Reinhard Löwisch publishes new e-book about “50 years of the Franconian Switzerland Tourism Center”
On April 1, 2024, it will be 50 years since the Franconian Switzerland Tourism Center existed. The founding is thanks to the two district administrators at the time, Dr. Josef Kohut (Bayreuth) and Otto Ammon (Forchheim). In doing so, they created a cross-district institution, previously unique in Franconia, whose main task was to generally promote tourism for the entire Franconian Switzerland.
In 1946, with the re-establishment of the Franconian Tourism Association as the “State Tourism Association of Northern Bavaria e. V.” in Nuremberg, the new tourism development in Franconia began in order to bring the important economic sector back forward. The hardship caused by the effects of the Second World War forced politicians to take action; Refugees and occupying troops were quartered in many hotels and inns, and the poor road conditions prevented economic recovery. Until the Franconian Switzerland Association joined the Franconian Tourism Association, the region’s tourism work was exclusively carried out by individual communities, a few larger restaurateurs and the tourist “associations”, so it was hopelessly divided and uncoordinated, as everyone was only promoting their immediate surroundings.
In Franconian Switzerland, the realignment began in 1951 with the accession of the Franconian Switzerland Association (FSV) to the state tourism association, which resulted in the revitalization of the “Franconian Switzerland Regional Committee”. This meant that the tourist “boundaries” of Franconian Switzerland (the area of the FSV local groups) were set for the time being. The state tourism association describes the tasks of the regional committee as follows: “Their main purpose is to advertise their area, to mark the paths – also within the framework of large markings, and to maintain customs and customs in appropriate local cooperation”. In 1962, the FSV and the regional committee parted ways because legal councilor Heinrich Uhl resigned from both positions (FSV boss and chairman of the regional committee) for reasons of age. District Administrator Dr. Dittrich (Pegnitz) became the new head of the regional committee, District Administrator Franz-Josef Kaiser (Ebermannstadt) took over the FSV. The regional committee moved to Pegnitz by 1971 and ran regional tourism from the district office there. During this time, at the suggestion of some larger tourist communities, an “Advertising Association Franconian Switzerland”, the forerunner of the tourism center, was founded, supported by the communities of Egloffstein, Behringersmühle, Streitberg, Pegnitz, Gräfenberg, Muggendorf, Betzenstein, Waischenfeld, Pottenstein and Gößweinstein. Under the leadership of the Gößweinstein transport office manager Heinrich Endrös, they tried to advertise together with their very modest resources. But it was only a half-measure because the legal basis for the advertising association was missing and, above all, the municipality of Gößweinstein provided its staff because that was where the advertising association was based. In 1971, District Administrator Dr. Heinrich Dittrich (Pegnitz), Otto Ammon, the Forchheim district administrator as head of the regional committee. The reason for the move was the dissolution of the Pegnitz and Ebermannstadt districts, as a result of which larger areas of the Pegnitz and Ebermannstadt districts came to Forchheim. On March 11, 1972, Ammon held a “hearing” in Ebermannstadt, the main aim of which was to further promote tourism by promoting a transport office for the entire region. Konrad Gorlicki from the Northern Bavaria Tourist Association was also in favor of setting up a tourism center. He wrote in a letter to Ammon on September 18, 1972: “In my opinion, the establishment of a tourist office for Franconian Switzerland will only really do justice to the task at hand if it is possible to ensure the responsibility of this office for the entire Franconian Switzerland “. In 1973, Ammon repeatedly and loudly called for the creation of a central transport office for the region, which would also function as the office of the regional committee. He found open ears everywhere – especially from the Upper Franconian government, which was in the process of dividing its area of responsibility into tourist areas: • Fichtelgebirge • Franconian Switzerland • Franconian Forest • Steigerwald • Upper Main Valley with the area around Coburg.
On April 1st In 1974 the time had come: District Administrator Ammon was able to speak in the presence of his Bayreuth colleague Dr. Josef Kohut as well as Mayor Georg Daum from Heiligenstadt for the Bamberg district and Karl Theiler, Mayor from Ebermannstadt, toasted the success of the new facility with a glass of champagne in the rooms of the former Ebermannstadt district office. Ammon hired Christl Thömmes, who was then head of the Ebermannstadt Tourist Information Center, as managing director. Christl Thömmes was also appointed managing director because her husband Matthias Thömmes spent his retirement as general manager of the German Tourism Association in Streitberg. With his extensive specialist knowledge and very good press relations with the German media landscape, he was a highly sought-after personality from which Franconian Switzerland benefited for years to come. Another important personality had a hand in the opening of a central tourism facility: Dr. Rudolf Eberhard, who was district administrator of the Ebermannstadt district until he left office in 1958 and then began a political career in Munich. In 1974 he was chairman of the Franconian Tourism Association and chairman of the German National Tourist Board as well as president of the German Tourism Association, where Matthias Thömmes was general manager. A few weeks after the opening, he visited the new institution and had a lot of good suggestions with him, which Christl Thömmes and her boss, District Administrator Ammon, implemented in the following years.
You can read how the story continued in Reinhard Löwisch’s new e-book, which can be found at www.loewisch.com can now be downloaded for free.
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2024-03-10 23:56:21
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