Erich Woehlkens

Erich Woehlkens (born September 23, 1909 in Mölln ; † October 31, 1987 ) was a grammar school teacher and head of the city archive in Uelzen .

Life

Woelkens was born the son of a teacher. After graduating from high school in Cuxhaven in 1928 , he studied mathematics , physics and chemistry in Innsbruck , Jena and Kiel . In 1936 he became a student trainee in Uelzen. From 1937 he worked in Lüneburg . After participating in the Second World War and being a British prisoner of war, he returned to Uelzen and became a grammar school teacher, most recently senior teacher , at the Herzog Ernst grammar school .

Already during his legal traineeship in Uelzen, Woehlkens dealt with the history of the city and in particular its sources of personal history. In 1953 he received his doctorate from the University of Göttingen. phil. PhD . His doctoral thesis Pest and Ruhr in the 16th century developed into a standard work on the history of epidemics . In 1958 Woehlkens became the city archivist in Uelzen. At first he held this position on a voluntary basis, after his retirement as senior teacher up to the age of 75 full-time. He made particular contributions to the recovery of the chronicle of Uelzen councilor Tile Hagemann, which has been lost for over 100 years, and to the preparation of the 700th anniversary of the city (1970).

Woehlkens wrote countless essays and handbook articles on the history of the city.

Awards

• Lower Saxony Cross of Merit (1971)
• Honorary gift from the city of Uelzen (1980)

Works

• Pest and Ruhr in the 16th and 17th centuries. Basics of a statistical-topographical description of the major epidemics, especially in the city of Uelzen. Uelzen 1954
• Uelzen. History and stories. Uelzen 1965

literature

• Horst Hoffmann: In memoriam Dr. Erich Woehlkens . In: The Heidewanderer. Yearbook 1987, pp. 207-209 (with extensive bibliography).

Web links

• Publications by Erich Woehlkens in the Opac der Regesta Imperii