Gerhard Rostin

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Gerhard Rostin (born November 6, 1928 in Erben in the former East Prussia ; † June 3, 1991 in Berlin ) was a German publisher, lecturer and culture editor.

Live and act

Professional development

Rostin grew up in the former rural community of Erben in what was then the Ortelsburg district , where the Rostin family owned a homestead. After the young Rostin came to Berlin due to the war in 1946, he studied German and history and completed a traineeship in the daily newspaper Neue Zeit of the then Union-Verlag GmbH in Zimmerstrasse 79/80. Rostin's professional development in the newspaper and book publishing house of the CDU in the GDR took place in the editorial department of Neue Zeit and in the editing department of Union Verlag in East Berlin . In addition to the editorial tasks in day-to-day business, the features editor Rostin wrote his own articles, including portraits of personalities from cultural life, film reviews and reports from readings by contemporary writers. Even after Rostin had switched to the editorial office of the book publisher, he occasionally wrote cultural articles for the Neue Zeit , which were now distributed by the CDU newspaper publisher of the same name, NEUE ZEIT (VOB), via the Postzeitungsvertrieb (GDR) , which is a branch of the Association of Organizational Companies VOB Union in Berlin (East) was. Rostin remained a member of the Association of Journalists of the GDR for many years after leaving the editorial team and was listed by name in the Neue Deutsches Presse (NDP) magazine under the heading "Birthdays in November" on the occasion of his 50th birthday in 1978 .

Member of the editorial board of the daily newspaper Neue Zeit

One focus of his journalistic work in 1952/53 was the writing of film reviews. In particular, he attended premieres of DEFA films. He received the work assignments for this in consultation with the features editor Hans-Werner Gyßling . In 1961 Rostin moved to the CDU publishing house, Union Verlag Berlin, in order to work there with the fiction editor Johannes Bobrowski, who had been working since September 1, 1959 . Rostin had already made the acquaintance of the then publishing editor Bobrowski in June 1959, when both of them attended a writers ' conference of the Evangelical Academy Berlin-Brandenburg (EABB) in the "Friedenskirche" of the Stephanus Foundation in Berlin-Weißensee on the subject of "Revolution and tradition in Russian 20th Century Poetry ”. Rostin wrote a newspaper report about this writers' conference in 1959, mentioning the poems presented by Bobrowski in the context of the final writer's reading. Rostin's newspaper article was "the first public response" of Bobrowski's "poetic work" according to the article on the occasion of the 60th birthday of the poet from East Prussia in 1977 in the Neue Zeit.

Participants in conferences of the Evangelical Academy

Rostin used some of the meetings of the Berlin Evangelical Academy with writers from East and West to get to know each other personally, especially with a view to his professional work before the construction of the Berlin Wall and afterwards. In his journalistic reports from academy conferences he included his own suggestions, thoughts and wishes, for example that "Bobrowski's poems would soon be presented in a book publication." He visited in March 1961 newly appointed Head of the CDU-book publishers, Union Verlag Berlin and Koehler & Amelang Leipzig, Hubert Faensen (1928-2019) and his wife, the journalist Barbara Faensen-Altmann (1929-2000) in Kleinmachnow to to conduct an interview with him mainly about the publishing program. In 1962 he visited the Christian, writer and forest ranger Gottfried Unterdörfer in Uhyst , who occasionally read his works in the Berlin Evangelical Academy, and portrayed him for the readers of Neue Zeit . Even in the years after the Berlin Wall was built, Rostin refrained from "making a negative assessment" of meetings of the Evangelical Academy Berlin-Brandenburg (EABB) with German-German writers, for example in an information report for the party leadership of the Eastern CDU about the writers' conference in the Evangelical Academy (EABB) from January 25 to 27, 1963 on the subject of "Language in the Technical Age". Rostin was politically active as a CDU member in 1963 in the "Peter Edel" cultural center in the district where he lived at the time, Berlin-Weißensee .

Publishing editor, reviewer and editor

Rostin took over the position of lecturer for fiction and art literature from Johannes Bobrowski . The book A Garden of Memory about the life and work of Karl Foerster , the "great garden poet and perennial grower", he published together with his widow, Eva Foerster. Rostin also wrote the connecting texts. The presentation of the first edition took place in January 1983 in the presence of the two editors in Schloss Friedrichsfelde and was captured as a press photo by NZ photojournalist Joachim Thurn.

In order to obtain the printing permission from the Ministry of Culture of the GDR for the intended book production of a certain title by the CDU book publisher Union Verlag Berlin, Rostin wrote the necessary proofreading report. This was sent to the publishing and book trade headquarters for the individual object in question with the application of the publishing management . Lector Rostin wrote expert reports as part of the series Das Christliche Denkmal among other things for issue 122 with the working title "The French Friedrichstadtkirche zu Berlin " on August 25, 1983. The state printing permission was granted by the responsible employee of the Ministry of Culture on September 15, 1983 with the internal note: "Read it myself, print of interest for the history of the Huguenots and Berlin".

As an editor, Rostin was primarily responsible for the book projects by and about Johannes Bobrowski (1917–1965) and Karl Foerster (1874–1970). He met the latter and his wife, Eva Foerster, née Hildebrandt (1902–1996), in Bornim in 1954. In the '' Epitaph for Bobrowski '' from 1977, Rostin highlighted "the charisma of this man and poet" and "that of his work, which is committed to the great topic of understanding between peoples" and identified with it. Rostin had become friends in particular with Bobrowski's "Lust for ridicule, polemics and coarse humor" and the poems of meaning or ridicule written in distiches , in which he was not least of all targeting colleagues.

Journey to Schleswig-Holstein to the Sankelmark Academy

After the expansion of the so-called travel cadre , the lecturer Rostin, who had been working for CDU publishers for over 30 years, also received the status of a travel cadre . In February 1989 he was able to take part in a conference of the Sankelmark Academy in Schleswig-Holstein about Johannes Bobrowski and wrote a travel report about it. For the Bobrowski conference of the Sankelmark Academy he had prepared his presentation in writing.

Voluntary work

After the peaceful revolution and German reunification , Rostin initially continued to work as a lecturer until he left the publishing industry due to illness. From 1990 he attended the Förderkreis Alte Kirchen Berlin-Brandenburg eV , which was founded as a non-profit organization in the same year. He did not live to see the third revised and redesigned edition of A Garden of Remembrance published in 1992 by what is now BVU Buchverlag Union , but in accordance with copyright law, his full name as co-editor and author of the connecting texts was expressly mentioned.

family

He married Gita Gräber, a journalist and editor who wrote articles for the Neue Zeit under this full name and after the marriage only under her first name "Gita", while she later worked as an employee of the magazine Neue deutsche Presse (NDP) of the association of Journalisten (VDJ) wrote articles under her new full name. The Rostin family lived together with two sons. Gerhard Rostin last lived in Modersohnstrasse in Berlin-Friedrichshain , previously in Lindenallee in Berlin-Weißensee .

Author of newspaper and magazine articles (selection)

  • "The earth is really beautiful ...". On the 75th anniversary of Eduard Mörike's death
  • A village defends its right to live. Exceptional success of the new DEFA film "The Condemned Village"
  • The sinking of "Anna Susanna" ,
  • Troublemakers become classmates. DEFA's first children's film "The Troublemakers" was enthusiastically received by young and old
  • Creating from a mother's heart. Clara Viebig 90 years old
  • Farewell letter to Arthur Koetz
  • The kiss from the fairy tale fairy. / “Once is never”, a new DEFA entertainment film
  • Understand the signs of history. Conversations with the poet Albrecht Goes in Berlin-Weißensee
  • Poetry as a spoken word. Writers read at an evening at the Evangelical Academy
  • The word means people. Writers from East and West read from their works
  • Life paths in novels and poetry. Authors from Union-Verlag read about the trade fair in Leipzig ( Leipzig Spring Fair 1961)
  • Deep insights into reality. Johannes Bobrowski spoke about Scholokhov
  • Landscape and people of Sarmatia . Conversation with the winner of Group 47, Johannes Bobrowski
  • Scientific colloquium on the work of Johannes Bobrowski
  • Premieres in one premiere - Bobrowski evening in the theater on the 3rd floor [of the Volksbühne Berlin ]
  • To bring the time closer. Johannes Bobrowski to commemorate his 50th birthday
  • Always working towards the present. A conference with questions and answers from Johannes Bobrowski's work [report on a conference of the Evangelical Academy Berlin-Brandenburg in Eberswalde]
  • Written with the heart [On the life and work of the poet Johannes Bobrowski in an exhibition at the Vilnius State Library ]
  • It won't go away so easily. - Thoughts on the 60th birthday of Johannes Bobrowski
  • Interview of the week in February 1979 with Professor Dr. Irma Emmrich , art scientist at the Technical University of Dresden .
  • Seal and documents. Bobrowski exhibition in the National Library in Warsaw
  • We have your voice on the tongue. The literary aftermath of Bobrowski . [Report on a lecture by the literary scholar Bernd Leistner ]

Publishing products with reports from Rostin (selection)

  • The working title for issue 122 from the series The Christian Monument was replaced by The French Cathedral in Berlin and this issue by the art historian Sibylle Badstübner-Gröger, which was examined by Rostin, was published in 1984; DNB 850245877 .
  • The Marienkirche in Berlin by the editors Ernst Badstübner and Fritz Löffler was published as issue 90 in the series "The Christian Monument" in 1972 and Rostin had also previously examined the manuscript; DNB 740093029 .
  • Rostin prepared other proofreading reports, including a report for the title How much longer ? Apartheid as a challenge for South Africa's Christians and churches ; Documents 1970 to 1980, edited and introduced by Elisabeth Adler ; DNB 830097937 .

Editor / Contributor (selection)

  • A star is drawn. Christmas book , Union Verlag Berlin, 1961; DNB 451169921
  • Diethelm von Buchenberg. A Black Forest Village History , Union Verlag Berlin, 1964; DNB 450161900
  • Compilation of Bobrowski's bibliography in Johannes Bobrowski . Testimonials and articles about his work , Union Verlag Berlin, 1967, pp. 213-238; DNB 457102535
  • Johannes Bobrowski. Testimonials and new contributions about his work. [Editing: Gerhard Rostin in collaboration with Eberhard Haufe and Bernd Leistner ], Union Verlag Berlin, 1975 (Stuttgart licensed edition: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt 1976); ISBN 978-3-421-01831-1
  • Literary climate , Union Verlag Berlin, 1975; DNB 770310281
  • Ahornallee 26 [twenty-six] or epitaph for Johannes Bobrowski , [edition for the Federal Republic of Germany, Switzerland and Austria], Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1978; ISBN 978-3-421-01741-3
  • together with Eva Foerster: A garden of memory. Seven chapters by and about Karl Foerster , [3rd, revised and redesigned edition] BVU Buchverlag Union, Berlin 1992; ISBN 978-3-372-00187-5

Other writers about him

In his memories of Johannes Bobrowski , Elmar Jansen also mentions the work of "Editor Gerhard Rostin, who later moved to the book publisher one floor below", in the publishing building on Zimmerstrasse in (East) Berlin. After the wall was built, the entrance to Zimmerstrasse 79/80 on the border with Berlin-Kreuzberg was relocated to Hof Charlottenstrasse 79/80 in Berlin-Mitte and the publishing house was basically only accessible to employees there with a "border ID". The former head of the culture department of the Neue Zeit and later director of Union Verlag Berlin, Klaus-Peter Gerhardt, characterized in his memory of the editor who "died shortly after he left the publishing house due to illness", Gerhard Rostin as "a relentless, tireless one , refreshingly uncomfortable because carefully and meticulously working servant of the book. " In addition, Gerhardt particularly praised the support that has taken place since 1962 on "almost all book editions of the works" by Johannes Bobrowski by Rostin. Franz Fühmann described Rostin in a letter to Wieland Förster as a “good editor”.

Correspondence from the editor (selection)

The publisher's editor conducted a lively exchange of letters:

In the German Literature Archive in Marbach these letters and other writings he documents are mostly accessible.

Hobby photographer

Occasionally Rostin took photos and published some photos, such as the motifs:

Web links

Literature by and about Gerhard Rostin in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Potsdam author photographer Gunnar Porikys "Servant of two gentlemen and one mistress" in A Garden of Memory , 4th edition 2001, p. 470–473 with illustration (knee) Rostins p. 471, taken together with Eva Foerster († 1996) in 1986 in Potsdam-Bornim ; ISBN 3-928119-65-6
  2. ^ Obituary notice from "Union Verlag" in Neue Zeit , June 14, 1991
  3. ↑ "Seelenliste" (list of residents) from the village of Erben, created 1958; Map of the Masurian village, which was renamed Orzyny after 1945 and belongs to Poland.
  4. ↑ Gunnar Porikys: Servant of two masters and one mistress in "A Garden of Memory", 4th edition 2001, pp. (470–473) 771
  5. ↑ New German Press. Organ of the Central Board of the Association of Journalists of the GDR , 10/1978, p. 31
  6. ^ Gerhard Rostin: Thoughts on the 60th birthday of Johannes Bobrowski , in: Neue Zeit , April 9, 1977, p. 4
  7. ↑ Neue Zeit , June 30, 1959, p. 4, author abbreviation: "Ro." for Rostin
  8. ^ "Ro. [Gerhard Rostin]": The word means people. Writers from East and West read from their works , in: Neue Zeit , May 25, 1960, p. 4
  9. ^ Neue Zeit , March 11, 1961, p. 3
  10. ↑ Neue Zeit , August 25, 1962, 6
  11. ↑ Schwarz, Peter Paul: Mit public. On the German-German work of the Evangelical Academy Berlin-Brandenburg , [with reference to the archival information in the Archive for Christian Democratic Politics (ACDP)], footnotes 598 and 599; ISBN 978-3-525-55791-4
  12. ↑ Neue Zeit , March 26, 1963, p. 6
  13. ↑ Karl Foerster: A garden of memory: 7 chap. from u. about Karl Foerster . 1st edition Union-Verlag, Berlin 1982 ( dnb.de [accessed December 9, 2019]).
  14. ↑ 6th edition 2009; ISBN 978-3-8001-5893-5
  15. ↑ Attachments to the printing permit application: Proofreading report by Gerhard Rostin, manuscript copy, 16 illustration templates, present as an inventory in the Federal Archives: Ministry of Culture, Part 3: Headquarters for publishers and bookshops - printing approval processes 1947–1991, here: 1983; Finding aid for the DR 1 holdings with digital reproductions for a "part of the holdings, especially with a focus on fiction."
  16. ↑ Gerhard Rostin's letter from 1989 to Eva Foerster, printed in: "A Garden of Remembrance", p. 470 f .; ISBN 3-928119-65-6
  17. ↑ Rostin, Gerhard: Post Comment . In: Ahornallee 26 or Epitaph für Bobrowski, S. (94-97) 97, Union Verlag, Berlin 1977; DNB 780159314
  18. ^ In the holdings of the German Literature Archive (DLA) Marbach; "Memory and Future" (prose)
  19. ↑ Manuscript in the DLA Marbach; Extent: 22 p.
  20. ↑ ISBN 978-3-372-00187-5
  21. ↑ For example: A Garden of Memory. Life and work of Karl Foerster - the great garden poet and perennial grower . "[edited by Eva Foerster and Gerhard Rostin. Gerhard Rostin wrote the connecting texts]"; DNB 978-3-8001-5893-5
  22. ↑ For example, 1967 under the heading "Just a moment", signed with "Gita" in Neue Zeit , issue 246, p. 12 and 1973 The "School of Solidarity" of the VDJ was founded ten years ago in Neue Zeit , issue 279, p. 3 and 1975 as editor Gita Rostin in Neue Deutsche Presse , Volume 29, No. 20/1975, pp. 2–3 "On the representation of the role of women".
  23. ^ Telephone book Berlin, 1991 edition (east part), p. 581, column 4; Digitized by the "Central and State Library Berlin (ZLB)"
  24. ↑ Neue Zeit , June 4, 1950, p. 3
  25. ^ Neue Zeit , February 16, 1952, p. 3
  26. ^ Neue Zeit , March 4, 1953, p. 4
  27. ↑ Neue Zeit , July 4, 1953, p. 4
  28. ^ Neue Zeit , July 16, 1950, p. 4
  29. ^ Neue Zeit , December 12, 1953, p. 5
  30. ↑ Neue Zeit, March 31, 1955, p. 4th
  31. ↑ Neue Zeit , November 27, 1959
  32. ↑ Neue Zeit , June 30, 1959
  33. ^ Neue Zeit , May 25, 1960
  34. ^ Neue Zeit , March 14, 1961
  35. ^ Neue Zeit , July 17, 1962
  36. ^ Neue Zeit , November 2, 1962
  37. ↑ Börsenblatt für den deutschen Buchhandel , Leipzig 1965, No. 51/52, p. 995 f.
  38. ^ Neue Zeit , December 15, 1966
  39. ↑ Börsenblatt für den deutschen Buchhandel , Leipzig 1967, No. 112, pp. 232–234
  40. ^ Neue Zeit , July 15, 1967
  41. ↑ Neue Zeit , November 24, 1974
  42. ↑ Neue Zeit , [only published in issue A, fr. "Republic Edition", not in Edition B, fr. "Berlin Edition"], April 9, 1977; PDF
  43. ^ Neue Zeit , September 8, 1979
  44. ^ Neue Zeit , October 4, 1980
  45. ^ Neue Zeit , March 29, 1982
  46. ^ Table of contents of the detective novella in Neue Zeit , May 22, 1964, p. 5
  47. ↑ In: Open Horizon. Yearbook of the Karl Jaspers Society, 5/2018, edited by Matthias Bormuth, p. (181–200) 181 Rostin's workplace; P. 186 Intervention in Rostin's publishing work after the book was presented at the Leipzig Book Fair in 1965 due to the publication of the picture panel: Bobrowski meets Günter Grass ; Google books, search word "Rostin"
  48. ^ Neue Zeit , June 18, 1991, p. 14
  49. ^ Letter of August 17, 1977, printed in: Now read it nicely! , Hinstorff Verlag , 2017; ISBN 978-3-356-02072-4
  50. ↑ Neue Zeit , June 11, 1961, p. 3
personal data
SURNAME Rostin, Gerhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ro. (Author abbreviation)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German editor, journalist, reader and book author
DATE OF BIRTH November 6, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Heirs , East Prussia
DATE OF DEATH June 3, 1991
Place of death Berlin