In August, the Museumsquartier Osnabrück and the "Verein für Geschichte und Landeskunde von Osnabrück" will continue their joint event series "Geschichte konkret" 2024/25. Throughout the year, historical aspects of the city and region of Osnabrück between the Middle Ages and modern times will be presented to the public in scientifically based lectures. The events will take place in the Museumsquartier. Admission is free.

Tuesday, 27 August 2024, 7 pm
Justus Möser - Conservatism from the Spirit of Traditionalism?
Prof. Dr. Rolf Wortmann, Osnabrück

In the 300th anniversary year of Immanuel Kant's birth, political scientist Rolf Wortmann undertakes a critical analysis of the classification of Möser as the founder of conservatism in the history of political ideas from Karl Mannheim and Friedrich Meinecke to the present day.

In cooperation with the Justus Möser Society 

Thursday, October 24, 2024, 7 p.m.
A concentration camp on rails.
The 5th SS Railway Construction Brigade in Osnabrück
Karl Kassenbrock, Osnabrück

From October 1944 to March 1945, the 5th SS Railway Construction Brigade in Osnabrück
Was in charge of the SS railroad construction camp. SS railroad construction brigade with prisoners from the Buchenwald, Mittelbau, Sachsenhausen and Neuengamme concentration camps was stationed at the Hörne freight yard in Osnabrück. More than 700 concentration camp prisoners had to perform slave labor for the SS from here. Goods wagons for 24 prisoners each, material and tool wagons, a kitchen wagon, an infirmary and passenger wagons for the SS guards formed a "concentration camp on rails".

80 years after the arrival of the 5th SS Railway Construction Brigade in Osnabrück on 16.10.1944, their deployment and the fate of the concentration camp prisoners are summarized. New findings from the last 5 years since the publication of the monograph on the brigade will be included.

 Thursday, November 14, 2024, 7 pm
"Tyrants of the country road".
A note on early automobilism in Osnabrück
Rolf Spilker, Osnabrück

On April 14, 1902, an automobile hit a cyclist near Osnabrück's St. Catherine's Church and seriously injured him. The driver of the automobile, a local man, had not followed the applicable regulations and was subsequently convicted. It is noteworthy in this context that only three "petrol carriages" were registered in the city in 1902.
It was incidents like this that brought the first motorists into disrepute among the population in Germany in the years around 1900. The "gentlemen drivers" were considered reckless and it was not uncommon for people in the cities and countryside to express their disapproval in drastic terms. In Osnabrück, for example, teachers had to point out the dangers posed by cars to their pupils. And the authoritative ministerial decree went on to say: "Above all, they should not throw sand and stones at them."

Thursday, January 16, 2025, 7 pm
The "Osnabrücker Mitteilungen 2024" are here!
Book presentation followed by a reception

For many Osnabrück history buffs, finding the latest volume of the Osnabrücker Mitteilungen "under the Christmas tree" is part of the annual experience. The publishing association wants to make this special experience of finding out what's new in historical research on the city and region of Osnabrück a shared experience.

This is why the 129th volume will be presented in a festive setting again this year. It brings together contributions that range in their chronological focus from the Middle Ages to contemporary history and shed light on completely new and unnoticed aspects of the history of the . As part of the presentation, selected contributions will be briefly introduced - a diverse and entertaining history lesson.

A small drink will be served afterwards.

Thursday, February 13, 2025, 7 p.m.
Bishop Benno of Osnabrück (1068-1088): Sinner or saint?
Andreas Bihrer, Kiel

Benno of Osnabrück is said to have beaten up a peasant with his own hands - was this an act to be condemned in the perception of contemporaries or evidence of the bishop's sense of justice? Benno is said to have hidden in the room at an imperial court meeting to avoid having to take a stand against the Pope - was this behavior condemned as an unfair trick, or did the bishop prove his clever tactics in a conflict situation? The lecture sheds light on the life and work of an Osnabrück bishop who sought his own path between the empire and the region during the turmoil of the Saxon Wars and the Investiture Controversy. The central source for this is the biography of the bishop, written shortly after Benno's death in Iburg Abbey, which is the subject of intense debate among researchers.

Thursday, March 13, 2025, 7 p.m.
Wissen_schafft: Leben! - The beginnings of Osnabrück University
Dr. Thorsten Unger, Osnabrück

A Minister of Education who knows nothing? A physicist who becomes a university planner? Long hair and bell bottoms in a baroque palace? And buildings that don't even stand on sand? The young University of Osnabrück was full of contradictions and the early years were a great challenge for those involved - today the university is well established and is a natural part of the city and the region. In 2024, Osnabrück University celebrated its 50th anniversary. As part of various projects (campus tours, traveling exhibition "Wissen_schafft: Leben!" ("Knowledge_creates: Life!"), courses at the Department of History), a look was taken at aspects of the university's early history during the anniversary year. The lecture brings together the findings of these projects and aims to contribute to an understanding of today's university. The aim is to show how some reform approaches failed and yet a foundation was laid for today's institution.

Thursday, April 24, 2025, 7 p.m.
The beginnings of handball in Osnabrück 1917/21 to 1933.
Social milieus and modern sport in Lower Saxony and Westphalia
Philipp Koch, Minden

The First World War was a major driving force behind the mass spread of a competitive sports culture in Germany. From 1920, a new game spread in the form of field handball, which was deliberately designed as a counterpart to soccer with its British connotations. Sport boomed in the Weimar Republic and the sporting games of soccer and handball inspired the masses. From 1930 at the latest, handball was one of the ten most popular sports in Germany, but only spread regionally.

The lecture takes a comparative look at the beginnings of handball in Osnabrück in the Weimar Republic between 1917/21 and 1933 and examines the reasons for the emergence of regional strongholds and diasporas. Many sports associations were still organized across administrative boundaries. For example, the soccer and athletics clubs from Osnabrück belonged to the West German Games Association, which attempted to establish the new sport of handball in the Lower Saxony-Westphalia region.

<p

View website

General information