The "concept" of this book needs to be explained. By no means it is an attempt to write a kind of chronicle of the history of our city. The book puts together pictures, advertisements, newspaper clippings and other information to tell something about our city and the daily of its citizens. However, the project is not complete. There are photos available from every time period of the history, not from every club, not from every street, not from every festival. A complete presentation – even if it is possible ‑ would also go beyond the scope of this book.
Hence, the book aims on a loose compilation of memories that have almost been forgotten: Introducing clubs, some of which no longer exist, showing buildings and streets that have changed their face through war, demolition, modernization or other uses or have completely disappeared. All photos tell something about the everyday life of our homeland.
The present book deliberately choses the period of the last century as well as the first 40 years of this century, because due to the abundance of photos a temporal limitation had to be made.
This book hopefully awakens memories and gives a little impulse for the further homework-related work. There is still much to collect, to write and to explore. Many citizens of our city can contribute, for example by not letting images and texts of yesteryear get lost, but instead borrowing or donating them to the cultural archive of our city for evaluation.
My work would not have been possible without the help of many citizens. My special thanks go to you, first and foremost to the head of the cultural archive of the city of Würselen, Rector August Liebenwein, who has given me extraordinary support.
Würselen, November 1985
Achim Großmann