handglocken.de goes online

Since the beginning of 1992 I, Jörn Diedrichsen, actively play in the handbell choir of the Adventist Church in Hamburg. As part of a study trip to Berlin in 1999, I played for half a year in the Peace Bell Choir Caputh as a guest. So I had the opportunity to actively get to know another handbell choir.

In 1992 there was a meeting of German hand bell choirs in Krummhörn, East Frisia. There were concerts given by the individual handbell choirs in the surrounding churches and at the end of the meeting there was a big concert together with all the handbell choirs. Here each handbell choir could play one or two pieces from his repertoire. In addition, there were also pieces in which all handbell choirs have performed together.
This was a good opportunity to meet other handbell choirs. Unfortunately, there has not been another meeting of this kind since.

Since the handbell choirs are not organized in Germany, there is no overview of how many handbell choirs there are in Germany as a whole. The information in the overview is mainly based on information from the former handbell meeting and from other information that I have heard over time.

With handbells.eu I hope to be able to create a small overview of the handbell choirs in the internet. Maybe you also discover a handbell choir in your area that you did not know about before. In addition, I would like to gather concert dates on this website. Maybe this will give you the opportunity to be in the audience at another handbell choir.
Although I often play in handbell concerts, I rarely have the opportunity to (only) listen to a handbell concert.

Jörn Diedrichsen, April 28th, 2000