I'm giving away time
Imagine a guy gets in touch with you and says, “I’m giving you time.
I do some of your work – voluntarily and free of charge.”
What is your first reaction?
Joy, gratitude or rather mistrust and incomprehension?
But maybe you would do it like the authority I wrote to – you ignore the offer and hope the guy finally leaves you alone.
So that we don’t misunderstand each other!
I do not want to accuse or pillory this authority.
I just want to understand it.
The oldest Kiel pension book
The oldest Kiel pension book is one of the oldest surviving documents from the 14th/15th century.
Century.
As early as 1893, the Gesellschaft für Kieler Stadtgeschichte e.V. commissioned Dr. Phil.
Chr. Reuter to re-register the pension book and thus preserve it for posterity and at least make the text accessible to all interested parties.
In the meantime, this edition of Reuter is of course only available in second-hand bookshops – with a lot of luck.
In 2020, the Gesellschaft für Kieler Stadtgeschichte e.V. will then publish the Kiel Charter Book.
So at least the text remains – once again – accessible and can be used for research.
Unfortunately, scanned originals are also completely dispensed with in this edition.
What is the value of a digital copy?
One can rightly ask what difference the scanned originals make?
Most of us cannot decipher the ancient manuscripts, let alone translate them.
For the project “Kiel1242” – in which the said authority also shows no explicit interest – it is interesting in that many people can take an immersive look at a destroyed town hall, in which immersive, not freely accessible documents can be “taken in hand”.
That’s enough for me as a reason.
My offer to scan the oldest Kiel pension book on a voluntary basis and free of charge – under guidance and supervision – remains.
