Photo: Birgit Scheel
On 2 July 1966, the first meeting of the recently founded "Fachgruppe Obstbau des Kreis Bonn", (the Fruit Cultivation Section of the Bonn region) took place in the orchards of Wilhelm Ley in Meckenheim. Due to the reorganization in 1969 the administrative regions Bonn and Rhein-Sieg-Kreis merged. The Fruit Cultivation Sections followed on at a slightly slower pace and the Fachgruppe Obstbau Bonn/Rhein-Sieg (Fruit Cultivation Section Bonn/Rhein-Sieg) was created two years later.
The Fruit Cultivation Section Bonn/Rhein-Sieg represents about 100 fruit farmers, which cultivate soft, stone and top fruit. The section represents the farmers’ interests, organizes training for the members, and plays a role in public relations, for instance during the Meckenheimer Blütenfest. It is a part of the Provincial Association of Rhineland Fruit and Vegetable Producers.
During the 50th anniversary festivities the Seniors Council of the section, a fellowship of elderly fruit farmers, opened the virtual fruit cultivation museum Rhineland. The museum offers interested visitors a trip through 150 years of fruit cultivation in the Rhineland region at www.obstbau-museum-rheinland.de. The 40 virtual rooms invite the visitor to browse and check out the archive of more than 1,500 historical and current photos. Franz Bellinghausen (Königswinter), Anton Dick (Meckenheim) and Elmar Schmitz-Hübsch (Bornheim) invested a lot of their time in the museum to compile a comprehensive overview of the topics - fruit cultivation, nursery, technology, regions and marketing. The aim is to continually expand the exhibition, so visitors are requested to provide or loan the virtual fruit cultivation museum their own historical and current photos and images.