Gottlieb Samuel Pristaff

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Gottlieb Samuel Pristaff (* in Cottbus ; † January 10, 1736 in Anklam ) was a forger in the 18th century. Above all, he forged documents and chronicles on the history of Pomerania , some of which he distributed under his own name, but also under pseudonyms such as Adam Gerschow .

Life

The son of the Cottbus pastor Christian Pristaff initially embarked on a church career. He worked as a preacher in Grapzow near Treptow an der Tollense and later in Langenhagen near Treptow an der Rega . He had to resign from office there in 1726 because of an offensive lifestyle. He went to Danzig , where he was arrested on the orders of the Prussian government. Because of his height of about 1.90 meters (6 feet ) he was served as a soldier in an infantry regiment in Stargard . After a few years he was released because of illness.

From 1732 he lived in Stettin and Greifswald , from where he undertook extensive trips through Pomerania and on Rügen . He used the extensive knowledge that he acquired in archives and libraries during this time to create forged documents and chronicles. He provided these with maps and illustrations he had drawn himself. He sold his forgeries to libraries and private individuals. The people he deceived included the Pomeranian general superintendent Johann Gottfried Hornejus , the Szczecin mayor Matthias Heinrich Liebeherr and the Greifswald professors Albert Georg Schwarz and Augustin von Balthasar . They used his certificates in their work and recommended him to their friends.

The historian Theodor Pyl warned in the 1888 of the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie about the Pristaff forgeries, which historians of the 19th century such as Friedrich Wilhelm Barthold , Robert Klempin and Otto Fock were still exposed to. He certified that Pristaff was very well read, with the help of which he could credibly represent the errors and inventions contained in the forged chronicles. While Pyl Pristaff's drawings were classified as negligible, he certified the forged documents as "sophisticated calculation". Pristaff had dated his documents to times when historically significant events such as the All Saints Flood in 1304 or the extinction of the Counts of Gützkow took place. But Pyl also expressed astonishment at the fact that Pristaff had succeeded in producing and collecting an enormous amount of forged writings in the short time from 1732 to 1736.

Some of Pristaff's writings and drawings are in the Greifswald State Archives .

As the research found, the Tullstorp runestone served the Pomeranian forger as a template to prove an alleged "Drewoldke runestone" on Rügen in order to fool a stronger Viking presence there. After 1732 such "drawings" made their way from Greifswald to Sweden.

literature

  • Theodor Pyl :  Pristaff, Gottlieb Samuel . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 26, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1888, p. 601 f.
  • Günter Krieg u. Lutz Mohr : The "rune stone" by Drewoldke on the island of Rügen - the product of a forger from the 18th century and its Swedish model in Tullstorp / Skane province . In: Stone Cross Research (SKF). Studies on German and international land monument research . Edited by Rainer H. Schmeissner, Volume No. 10 (series of monographs), Regensburg 1999, pp. 39-49

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Barthold: Pomeranian history . Vol. III; Pp. 399-402
  2. ↑ Klempin: Pommersches Urkundenbuch , p. 320
  3. ↑ Fock: Rügensch-Pomeranian stories . Vol. III, p. 61, notes on the year 1307
  4. ↑ archive no. III 231b; Historical-geographical description of the castles, cities and villages destroyed in Pomerania Author: Adam Gerschovium (probably written by the Pomeranian history forger Pristaff)
personal data
SURNAME Pristaff, Gottlieb Samuel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gerschow, Adam; Gerschovium, Adam
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German history forger
DATE OF BIRTH 17th century or 18th century
PLACE OF BIRTH cottbus
DATE OF DEATH January 10, 1736
Place of death Anklam