150 years of the eventful history of the Erfurt-Ilversgehofen fire department will be celebrated in August
The history of the fire department for Ilversgehofen begins at a time when Ilversgehofen was not yet part of Erfurt - in 1874. 54 years earlier, in 1820, the Born brothers founded a mustard mill as well as a seed and commercial nursery. For many decades, firefighting was a difficult issue in the company, which is why the entrepreneurs supported the founding of a volunteer fire department in 1874 and donated the fire station. Richard Born was also co-founder and first leader of the Ilversgehofen Volunteer Fire Department. Born remained closely connected to the defense force throughout his life.
The defense force also survived the incorporation of Ilversgehofen into Erfurt in 1911. It continued to be supported as usual and was used for firefighting. Due to legal regulations, the volunteer armed forces of Erfurt and Erfurt-Nord had to merge with effect from April 1, 1934. With this organizational change, the first step was taken to firmly anchor the volunteer fire department in the structure of the National Socialist state. The fire extinguishing law of November 23, 1938 finally stipulated that all fire departments now became fire protection police. After the end of the Second World War, the fire protection police became the fundamentally modernized Erfurt professional fire department.
The Erfurt-Mitte weir was located at Juri-Gagarin-Ring 112 until 1964, then for two years on Petersberg and again at Gagarin-Ring 112. Stations followed at Wilhelm-Busch-Straße 2, at Mainzerhofplatz, and at Breitscheidstraße and finally on St.-Florian-Straße in the Marbach Hazard Protection Center. The Erfurt-Nord weir was also located at Juri-Gagarin-Ring 112 until 1970. This was followed by quarters on Hans-Sailer-Straße from 1970 to 1975 and from 1975 to 1997 at Fuchsgrund 34. Finally, at Fuchsgrund the merger into one unit took place through the election of a joint military command. Both fire brigade associations were also merged at the same time.
As early as 2004, the fire department founded a fire protection working group together with the Riethschule in order to get children interested in the fire department at an early age and to keep the active youth defense force alive. From 2006 it was also legally possible to accept children from the age of six, which meant that the first Bambini group in the history of the defense force could be created.
Specialization from 2014
In 2014, the fire department received the decontamination equipment truck. “Since then, we have been integrated into the Erfurt fire department’s hazardous goods train. We were now very well positioned in terms of vehicle technology,” says fire chief Michael Rudat. “We are also always active in civil protection for the city of Erfurt and provide support wherever we can. Comrades from our fire brigade unit were on board during operations of the Erfurt disaster relief train, whether in Prettin, Stendal, Altenburg, Sömmerda or in the Ahr Valley. If there was a need to provide help in the event of flooding, we were ready,” said Rudat. The Ilversgehofen Volunteer Fire Department currently has 44 men and women in the operations department, who completed around 160 missions in 2023. The youth fire brigade has 35 members and the age and honor department has seven members. In addition, the support association has 65 supporting men and women. According to Rudat, everyone is united by the desire for a new fire station. Discussions with the city administration about this are ongoing.
Source: Current reports from the state capital Erfurt