Ernst August Roloff

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Ernst August Roloff (born December 20, 1886 in Braunschweig ; † November 14, 1955 there ) was a German historian, university professor and politician. At the time of the Weimar Republic he was a member of parliament and parliamentary group chairman of the DNVP in the Braunschweig State Parliament .

life and work

The son of a building contractor studied history, philosophy and economics at the University of Berlin. He received his doctorate in 1910 with a dissertation on Abbot Jerusalem and the early history of the Collegium Carolinum . In 1913 he completed his habilitation at the Technical University of Braunschweig , where he then worked as a private lecturer in history and civics.

He is the father of the historian Ernst-August Roloff . Roloff's estate is looked after by the Braunschweig City Archives (G IX 43 and GX 8).

Braunschweig state politician

After the First World War he became a member of the DNVP. In 1918 he became the full-time managing director of the conservative Braunschweigische Landbund . From 1919 Roloff was a member of the Braunschweig State Parliament, where he became an influential representative of the bourgeoisie. In 1920 he played a key role in the formation of the non-partisan "Citizens' Union", which various parties, business associations and cultural associations joined. This saw itself as an extra-parliamentary representation of the interests of the bourgeoisie. The Bürgerbund, which was increasingly coming under the influence of the DNVP, published its own weekly newspaper, with Roloff as its editor. From 1924 to 1927 the DNVP was involved in a bourgeois state government. During this time Roloff was DNVP parliamentary group chairman. In 1927 he became a representative of the German national opposition in the state parliament. As such, he spoke out against the Versailles Treaty and the Dawes Plan . In 1930 he was put up as a candidate for the civil unity list as a representative of the Landbund . Until 1933 he was again chairman of the DNVP parliamentary group, which in 1932 had formed a coalition government together with the NSDAP . Roloff's differences with the National Socialists led him to leave politics in 1933.

University professor in Braunschweig

In 1926 Roloff was appointed associate professor and in 1932 full professor. In 1927 he was commissioned to set up a history seminar. He campaigned for the introduction of academic teacher training at the TH Braunschweig. In 1937/38 he taught at the Bernhard Rust University for Teacher Education as acting professor for history and received his doctorate from Otto Antrick , the son of a former SPD politician. In June 1935 he took part in the opening of Henry the Lion's grave in Brunswick Cathedral . Roloff was briefly suspended in 1945, but exonerated, and in 1953 he retired. His successor at the Braunschweig Chair of History was Heinrich Heffter in 1954 . His research topics mainly included the Braunschweig regional history, including the history of the Collegium Carolinum, the work of Wilhelm Raabe and Heinrich the Lion. From 1943 to 1949 he was a full member of the Braunschweig Scientific Society .

Participation in clubs and associations

In 1923, Roloff was one of the founders of the Braunschweig Administration and Business Academy, where he was director of studies until 1933. He took up this task again after 1945. After the end of the Second World War he helped to build the Raabe Society and took over its management. For decades, like Wilhelm Raabe before, he belonged to the sociable circle of honest clothing sellers . On June 21, 1950, the "Friends of the Eulenspiegel Museum zu Schöppenstedt eV" was founded, chaired by Roloff.

Critical re-evaluation of lifetime achievement

In the context of the debate about an appreciation of the political life work of the Brunswick politician Minna Faßhauer , the SPD parliamentary group in the Brunswick city council made a motion in August 2013, in this context also the lives of other Brunswick politicians from the time of the November Revolution in Brunswick , the Weimar Republic to to subject the city to a critical reassessment towards the time of National Socialism . This proposal was supported by the CDU parliamentary group. The people whose life achievements are to be reevaluated include: Otto Grotewohl (first Prime Minister of the GDR ), Carl Heimbs ( DVP , responsible for the naturalization of Adolf Hitler ), Werner Küchenthal , August Merges ( USPD , first President of the Socialists Republic of Braunschweig ), Josef Oerter ( anarchist , USPD , Prime Minister of Braunschweig, later NSDAP ) and Ernst August Roloff ( DNVP , founder of BEL ).

Fonts (selection)

literature

  • Beatrix Herlemann , Helga Schatz: Biographical Lexicon of Lower Saxony Parliamentarians 1919–1945 (= publications of the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen. Volume 222). Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hanover 2004, ISBN 3-7752-6022-6 , pp. 304-305.
  • Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Günter Scheel (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon. 19th and 20th centuries. Hannover 1996, pp. 500-501.
  • Norman-Mathias Pingel: Roloff, Ernst August. In: Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon supplementary volume. Braunschweig 1996, p. 112.
  • Uwe Lammers: Biography Chapter 1: Wanderer between the systems - Ernst August Roloff senior. In: Same: Seven Lives. Scientist biographies at the cultural studies department of the Technical University of Braunschweig during National Socialism. Seminar for Philosophy, Braunschweig 2015, pp. 33–49 ( online ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Deceased members of the BWG. Humanities class: full members. Braunschweigische Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft, accessed on September 20, 2016 .
  2. ↑ SPD application of August 26, 2013: From Ernst August to August Merges to Heinrich Jasper - The time of the Weimar Republic in Braunschweig from the beginnings to the beginning of fascism (PDF file)
personal data
SURNAME Roloff, Ernst August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German university professor and politician
DATE OF BIRTH December 20, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Braunschweig
DATE OF DEATH November 14, 1955
Place of death Braunschweig