Bernhard Rosenkranz

Bernhard Hugo Rosenkranz (born November 29, 1959 in Hamburg ; † February 26, 2010 in Leezen ) was a German ecotrophologist and author .

Live and act

Bernhard Rosenkranz, whose paternal grandfather had been a captain on the Elbe, came from a working-class family from Hamburg-St. George . He spent the first year of his life with an older half-brother in the Lange Reihe 69. Shortly after his baptism in 1960 in the Holy Trinity Church , the family moved to Eimsbüttel . Rosenkranz attended the high school in Stellingen and passed the Abitur examination in the summer of 1978. From the winter semester 1979 to the winter semester 1984 he studied nutritional science at the Bergedorf University of Applied Sciences, which he graduated from.

In February 1985 Rosenkranz got a job at the Hamburg consumer center, whose consumer protection department he headed from 1987. He has written many brochures and non-fiction books on issues relating to environmental and consumer protection for Rowohlt Verlag , Germa Press and B. Behr's Verlag . Rosenkranz was seen as an uncomfortable boss to whom critical and committed colleagues were important in order to help the employer achieve a modern image and respect. During his service time, the management of the consumer advice center changed, which had to be excused and moved from the headquarters on the Hohen Bleichen to other premises in the Kirchenallee.

Illness and work for the stumbling block project

In 1995 Rosenkranz received the news that he was suffering from sarcoid after health problems . Due to the resulting heart and lung problems, he was temporarily unable to work from 2000. As a homosexual, he dealt with the recent history of gays and lesbians in his hometown, which until then had largely been poorly documented. To this end, he sought a cooperation with the Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte for an exhibition and publications, but this did not materialize. In 2005 he published together with Gottfried Lorenz the research work Hamburg in other ways , which appeared in Lambda Edition. At the beginning of 2006 he initiated "Together against forgetting - stumbling blocks for homosexual Nazi victims". The initiative, the results of it the stumbling blocks of Gunter Demnig made available, documented the lives of 300 people who had been mostly gay in a few years, including also some lesbians who during the time of National Socialism had died.

Working on homosexual persecution

Although his health continued to deteriorate, Rosenkranz continued to deal with the ostracism of homosexual people in Hamburg. He created an exhibition entitled "Homosexual Persecution in Hamburg 1919-1969", in which he showed his research results. The highly acclaimed events took place in the State and University Library in 2007, in the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial in 2008, in the Hamburg City Hall and Bochum City Hall in 2009 and in the Schwules Museum * in 2009/10 .

In 2007, together with the Hamburg State Opera , he developed the staged reading “Das Oberlicht. On the persecution of homosexual men ”and with a similar structure in 2009 a work on persecuted lesbian women. In early 2009, Rosenkranz was about to have a heart transplant. In the Heart Center of the UKE he wrote the final version of a publication with impressive pictures of the exhibitions of previous years, which was published in print. He also planned the annual program of work for the stumbling blocks here for the last time.

Relationship to the Church

Rosenkranz viewed the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church critically and for a long time turned away from it because of its handling of questions about sexuality. Rosenkranz tried to work independently of other parties, associations and institutions. His view of the church changed a pastoral care for AIDS sufferers affiliated with the parish of St. Georf-Borgfelde. Therefore, in 2006 he asked Bishop Maria Jepsen to take over the patronage for the Stolperstein project. Since the church had not set up any memorial or mourning rooms for the descendants of persecuted homosexuals, the bishop gained reputation through her commitment to the Rosenkranz project.

death

Bernhard Rosenkranz died of an infection after a heart transplant in the university clinic. Bishop Maria Jepsen preached at his funeral in the Holy Trinity Church.

literature

• Ulf Bollmann: Rosenkranz, Bernhard . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 6 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8353-1025-4 , p. 271-273 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Bernhard Rosenkranz in the catalog of the German National Library