Hermann Schröter (archivist)

Hermann Schröter (passport photo)

Hermann Schröter (born August 26, 1909 in Dresden ; † November 12, 1990 in Essen ) was a German archivist and local history researcher . From 1955 to 1974 he was in charge of the Essen city archive .

Life

Hermann Schröter was born on August 26th, 1909 in Dresden. After a brief visit to the Dresden Kreuz Gymnasium , he switched to the Catholic Gymnasium in Heiligenstadt. Graduating from school was followed by studies at the universities of Halle , Innsbruck and Münster . There he studied history, German and English.

In 1933 Hermann Schröter became a graduate economist, passed the secondary school teacher exam, and received his doctorate in 1934 with a dissertation on the history of the Eichsfeld in the 19th century. phil. and passed the philological state examination in 1935.

After a short teaching activity at the Heiligenstadt Educational Home, he began his training as an archival trainee at the Secret State Archives Berlin-Dahlem on April 1, 1936 . After passing the exam at the local institute for archival science , Hermann Schröter was transferred to the Osnabrück State Archives for practical training on September 18, 1937 . On April 1, 1938, he was employed there as an archive assistant and on June 1, 1938, as a state archivist.

When he was finally appointed State Archives Councilor on May 21, 1941, he had already been drafted into army service. In September 1944 he was taken prisoner by the English in France . Although the then Osnabrück State Archives Director Wrede tried very hard with the British military government to get his employee released after the end of the war, Schröter was only able to report back on December 12, 1946 and return to work on January 10, 1947. In 1955 he was appointed archive director in Essen, retired in 1974 and finally died there on November 12, 1990 after a short illness.

Act

Working as an archivist in Essen

On October 1, 1955, Hermann Schröter succeeded the archives councilor Robert Jahn, whom he had already met in 1937 as an archive trainee, as the city archives director. He said of taking office:

"I am aware of the size and difficulty of the task entrusted to me in Essen."

- Hermann Schröter

The order of the previously completely confusing holdings from the 19th and 20th centuries, which are said to have had a volume of 400 hundredweight of paper, became his main task. In addition, he primarily dealt with the archives of incorporated districts that the archive had received in large quantities. But also the development of old holdings through registers and repertories as well as the tracing of Essen archives in foreign holdings was important to him.

Thanks to his initiative, the German Archives Day took place in Essen in 1960 and a reference library of 4000 volumes was set up, which grew to 6000 volumes by the time he retired.

He particularly campaigned for the archive to be moved to the former rabbi house of the Old Synagogue , in good time before the old Essen town hall was demolished .

He was succeeded in 1974 by senior archivist Karl-Otto Bogumil.

Working as a local researcher

Ernst Schröter had already begun extensive writing activities while working in the Osnabrück State Archives. He published many essays on Lower Saxony , Westphalian and Osnabrück history. The historical commissions for Lower Saxony and Westphalia appointed him a member because of his services. He continued this work in Essen from 1955.

As a board member of the Historical Association for the City and Monastery of Essen , he gave lectures and campaigned for the economic promotion of the printing of the series Essener Posts - contributions to the history of the city and monastery of Essen . The association honored him with the appointment as honorary chairman.

He paid special attention to the history of the city in the 19th and 20th centuries. His most important and most extensive work is History and Fate of the Essen Jews , Essen 1980, which deals with the fate of the Essen Jewish community, individual families and people before, during and after the Nazi era , as well as deportation lists and a compilation of the murdered Essen Jews contains.

From 1965 to 1985 he was in charge of the magazine of the Münsterbauverein in Essen, Das Münster am Hellweg , in which he published numerous articles of his own.

In 1983, Hermann Schröter was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon for his scientific achievement .

Number of scientific contributions to the local history of Essen

Publications (selection)

title	Publishing year	published in / edited by
The town register of the city of Lingen. 1602-1809	1953	Verl. R. van Acken, Lingen (Ems)
Alderman of the city of Essen until 1933 part 1 and 2	1960-1961	'Heimatstadt Essen' magazine
The City of Essen's Citizens Register. 1371-1807	1963	Contributions to the history of the city and monastery of Essen
Robert Jahn (obituary)	1963	'The Archivist' magazine
Maria Kunigunde of Saxony, the last abbess of the Essen monastery	1976	'Münster am Hellweg' magazine
History of the Jews in the Abbey and City of Essen in the 17th and 18th centuries 18th century.	1980	City of Essen

literature

• City of Essen and the historical association for the city and monastery of Essen eV: Essen heads. Essen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8375-0848-2 , p. 311.
• Historical association for the city and monastery of Essen eV: Essen contributions: Contributions to the history of the city and monastery of Essen, Volume 104. Essen 1992, pp. 6-8.

Web links

• Works by Hermann Schröter in the New Essen Bibliography

Individual evidence

1. ↑ HdEG 922/214
2. ↑ Rother, Thomas: Late love for Sophia. Archive director i. R. Dr. Hermann Schröter turns 80, in: WAZ (1989), No. 199
3. ↑ Chronicle of the city is his life's work. Archive director Dr. Schröter will be 60 years old Tuesday, in: Werdener Nachrichten (1969), no. 34
4. ↑ Essen history on kilometer shelves. Chief Archives Director Dr. Schröter turns 65, in: WAZ (1974), No. 195
5. ↑ HdEG 1000/326
6. ^ Historical Commission for Westphalia - Former Members. Retrieved May 29, 2017 .