Hermann Roloff

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Hermann Roloff (born November 23, 1900 in Graudenz ; † May 12, 1972 in Cologne ) was a German architect and spatial planner .

During National Socialism he had worked in the Reich Office for Spatial Planning (1936–1943) and in this role he was to be used, among other things, in the occupied Dutch territories to harmonize Dutch spatial planning measures. However, the attempt was steered in a different direction by Dutch planners.

After 1945 Roloff worked in the Federal Ministry for Housing , as a lecturer at RWTH Aachen University and belonged to the functional elite in the Federal Republic of Germany who helped prepare the federal spatial planning legislation (1965).

Training as an architect and initial work experience

Hermann Roloff's father was the police commissioner Hermann Roloff senior. Between 1910 and 1918 his son attended the grammar school in Świecie on the Vistula (Świecie) and then made military service in World War 1 . From the summer semester of 1919, Roloff studied architecture at the Technical University of Berlin and graduated in May 1924 as a Dipl.-Ing. from. In May 1928, Roloff passed the state examination in building construction as a government building supervisor . In the same month he was appointed government builder. In June 1928 Roloff joined the management of Continentalen Bau-Aktien-Gesellschaft , to which he was a technical director until July 1931. In the same month, Roloff received the title of doctoral engineer at the TH Berlin. The reporter was the architect Hermann Ehlgötz , the co- reporter was State Secretary Adolf Scheidt .

After completing his doctorate, Roloff worked as a freelance architect and also worked at the Technical University of Berlin. A habilitation took place in 1935 at the TH Berlin (Dr. Ing.habil.). The work at the above At the beginning of National Socialism, the construction company should have an aftermath, at least that's what Roloff said. They were Jewish employers with whom he was on friendly terms. In 1933 he was also accused of providing financial support to the owner and the authorized signatory. In order to avoid being discharged from university, he therefore joined the SA in 1934 . Nevertheless, he was dismissed from teaching.

Confluence with the National Socialist spatial and regional planning

From 1936 to 1943 Roloff worked for the Reich Office for Spatial Planning (RfR) in Berlin, most recently in the position of senior government councilor . In the RfR he led the specialist lecture II planning principles and scientific spatial research within the planning department under building director i. R. Karl Köster. Hermann Muhs , head of the RfR after Hanns Kerrl's death in December 1941, certified Roloff in 1943 in the course of an application for an honorary professorship that Roloff was

" I played a major role in the development of spatial research since 1936 in my company as the responsible consultant (...) and (...) carried out extensive scientific work by setting up the research programs and evaluating their results ."

However, there were other, more important heads of unit in the RfR. Other actors were more important for National Socialist spatial research ( Konrad Meyer , Paul Ritterbusch , Friedrich Bülow , Frank Glatzel , Josef Umlauf and others). In his role as RfR consultant, Roloff had contact with Gerhard Isenberg , Heinrich Dörr and Erwin Muermann . In 1937 Roloff joined the German Academy for Urban Development and Regional Planning as a member.

Hermann Roloff's duties in The Hague

In August 1940, Roloff took up his position as a government councilor in the General Commissioner for Administration and Justice under General Commissioner Friedrich Wimmer and Reich Commissioner Arthur Seyß-Inquart in The Hague , the Netherlands. The aim of his mission should be " to set up a planning body based on German principles within the framework of the Dutch authorities, in which Roloff, as ministerial advisor, has the appropriate influence and leadership ."

For the Viennese spatial planner Andreas Faludi, Roloff was “sent by the Reich Office for Regional Planning to set up a small planning department (Roloff, his deputy and a secretary) at the Reich Administrator. He forged plans to bring Dutch spatial research and spatial planning into line in a kind of state planning office based on the German example. "Roloff tried" to place the planning for the Netherlands directly with the Prime Minister (then: the Reichsverweser), which would have indicated a pioneering role for the planning . "

These initiatives by Nazi Germany in the Netherlands have been undermined. The Dutch administration managed to forestall Roloff by setting up its own spatial and regional planning structures (" Rijksdienst voor het Nationale Plan ", among others). The Rijksdienst was headed by Karel J. Frederiks ; the office of the new Dutch planning organization was headed by Frits Bakker-Schut (who designed the so-called Bakker-Schut Plan after 1945 ). According to Andreas Faludi, Reich Commissioner Seyß-Inquart reacted to the new situation as follows:

“Roloff was instructed by the Reich Administrator to allow the Dutch to do their thing and from then on limited himself to the approval of the legal texts, which were specially translated for him for this purpose, and to the approval of personnel decisions. A National Socialist attitude was by no means a prerequisite for recruiting from the Rijksdienst (...) Roloff himself was therefore unable to realize his ideas of taking over Dutch planning. In the time he had left, he worked on plans for the Reich Office for Spatial Planning, in particular for establishing colonies for the Dutch in the newly conquered area. "

Roloff's influence appears to be minor. However, the Dutch historian Hans Derks assessed Roloff's role in The Hague differently:

“When the Upper Government Councilor Dr. Hermann Roloff had things in the Netherlands well under control in his opinion in mid-1942, he was able to see more and more clearly how his work fitted into a Western European framework, a framework whose contours were being drawn ever more sharply by various Berlin authorities. Roloff became an important man. His work report of this month June 1942 documented its status: He received a Belgian delegation of high state and local officials and visited with them some Dutch cities, on June 10, he participated in a meeting with the military chief administrator over the connection of the Albert Canal with the Maas in Brussels in part , then a Japanese delegation arrived, in mid-June he is back in Brussels for the purpose of negotiating 'joint planning tasks', at the end of June he will remain in Berlin for negotiations with State Secretary Muhs (head of the Reich Office for Spatial Planning) and with Ritterbusch (RAG head) Spatial research ... "

During the Nazi era, Roloff alternated between occupation management, planning and (spatial) science. This is also shown by the results in Marc Engels' study (see literature). Hermann Roloff came from the Netherlands alongside the economic geographer Bruno Kuske and the historian Franz Petri as part of National Socialist research on the West (see also West Area) and the "Germanic Research Task of the SS" (awarded by the Reich Security Main Office , organized by the Reich Working Group for Spatial Research , RAG) a coordinating role. In this context, competitions developed, for example with the Cologne scientist Bruno Kuske. In this context, Roloff worked on the projects "The position of the Dutch processing industry in the future European economy" and "The biological national power of the Netherlands as a model and securing livelihood for the population surplus in New Europe".

In February 1943 Roloff received "a teaching position at the Technical University of Aachen, where he took over a newly established institute for spatial planning and spatial research in addition to the management of the university working group for spatial research." Roloff led the Aachen university working group for spatial research from May 1943.

From 1943 Hermann Roloff also headed the Working Group for Spatial Planning, “which, on behalf of the secret organization Mittelstelle für Heimatschutz, was to organize the possibility of expanding the university's responsibilities to the still occupied western neighboring countries, which was only a few months later due to the liberation of these countries done by the Allies. ”(see Lemma Hermann Proetel ). Hermann Proetel, Peter Mennicken , Robert Hans Wentzel , Hans Mehrtens and Robert Roessing were involved in the working group. On November 1, 1943, Roloff was called up for active military service in Berlin.

Post-war career in the Federal Ministry for Housing

In 1953 Roloff succeeded in joining the Federal Ministry for Housing , where he worked until 1962; from 1956 in the position of Ministerial Councilor . Roloff was head of the regional planning department in the ministry. The Academy for Spatial Research and Regional Planning (ARL) in Hanover accepted Roloff as a corresponding member in 1955 .

In the Rhenish lignite mining district , Hermann Roloff was involved in planning the relocation. So he developed a development plan for what was then Neuberrenrath (see Berrenrath ).

Roloff is important for the history of spatial planning in the Federal Republic of Germany, not least because, from 1956, he was involved as secretary in the working group for the preparation of the expert report submitted in 1961 by the Expert Committee for Spatial Planning (SARO). The Federal Spatial Planning Act (1965), which was passed four years later, prepared the report:

“Between 1956 and 1961, a number of old acquaintances discussed in SARO which guiding principles should ultimately determine future spatial planning policy in the Federal Republic. In addition to Erich Dittrich , the Federal Government appointed six members, Kurt Brüning , Gerhard Isenberg , Norbert Ley , Hermann Roloff and Walter Arke , who had already been active in regional planning and regional planning before 1945. In addition there were the Göttingen constitutional lawyer and student Carl Schmitt Werner Weber , the Cologne geographer and member of the Scientific Council of the IfR Theodor Kraus and, on the suggestion of the Federal Ministry of Economics, the economist Fritz W. Meyer . (...) In one of the first draft reports in 1957, Hermann Roloff saw the dirigistic element of spatial planning in the Nazi era strongly emphasized and asked whether it would not be more appropriate to point out developments at the same time abroad and that the spatial planning there, partly still today, with stronger dirigistic means. "

From 1962 Roloff worked as an adjunct professor at RWTH Aachen University ( lecturer for spatial planning and spatial research ).

Honorary positions (selection)

Fonts (selection)

  • Relocation in the Rhenish lignite area, shown using the example of Berrenrath . In: West German Economic Monographs, Volume 2, Brown Coal, 1957
  • Tasks of federal spatial planning . Cologne 1956 (= publications of the German Association for Housing, Urban Development and Spatial Planning, issue 15)
  • Activation of the federal spatial planning . In: Bundesbaublatt , Issue 10, 1956
  • Planning and order in the Rhenish lignite area . In: University yearbook of the TH Aachen, 1951
  • The historical position of the Germanic-Roman border regions in the west . In: Westland 2nd part (1943), pp. 66–71
  • The drainage of the Zuidersee . In: Westland 1st episode, 1943, pp. 32–37
  • Planning in the Netherlands . In: Raumforschung und Raumordnung, 6th year (1942), issue 6/7, pp. 162–192 (Roloff also acted as co-editor of this issue of "RuR" alongside Paul Ritterbusch and Carl Krauch )
  • Spatial planning in the Netherlands n (With a portrait of the author and graphics). In: Netherlands: German-Dutch economic magazine. Organ of the Chamber of Commerce for the Netherlands and the Central Order Office for the Occupied Dutch Territories (Amsterdam), Vol. 7 (1941), 14, pp. 1-6.
  • The Netherlands area . In: Max Freiherr Du Prel , Willi Janke (Ed.): The Netherlands in the upheaval of times. Old and new relationships with the Empire. On behalf of the Reich Commissioner for the Occupied Dutch Territories, Reich Minister Dr. Seyss-Inquart, Würzburg 1941, pp. 329-351.
  • The collaboration of science in organizing and shaping the German East Region . In: Raumforschung und Raumordnung, 3rd year (1939), Issue 11/12, 535-542.
  • Spatial plans . In: Raumforschung und Raumordnung, 2nd year (1938), Issue 1, pp. 10-18.
  • Plan signs for spatial planning and land use. Representation of the graphic signatures on maps and plans of spatial planning and urban planning . Berlin 1937
  • Municipal constitution and self-government . Berlin 1936
  • Spatial planning and settlement work in the Third Reich . In: University and abroad. Foreign monthly of the German Academic Exchange Service , Berlin 1936, issue 9.
  • The house interest tax and its influence on urban development in the past, present and future . Würzburg: Triltsch 1932 (= dissertation from July 10, 1931, TH Berlin)

Assessment

  • Regional planning in the Federal Republic of Germany. Opinion of the Expert Committee for Spatial Planning . Stuttgart 1961 (SARO)

literature

  • Academy for Spatial Research and Regional Planning (Ed., Red .: Gabriele Schöne…), 50 years of ARL in facts . Hanover (ARL) 1996, ISBN 3-88838-514-8
  • Ariane Leendertz: Creating order. German spatial planning in the 20th century . Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag 2008, ISBN 978-3-8353-0269-3
  • Marc Engels: The "Economic Community of the West Country". Bruno Kuske and Western economic research between the German Empire and the Federal Republic . Aachen: Shaker Verlag 2007 (= Aachener Studien zur Wirtschafts und Sozialgeschichte. 4), ISBN 978-3-8322-6642-4
  • Hans Derks: German West Research. Ideology and Practice in the 20th Century . Leipzig: Akademische Verlagsanstalt 2001, ISBN 3-931982-23-8
  • Andreas Faludi: A clean slate? The Dutch national planning under German occupation . In: Heinrich Mäding, Wendelin Strubelt (ed.): From the Third Reich to the Federal Republic. Contributions to a conference on the history of spatial research and spatial planning. Hannover: ARL 2009 (working material of the ARL. 346), pp. 241-253, ISBN 978-3-88838-346-5
  • Koos Bosma: Links between East and West Colonization. In: Mechthild Rössler, Sabine Schleiermacher (ed.): The "General Plan East". Main lines of the National Socialist planning and extermination policy. Berlin: Akademie Verlag 1993, pp. 198-214, ISBN 3-05-002445-3
  • Clemens Klug: Hürth, how it was, how it was. Edited by the local history association of the municipality of Hürth. Cologne: Steimel 1962

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Data taken from the dissertation: Hermann Roloff: The house interest tax and its influence on urban development in the past, present and future . Würzburg: Triltsch 1932, attached curriculum vitae of the author.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Lemma: Roloff, Hermann . In: Academy for spatial research and regional planning (ed.): 50 years of ARL in facts . ARL, Hanover 1996, p. 231 .
  3. ↑ Ulrich Kalkmann: The Technical University of Aachen in the Third Reich (1933-1945) . Wissenschaftsverlag Mainz, Aachen 2003, ISBN 3-86130-181-4 , p. 308 .
  4. ↑ From: Federal Archives R 113/1896, Issue No. 2, Honorary Professorship for Roloff, Reich Office for Spatial Planning at the Reich Ministry for Science, Education and Public Education of February 13, 1943 .
  5. ^ Hans Derks: German West Research. Ideology and Practice in the 20th Century. Academic Publishing House, Leipzig 2001, p. 147 f .
  6. ↑ Quoted from Hans Derks: Deutsche Westforschung ... p. 148 (according to the archive of the Rijksinstituut Oorlogsdocumentatie (RIOD), Amsterdam), Col. 22.1a
  7. ↑ Andreas Faludi: A clean slate? The Dutch national planning under German occupation . In: Heinrich Mäding, Wendelin Strubelt (ed.): From the Third Reich to the Federal Republic. Contributions to a conference on the history of spatial research and spatial planning . Hanover: ARL 2009, p. 246f.
  8. ↑ Andreas Faludi: A clean slate? The Dutch national planning under German occupation . In: Heinrich Mäding, Wendelin Strubelt (ed.): From the Third Reich to the Federal Republic. Contributions to a conference on the history of spatial research and spatial planning . Hanover: ARL 2009, p. 250.
  9. ↑ Andreas Faludi: A clean slate? The Dutch national planning under German occupation . In: Heinrich Mäding, Wendelin Strubelt (ed.): From the Third Reich to the Federal Republic. Contributions to a conference on the history of spatial research and spatial planning. Hanover: ARL 2009, p. 247f.
  10. ^ Hans Derks: German West Research. Ideology and Practice in the 20th Century. Academic Publishing House, Leipzig 2001, p. 196 .
  11. ^ Marc Engels: The "Economic Community of the West Country". Bruno Kuske and Western economic research between the German Empire and the Federal Republic . Shaker Verlag, Aachen 2007, p. 284.
  12. ↑ Michael Fahlbusch, Ingo Haar: Völkische Wissenschaften and political advice . In: Dies .: Ethnic Sciences and Policy Advice in the 20th Century . Expertise and "reorganization" of Europe. Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2010, p. 32
  13. ^ Marc Engels: The "Economic Community of the West Country". Bruno Kuske and Western economic research between the German Empire and the Federal Republic . Shaker Verlag, Aachen 2007, pp. 301ff.
  14. ^ Marc Engels: The "Economic Community of the West Country". Bruno Kuske and Western economic research between the German Empire and the Federal Republic . Shaker Verlag, Aachen 2007, p. 305 f .
  15. ^ Leo Haupts: The "University Working Group for Spatial Research" and the political use of research by the Nazi state. The example of the University of Cologne. In: Rheinische Vierteljahresblätter . tape 68 , 2004, p. 172–200 (here 191) .
  16. ^ Hans Derks: German West Research. Ideology and Practice in the 20th Century. Academic Publishing House, Leipzig 2004, p. 204 f .
  17. ↑ Ariane Leendertz: Creating order. German spatial planning in the 20th century. Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2008, p. 283 f .
personal data
SURNAME Roloff, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect and spatial planner
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Graudenz
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 1972
Place of death Cologne