Germany under the slogan "Heritage sharing" and is an initiative of the German National Committee for the Protection of Monuments, the Federal Government, federal states and municipal associations in Berlin. The Coordination Office expects about 500 projects and about 1,000 events in Germany throughout the year.

The ceremonial inauguration of the European Year took place on January 8, 2018 in the Grand Hall of the Town Hall in Hamburg.

Six schools connected in a regional network were given the task of becoming acquainted with and interpreting the role of monuments and historic buildings in the urban space. Teams will learn about the cultural heritage of their city as part of the history of North Germany and commitment to the protection of monuments.

William Lindley project. A man to start with

 

Klosterschule high school in Hamburg, as part of the project William Lindley project. A man to start with, focused on William Lindley, a British engineer who in Hamburg designed the first modern waterworks and underground sewers on the European continent, the first railway connection and engaged in the redesign of the port. Its results will be presented publicly as part of an exhibition organized by the Office for the Protection of Monuments in Hamburg.

https://denkmal-aktiv.de/schulprojekte/archiv/schulen-2017/gymnasium-klosterschule-hamburg/

Family-reunion 2012

After long preparations  we have persuaded a small number of family members to come to Frankfurt on Maine for the reunion in the busy month of August. On 29 August (Wednesday) in Astoria Hotel (Rheinstrasse 25) arrived Beatrice and Alexander Caspar, Ursula Caspar, Margrit Neubauer, Hanna and Ryszard Żelichowski, Karin and Eugen Deubner.

 

The Family on the Lindleystreet in Frankfurt on Main. From l. to r.: Hanna Żelichowska, Karin Deubner, Ma Neubauer, Ursula Caspar, Beatrice Caspar, Alexander Caspara and Eugen Deubner

Day one – 30 August (Thursday)

From that day on we followed a master plan prepared by Eugen Deubner. We  visited HESSENWASSER, MAINOVA and the municipal SEF (Stadtentwässerung, FFM), which supply the water, power and sewage respectively to the population of Frankfurt.  Dr. Rödel, historian and retired monument preserver, gave us some information about civil engineering in Frankfurt between 1806 and 1914, as well as interesting information about the biographies of the Lindley’s in Frankfurt. Presentation took place in Goldstein Waterworks, where William and William H. Lindleys worked on the first modern water supply system for Frankfurt.

The same day was to the combined heating and power plant, Heizkraftwerk WEST. Extensive tour was conducted by a passionate man Mr. Joachim Siebenhaar. And there was a lot of history as well. William H. Lindley built his first electric power plant in Frankfurt (1892-1896), with Oskar von Miller.  

 

Day two – 31 August (Friday)

On all locations we were treated with great esteem and were able once more to realize how important the Lindleys were also for this city.

After the tour we went to the city and met Mr. Volker Harms-Ziegler, an historian from the City Archive, who gave us brief historical tour of Römer and Zeil.

 

Day three – 1 September (Saturday)

This day was organized by Ryszard Żelichowski. We went to Evangelical Reformed Church - West (Deutsch Evangelisch-Reformierte Kirche) on  Freiherr vom Stein Strasse No. 8, (former Church of England) founded by William Heerlein Lindley. It was very disappointing since the church is gone and replaced by a big modern religious center of  Evangelical Reformed Church. However, the commemorating stone has been preserved and exposed in front of a new religious center.

Next we went to former Blittersdorffplatz  29. It was another disappointment. The historical place is gone and the square is now called François-Mitterrand-Platz (he became a honorary citizen of Frankfurt a.M. in 1986).

We gave up walking through the Neue Mainzer Strasse (to No. 51, where the Getz family used to live). There was nothing to see either. The number 51 is incorporated into huge new Frankfurter Sparkasse and the street has become mainly a brick-canyon for the mass city traffic.

Later we took tram No. 11 to Lindleystrasse, and it was rewarding. It has been built-up with many decent houses and the East Harbour (Osthafen) has been renovated and decorated with a monument dedicated to the city-mayor Franz Adickes (1890-1912), under whose authority W.H. Lindley worked until 1896.

 

  Departures, 2 September (Sunday)