Hans Schmitt-Rost

Hans Schmitt-Rost , b. Franz Karl Johannes Schmitt , pseudonym Fritz Franz Florian , (born February 9, 1901 in Essen , † March 2, 1978 in Cologne ) was a German publicist, author and Cologne administrative officer. From 1945 to 1957 he was the head of the news office in Cologne. Hans Schmitt-Rost was married to the Cologne dialect poet Lis Böhle .

Life

Hans Schmitt-Rost was born in 1901 as the son of a postal worker in Essen. The family moved to Cologne-Nippes in 1906 after their father was transferred . After attending school, he first began studying medicine . A short time later, he changed the subject and continued his studies with the subjects of economics , sociology and art history . He completed his university education in 1924 with a doctorate to become a Dr. rer. pole. from. A year later he married his childhood friend, the dialect poet Lis Böhle (1901–1990). Their daughter Sonja (1925–1990) was born in the same year. Until 1932 he worked in a leading position in a Cologne construction company. In the 1920s he made numerous contacts with the Cologne avant-garde artists of the Cologne Progressives , such as Heinrich Hoerle , Ludwig Gies and Franz Wilhelm Seiwert . He began working as a freelance journalist for newspapers in the late 1920s.

After the National Socialists had banned him from writing in 1933 due to his critical attitude and forbade him to continue to publish, it was mainly his wife who had to publish poems and tales, sometimes under the pseudonym Köbeschen , in order to ensure the family's livelihood. From 1935 he occasionally worked as an author for Kölsche texts for the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger and the Kölnische Zeitung . Since Cologne was increasingly exposed to the bombing , the family spent the last three years of the war in Oberstdorf . Here he wrote the manuscript Rebuilding the City of Cologne in 1945 , in which Schmitt-Rost put down his thoughts on the reconstruction of the destroyed city.

After the war, the couple returned to Cologne. Hans Schmitt-Rost was appointed head of the Cologne news office. The couple lived in downtown Cologne after the war. Schmitt-Rost was instrumental in restoring the reputation of the city of Cologne after the war. One measure for this was the reopening of the Cologne factory schools , which were respected before the war . He tried to get the support of well-known Cologne artists, art historians and architects such as Ludwig Gies, August Hoff and Dominikus Böhm . He was also co-editor of the magazine Werk und Zeit of the German Werkbund . For the year 1948 he prepared the Cologne cathedral anniversary. In the following years he wrote numerous publications on the history of the city , architecture , urban planning and art, some texts in the Cologne language and portraits of artist friends and art collectors, such as Heinrich Hoerle, Franz Wilhelm Seiwert and Josef Haubrich . Together with well-known Cologne photographers such as Chargesheimer , August Sander and Walter Dick, he published illustrated books of the city of Cologne during the period of reconstruction.

Family grave at the Melaten cemetery in Cologne

Schmitt-Rost died in 1978 at the age of 77 in his apartment in Cologne. He was buried with great sympathy at the Melaten cemetery in Cologne (Lit J, between Lit B and Lit C).

Honor

On March 10, 2014, the Cologne city council decided to include the couple's grave in the list of graves for deserving citizens of the city of Cologne.

Works (selection)

• Rebuilding the city of Cologne , 1946
• Cologne and its cathedral. Festschrift for the cathedral anniversary , 1948, as editor
• At the museum: Written after the great destruction of Cologne in 1943 , 1949
• Old Cologne picture book , 1950
• The new Cologne. A preliminary draft in 1950 , 1953, as an editor
• Photo documents 1953 , as editor
• Cologne on the Rhine, you beautiful town. Cologne on the Rhine, you beautiful city. Small instructions for use for a large city , 1955 (as pseudonym Fritz Franz Florian )
• The chain of office of the Lord Mayor of Cologne, 1956, as a processor
• Cologne intime , 1957, with photos by Chargesheimer
• As a stranger through one's own city , in Merian , 13th year, issue 13, Cologne 1960, pp. 8–15
• The picture book of Cologne , 1960, together with Walter Dick
• Josef Haubrich, a friend , 1963
• Kölsch, as it is not in the dictionary , 1965
• Elstergasse in Cologne , 1965
• Heinrich Hoerle , 1965
• Schmitz, the tramp , 1970
• hear and be worthwhile. Modern painting in Cologne between 1917 and 1933. A monograph , 1952, as editor
• Fritz Hönig: Dictionary of the Cologne dialect , 1955, as editor of a reprint
• Time of ruins. Cologne at the end of the dictatorship, 1965, as editor

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Death certificate No. 2466 of March 7, 1978, Cologne registry office. In: LAV NRW R civil status register. Retrieved June 28, 2018 . 
2. ^ Ulrich S. Soénius (Ed.), Jürgen Wilhelm (Ed.): Kölner Personen-Lexikon. Greven, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-7743-0400-0 , p. 480.
3. ↑ Lis Böhle: E Mädsche vum Neppes. In: Klaaf 01/2012. Akademie för uns kölsche Sproch, accessed on January 27, 2016 . 
4. ↑ Hans Schmitt-Rost - Cologne press spokesman from the Ruhr area. In: Klaaf 01/2012. Akademie för uns kölsche Sproch, accessed on January 29, 2016 . 
5. ^ Short vita in Merian , 13th year, issue 13, Cologne 1960, p. 8.
6. ↑ ^{a b} City of Cologne: inclusion of a grave in the list of graves for deserving citizens and takeover. In: Council information system of the City of Cologne 0083/2014. March 10, 2014, accessed January 27, 2016 . 
7. ↑ Josef Abt & Joh. Ralf Beines: Melaten - Cologne graves and history . Greven, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-7743-0305-3 , p. 75 .