Clemens Pfau

William Clemens Pfau (born April 20, 1862 in Rochlitz ; † July 25, 1946 there ) was a German homeland researcher .

Life

Clemens Pfau was the son of the Rochlitz councilor and office mason who built the tower on the Rochlitz mountain based on a design by Eduard Heuchler . Pfau attended high school in Borna and then studied German , history and languages at the University of Leipzig from 1881 . In 1884 he moved to the University of Jena , where he already wrote his dissertation in 1885 . He then continued his studies in Geneva and returned to Leipzig University in 1886. In 1887 he passed the state examination for higher education and found employment at the Rochlitz secondary school.

In addition to his teaching activities, he dealt intensively with the history of his homeland. From 1890 until its dissolution in 1898, he took over the management of the curatorship with the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg, which had existed since 1879 . In 1892 he founded the Rochlitz History and Antiquity Association, of which he was appointed director. He donated part of his collection to this, which formed the basis for the later museum in the castle . In 1893 he was able to store his collection in the former palace chapel. The items in the collection were essentially finds relating to the settlement history of the homeland and ranged from various stoneware and ceramics to household items and weapons.

In 1912 he went to Waldheim and became deputy director of the Realprogymnasium there. Here, too, he dealt with local history. When his son Otto fell in World War I in 1915 , he set up the Otto Pfau Foundation at the grammar school to support students. He taught in Waldheim until 1918. Then he had to retire because of an eye problem.

He returned to his parents' house in Rochlitz and from then on devoted himself to his scientific work as a freelancer . From 1922 to 1930 he was again chairman of the Rochlitz History Association.

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Pfau wrote a total of 550 publications on the past of his homeland. Most of them appeared in the Rochlitzer Tageblatt and were then published as offprints. The German National Library records a total of 126 works by Pfau, most of them as special editions.

As examples of his work may serve:

• The Gothic stonemason's mark . Seemann, Leipzig 1895.
• Topographic research on the oldest settlements of the Rochlitz nursing home . Printed by M. Bode, Rochlitz 1900. (New edition: Rarebooksclub.com 2012, ISBN 978-1-235-47486-6 )
• Main features of the older history of the village of Seelitz and its church. Bode, 1902.
• Outline of the chronicle of the Zschillen monastery: With studies of the prehistoric and early historical times of the Wechselburg area, as well as the area of ​​the Rochlitz Gau or Zschillner Archdiakonat . Printed by Melzer, Rochlitz 1909.
• Heines Rochlitzer Chronicle . Vetter, Rochlitz 1921.
• Contributions to the history of the Rochlitz court system. Ernst Vetter, Rochlitz i.Sa. 1932.

One of Pfau's merits is that he was one of the first in Saxony to advocate the need for state supervision of the ground monuments .

Honors

• In 1912, on his 50th birthday, the city of Rochlitz granted him honorary citizenship
• On his 70th birthday in 1932, the place at the former hospital, where his parents' house stands, was named Clemens-Pfau-Platz.

Web links

• Peacock on suehnekreuz.de with picture
• William Clemens Pfau at the Person Wiki of the SLUB Dresden
• Short biography in "Museum aktuell"
• WC Pfau on the side of the Rochlitz history association
• Clemens Pfau at waldheim-sachsen.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ The title of Pfaus' dissertation is: Use and Formation of Adverbs in Joinville; excluding the adverbs of negation. (Digitized version)
2. ↑ Leipzig University Archive  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
3. ↑ Prof. Dr. Clemens Pfau. In: Waldheim Official Gazette. July 6, 2011, p. 9.
4. ↑ suehnekreuz.de
5. ↑ Literature by and about Clemens Pfau in the catalog of the German National Library