This page was last changed on 02/28/2005

About the HHC

Ditzingen, first time mentioned in 769, located on the western outskirts of Stuttgart, is in the meantime an upcoming, flourishing City. In 1966 Ditzingen got the right to be a town because of its population and its infrastructure (schools, indoor pool, train station, autobahn, ....).

Through the reformation of the districts between 1971 and 1975 the number of inhabitants grows on about 23000. On October 1th 1976 followed the appointment as   »big district town«.

Since 1932, the HHC belongs to the cultural scene of Ditzingen. Periodicaly hold are concerts in halls and the palace gardens, as well as the annually biggest event a street party in the heart of the city and the participation on the city party every two years. But also in the immediate and far vicinity of Ditzingen the HHC appears befor the public. Health-resort concerts in the Black Forest and the Swabian Jura and the participation on competitions add a value to the musical businesses of the club. In the history of the club some great successes could already be reached.

From the Club History

The accordion can look back on a history of evolution started more than 100 years ago, but the foundation of the first accordion orchestra in 1927 by Hermann Schittenhelm in Trossingen started off the formation of more syndicates.

Five years later it was also ready in Ditzingen. In August 1932, the music shop Maier from Stuttgart-Bad Canstatt takes the initiative and organized an accordion promotion in the restaurant "Adler".

From a small group of interested people three young men decided to buy an accordion and learn playing it. This was the three founder members Gustav Böpple, Richard Leibfritz and Albert Wenzler. Fritz Schüle offered his services to them as a helper and patron.

Until the beginning of December 1932 Paul Godel, Wilhelm Palmer and Benedikt Picht joined this little circle of friends. From now on a membership fee was charged.

One month later, on the first general meeting of the Handharmonika-Club 1932 Ditzingen, the club had already 12 members. Mr. Meister took the musical direction, Albert Wenzler was elected chairman and Gustav Böpple was elected treasurer.

On Sonday, December 9th 1934 at 7.30 pm the Handharmonika-Club Ditzingen invited to his very first concert of light music to the hall of the restaurant "Schweizerhaus" in Höfingen.

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Chronicle of the HHC

1932:	Some music enthusiastic young people found an accordion club in Ditzingen.
1936:	The orchestra has grown up to 23 accordionists so that there can be hold a concert each year.
1937:	On January 24th 1937 there is the fourth (and temporary last) concert in the hall of the restaurant "Schwanen" under the patronage of mayor Diez. During World War II the orchestra practices remain interrupted until the year of 1947.
1948:	The first concert after the war is held 1948.
1952:	On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the HHC there happens a concert with the co-operation of Hermann Schittenhelm. To a fare of 9,-- DM the firm Eugen Wankmüller from Leonberg-Eltingen organizes an one day trip.
1953:	Participation on the evening gala and the parade of the "Turn- und Sportfreunde Ditzingen" on the occasion of their 60th anniversary. This year our GEMA bill is the proud fee of 18,-- DM which cannot be reduced although the first chairman makes some efforts.
1954:	Participation on the 100th anniversary of the "Liederkranz Ditzingen" and participation on the second regional choral festival. On the district contest in Herrenberg the "HG-Ludwigsburg" conducted by Hans Rode (with the "Peter Schmoll" ouverture from C. M. v. Weber) wins the challenge trophy again and is now the owner of it. Best of the day (out of competition) is the "Handharmonika-Club Concordia Stuttgart" conducted by conductor Jörg Faerber.
1957:	Josef Dorsch wins the title "Deutscher Meisterspieler 1957" on the solo player championship in Trossingen. Willi Partsch is elected as 1. chairman in this year. During the next 17 years he gives the deciding impulses for the development of the club. This year there is again a carnival ball in the hall of the restaurant "Krone" followed by the spring concert in the hall of the restaurant "Schwanen" with the soloist Alfred Sedlmayer from Trossingen. This concert is also repeated in Hirschlanden and Schöckingen. Worth mentioning is also the 25th anniversary in the hall of the restaurant "Schwanen" on October 20th under the patronage of mayor Rudolf Döbele.
1958:	The annual general meeting is totally under the banner of the "finances". The HHC-Ditzingen carries out the first time a summer festival and two concerts in the palace garden.
1959:	The general meeting decides the extension of the tenure of office of the executive committee to two years and enhances the executive committee by the general council. The summer festival is carried out the first time over 3 days as a tent festival. The HHC participates in this year on the district gymnastic display of the sports club as well as on the parades in Stuttgart-Feuerbach, Malmsheim, Merklingen and Stuttgart-Stammheim. The number of events increases very much.
1960:	A musically eventful year: First participation on an orchestra contest after World War II at the 30th anniversary of the "Harmonikafreunde Plochingen" (2nd place "highest grade"). Participation on the international accordion folkmusic festival in Lucerne as well as on the district meeting in Backnang.
1961:	The youth orchestra is founded new and reaches in the intermediate grade the mark "very good" at the european folkmusic festival in Stuttgart on the Killesberg with the "Tänzerischen Suite".
1962:	This year is under the banner of the 30th anniversary of the club. Children's party with parade, official banquet with the "Elektronium-Ensemble Werner Niehus" and the Danish accordion master Lars Bjarne as well as an accordion contest and other events. The general council of the club gets enganced from two active and two passive members to three active/passive members.
1963:	The summer festival is cancelled in the absence of a festival place, instead the first statutes are worked out and the club gets unfortunately "not yet" registered in the clubs register. The introduction of a "Membership card" gets declined.
1964:	The 1st orchestra participates on the accordion world festival in Lucerne.  The general council of the club gets enganced from three active/passive members to four active/passive members a time. This year the military band of the 7th US army performs the first time in Ditzingen.
1965:	In combination with shootings for a film with a regional background, the youth orchestra goes on the first "orchestra trip".
1966:	Events on the occassion of "getting the right to be a town" for Ditzingen are in focus. Youth- and 1st orchestra participate on a vast number of events. Participation on the district contest in Kornwestheim and again "no" summer festival because of the "getting the right to be a town".
1967:	After a longer period of time there is again an own concert of the HHC in the new municipal hall with the accordion world champion Marianne Probst. The youth orchestra participates on the district contest in Stuttgart-Degerloch (2nd place "highest grade"). Together with the Musikverein Stadtkapelle Ditzingen, the Liederkranz Ditzingen and the Swabian Jura Club an evening of entertainment is organized.in the municipal hall. "Sixteen" big events mark the very eventful 35th year of the club.
1968:	Because of the operation "community aid" a common event is carried out by the Musikverein, the Liederkranz, the Swabian Jura Club, the traditional costume club and the HHC. This event decides the issue for the purchase of the first amplifying system of the HHC.
1969:	The DHV- district contest is carried out the first time in Ditzingen separately for soloists, duos, orchestras and is the same time the preliminary decision for "youth plays music". Having as a motto "clubs of Ditzingen introduce themselves" we participate on the 1200th anniversary of the city of Ditzingen. A renaming of the club's name is discussed ('Club' and 'Handharmonika' are no longer in keeping with the times). However the majority is for keeping the "introduced" name.
1970:	Foundation of the "Accordion School Ditzingen" with the goal to educate the up-and-coming for our orchestras.
1971:	The annual general meeting of the district Stuttgart-Ludwigsburg is the third time in the gymnastics room of the municipal hall. The summer festival has to be delayed for one week to June 26th/27th because of the cold and wet weather after the concert in the palace garden falled through, too. Debut of pupils of the accordion school at the annual closing ball.
1972:	Recordings with the 1st orchestra and the quintet for the radio program "Mit Sang und Klang durch Stadt und Land". Participation on the "Three-Countries Accordion Festival" in Friedrichshafen. The 1st orchestra gets the 1st place with the predicate "excellent" (Von fremden Ländern und Menschen), the quintet gets the 2nd place with the predicate "outstanding" (Teufelstanz). The first 8 players of the accordion school are taken over to the youth orchestra.
1973:	The quintet is able to celebrate a great success with the 1st prize (predicate "outstanding") in the artistic class on the International Accordion Festival in Bonn. Organization of the DHV- district contest.
1974:	Participation of the 1st and the youth orchestra on the music prize of the city of Bensheim with the predicate "excellent". Health-resort concerts in Bad Herrenalb and Schömberg are carried out. The musical highlight of the year 1974 is the conzert in the municipal hall of Ditzingen. Having as a motto "Accordion in Concert", all possibilities, the accordion alone and together with other music instruments has, are totally exhausted. Jürgen Löchter from Witten, multiple prizewinner on national and international contests is able to amaze the audience with his solo pieces of music Trypotique, Divertimento in F and Anatomic Safari and to provide topics of conversation for many years.
1975:	The first "Laien- Hocketse" is carried out instead of the previous summer festivals on the "Laien" (market place of Ditzingen). The accordion school has reached its "all time height" with about 90 pupils and has grown up in "only" five years.
1976:	Participation of the orchestras on the contest within the scope of the district contest in Steinheim. 3rd place each in the main and the highest grade. Participation on the contest of the district Würm-Nagold in the "guest class" with award and cup.
1977:	From now on there shall be again a 1st and 2nd chairman. The draft of the statutes passes the resolution at the annual general meeting. Realization of a concert in the kursaal of the health resort Oberstaufen in combination with an orchestra trip.
1978:	The seventh annual closing ball together with the accordion school is realized. Because of  "departures" (armed forces etc.) it gets more difficult to keep the musical quality and the headcount of orchestra players.
1979:	The first time in the history of the club a concert has to be cancelled because of illness of the conductor. In exchange we participate on the district contest of the district Würm-Nagold in the guest class, 2nd place predicate "excellent".
1980:	Conducted by Hans Rauch the orchestra of the HHC wins the 1st place in the highest grade at the district contest in Stuttgart Bad-Cannstatt.
1981:	We record our first record at the recording studio Bauer in Ludwigsburg
1982:	On May 15th and 16th the HHC arranges a district contest of the german accordion association (DHV) within the scope of its 50th anniversary. More than 700 active players contribute to the whole success.
1983:	In January 1983 Helmut Huber from Calw gets the new conductor of the 1st orchestra in place of  conductor Hans Rauch how passed away on October 3rd 1982. In December the senior orchestra conducted by Rolf Wassermann is founded.
1984:	The district contest oft the DHV district Stuttgart-Ludwigsburg is again in Ditzingen. In addition the participation at the parade to the 100th anniversary of the voluntary fire brigade Ditzingen is a nice event.
1985:	In June 1985 we split up with Mr. Huber. Jens Reimann gets interim conductor. The piece of music "Bretonischen Aquarelle" with the quintet of the HHC get recorded for a radio broadcast by the "Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR)" and get broadcasted in March of the following year. The annual closing ball 1985 is marked by the 15th anniversary of the Accordion School Ditzingen. The first special general meeting in the history of the club is on March 3rd 1985 in the hall of the restaurant "Schwanen" because of a necessary changes of the statutes to be registered in the official clubs register and to apply for getting the non-profit status.
1986:	At the Konrad-Kocher-Ceremony in the minicipal hall in December 1986 the 1st orchestra conducted by the conductor Manuel Tato who has been engaged since May plays the tone poem "Finlandia" from Jean Sibelius.
1987:	In August 1987 the "Hocketse" (summer festival) is realized the second time in the schoolyard of the Wilhelms School because the Laien (market place) is a building site because of rebuild of the city hall.
1988:	The second special general meeting decides the integration of the Accordion School into the Youth Music School Ditzingen to the turn of the year on November 7th 1988.
1989:	The highlight 1989 is the 1st Hafenscherbenfest ( "broken pottery festival" -> summer festival of the city of Ditzingen) at the new "Laien" (market place). Thanks to the turned out well "Schopf"-Nudeln (Schupnudeln are a swabian speciality) the festival is a great success.
		1st orchestra (annual closing ball '89): Behind: Jens Reimann, Rainer Lieb, Bernd Schubert, Heike Jänchen, Andreas Kocher Middle: Manuel Tato (conductor), Martin Holitschky, Jürgen Brandt (drums), Volker Hartmann, Sörn Krebs, Siegbert Steinlechner In front: Konstanze Lautenschlager, Sabine Kopp, Regula Gebhardt, Sibylle Rüdt, Yvonne Wiedmann, Birgit Zinßer, Kerstin Lieb
1990:	In April 1990 the 1st orchestra plays at the "Funkfahrt ins Blaue" with Wolfgang Walker on the regional garden festival in Sindelfingen - the SDR does a live broadcast at the radio. In May the concert in the Konstanzer church gets many approval and applause. A special event is the one week concert tour to Paris at the end of May. At the district contest in the Forum in Ludwigsburg in June the 1st orchestra gets the 3rd place with the predicate "excellent".
1991:	The concert in the parish hall in April 1991 has as a motto Musik from Mozart and Weber. The age of the computer makes its arrival: our first PC with laser printer is there after all!
1992:	In January 1992 the 1st orchestra strengthened by the Youth Music School takes part in the TV program "Treffpunkt" having as a motto Mundart und Musik aus Ditzingen (dialect and music from Ditzingen) and is recorded in Baden-Baden with the "Sinfonia per un addio" TV recording in the studio Baden-Baden The highlight of the year the club experiences in December at the anunual closing ball, which is totally under the banner of the 60th anniversary of the club. In the year of anniversary the club has 154 members (44 active, 110 supporting). As guests of the brass band association Baden-Württemberg in Kürnbach we spent a fantastic seminar weekend.
1993:	"We make accordion music" having this moto we present ourselves in the year one after our 60th anniversary and start a publicity campaign for the youth.
1994:	Our guests Suzy and Francis Louis from France delight our listeners with their duo at the concert in the Protestant parish hall. Since a long time we have finally luck with "St. Peter" at our "Hocketse" (summer festival) at the Laien (market place). We are beaming over our faces.
1995:	Again there are many musical events on our schedule, starting with the audition of the pupils up to the participation on events of friendly clubs and the city of Ditzingen we pass everything together.
1996:	The climbing wall is one of the main attractions of our this year's Hocketse (summer festival) at the Laien (market place). "Many lively classics from the accordion" having this moto the regional press reports detailed about our club and the realized events.
1997:	On March 2nd the 1st Accordion Day of Ditzingen takes place. The 1st club championships are hold in a k.o.-procedure with the help of a points system. With the concert in the citizen hall on June 8th our conductor Rolf Eberhard says goodbye. Konstanze Lautenschlager gets new conductor. The third time we realize our conzert in the city hall of ditzingen "citizen hall", from Bach to Vivaldi and the audience is delighted. Our annual ball is successful with a new concept. "The HHC in the internet". With the address http://home.t-online.de/home/udo_roedel/hhc.htm we are present with an own homepage since start of the year.
1998:	On March 1st the 2nd Accordion Day of Ditzingen takes place From now on our Internet Address is: http://home.t-online.de/home/hhc-ditzingen On June 21th we participate on the parade "1200 years Heimerdingen". From July 23th until July 28th our this year's club trip leads us to our twin town   Gyula (Hungary). There we give a church concert and participate at the castle festival. Our annual ball (Herbst-Feschd) takes place the second time already in November. The evening has the moto "Soundtracks of cinema and TV films" and is a great success. The Breakdance-Group "Full Effect" provides additional variety.
1999:	On June 12th the HHC is host of the this year's soloist / duo contest of the district Bezirks Stuttgart-Ludwigsburg. On June 16th the quintet participates on the 28th Protestant church congress in Stuttgart on the Königsstraße. This year's concert trip leads us to Binz on the island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea.There we give two health-resort concerts at the promenade and a church concert in the church of Sellin. To the end of the year our conductor Konstanze Lautenschlager ends her work totally unexpected.
2000:	Conducted by Thomas Ott who is the leader of our orchestras since february we play at the awarding of the Kulturpreis der SPD Ditzingen to our members Jens Reimann and Josef Dorsch (V) due to their efforts for the accordion in Ditzingen. This year's concert trip from July 21th to July 24th leads us to Lake Lugano. High above the lake, we find our domicile for the next 3 days at the beautiful located Hotel Serpiano. There we give two concerts on the italian side of the lake and a concert at the terrace of the hotel with view over the lake. Lake Lugano by night
2001:	On June 23th the HHC is host of the this year's soloist / duo contest of the district Bezirks Stuttgart-Ludwigsburg. The concert of the winners is on july 8th in the citizen hall of the city hall in Ditzingen. From July 19th until July 23th is our fourth subsequently concert trip. This year's destination is the beautiful situated Val Gardena in the heart of the Dolomites where we give two concerts in Laion and in Selva Gardena. On August 4th and 5th we cater the guests of the 2nd labyrinth in the corn field of Ditzingen the second time. After the "Hafenscherbenfest" (summer festival in Ditzingen) on September 8th and 9th Thomas Ott terminates his conductorship in Ditzingen.

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Chairmans of the HHC since Foundation

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Treasurers

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Secretaries

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Minute-takers

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Leaders of the Accordion School

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Conductors of the HHC since Foundation

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Committee Members

The club maintains several subcommittees (musical committee, festival committee ...) in the actual fiscal years. Their tasks are the organisation and the realisation of events.

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Youth Supervisors

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Notes Supervisors

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