Karl Rosenow

Karl Wilhelm Rosenow (born January 17, 1873 in Neustettin , Western Pomerania , † March 21, 1958 in Laubach am Vogelsberg, Hesse ) was a German local researcher , journalist and museum founder .

Life

Karl Rosenow was the son of a businessman. According to Rosenow's own statements, his ancestors on his father's side immigrated from Thuringia via Mecklenburg to Pomerania in the Middle Ages. After the early death of his father, he grew up with his grandfather on the Louisenhof estate near Bärwalde . From 1890 to 1893 he attended the Royal Prussian Protestant School Teacher Seminar in Dramburg in order to be trained as a primary school teacher. On May 17, 1895, he passed his second teacher examination at the Royal Prussian Protestant School Teachers' Seminar in Bütow , and on July 25, 1895, the Köslin Education Authority confirmed his official status. He received his first teaching post at the elementary school in Pöhlen . However, in 1895 he switched to the Rügenwalde City School , a municipal elementary school. He retired in 1933 as vice principal of the city school in Rügenwalde.

During his free time, Rosenow worked intensively as a local researcher. For this purpose he undertook extensive educational trips on foot through Pomerania , Mecklenburg , Brandenburg and Posen . In 1897 he founded a public library in Rügenwalde with a focus on local history and history, which he managed himself for 20 years.

Rosenow's breakthrough as a local writer came when the magistrate of the city of Rügenwalde commissioned him to write a city chronicle on the occasion of the city's 600th anniversary on March 21, 1912. In the following years, Rosenow published around 20 other books and brochures on the regional history of Rügenwalde and Western Pomerania. In addition, he published around 300 essays and longer treatises on the same subject in newspapers and specialist journals.

Since Rosenow was an autodidact as a historical researcher, his publications often met criticism from the professional world, for example in the case of his treatise on the village of Rützenhagen , in which he spoke of the different architectural features of farmsteads in the village on the countries of origin of the German and other colonists that had settled in the region in the Middle Ages. As his article on the Marienkron Monastery near Rügenwalde shows, he not only tried to inform his readers, but also wanted to entertain them. In 1487, the monastery, which had been built in the immediate vicinity of the Wippern lowlands, was hit by floods. In the monastery church, the water level reached up to the altar, the monks had sought shelter in the refectory on the upper floor of the monastery building, and ships that had broken loose were floating on the flood. Rosenow wrote about this historical incident: “Imagine the horrified faces of the monks who saw the ships whizzing past through the windows of the dining room in close proximity”. It may also have been a bit irritating that he chose the heading "The St. Jürgen Chapel in Rügenwalde" for a section of his book Herzogsschloß und Fürstengruft , which deals with the Georgskapelle in Rügenwalde.

Rosenow is the founder of the District Home Museum, which has been housed in the Rügenwalder Ducal Palace since July 1930 . The museum still exists there today (2008). He laid the foundations for the district home museum back in 1917. The collection was in the evangelical parish hall in Bogislawstr. 44, and he was the museum director. The museum could be visited "by prior arrangement with Konrektor Rosenow". After the ducal palace was taken over by the Schlawe district in 1929, Rosenow campaigned for the museum to be relocated to the palace. There, 25 renovated rooms with a total floor space of 1,500 square meters were made available for the purposes of the museum.

On the occasion of his 60th birthday on January 17, 1933, Rosenow was made an honorary district home nurse by the Rügenwalde city council. Corresponding celebrations took place in the public gym in Rügenwalde. On the occasion of his 70th birthday on January 17, 1943, he was appointed by the provincial administration on an honorary basis to the regional studies research center, history department , and was also made an honorary member of the Academy for State Research by the University of Greifswald . This time the celebrations took place in the bread room of the Ducal Castle.

Towards the end of the Second World War, Rosenow had stayed in Rügenwalde because he did not want to leave the local history museum unattended. At the beginning of March 1945, Rügenwalde was occupied by the Red Army , and Rosenow was deported to Soltikow along with other Germans . Like all of Western Pomerania, Rügenwalde was soon placed under Polish administration. On June 18, 1945, he was allowed to return to Rügenwalde because he was supposed to help convert the city school into a Polish elementary school. Until June 30, 1947, he was employed as an assistant under the now Polish museum management; he should rearrange the remaining exhibits that had escaped the looting. During this time he was arrested by the Polish militia, held in dark custody for six weeks and tortured on suspicion of valuable art objects being hidden and in the hope that he would be able to reveal such alleged hiding places. He lost some of his eyesight when he was jailed with the butt of a rifle in the face.

After Rügenwalde was placed under Polish administration, the expulsion of the Germans began there too . On July 6, 1947, Rosenow was ordered by a three-person Polish deportation commission to leave his apartment immediately with his wife and to come to a meeting point for deportees in the city. The evacuation with Rosenow took place via the town of Forst and reached the Küchensee camp on July 13, 1947. Two weeks later, the briefing took place in the small Spreewald town of Lieberose in the Lübben district. In August 1947 the Rosenow couple reached the British occupation zone via Friedland .

After his arrival in western Germany, Rosenow tried to get in touch with former citizens of Rügenwald. His address list soon comprised over 1,300 addresses. As the 134th member he joined the Pomeranian Landsmannschaft, and he was now active again as a writer. He worked for the Pommern-Brief, which had been published since the beginning of 1948, and of the Heimatblatt Ut Schloug , which had been published since October 1948, as well as the Pommerschen Zeitung . In 1955, Rosenow joined the newly founded Society for Pomeranian History, Archeology and Art . He had found acceptance in the village of Ostheim near Butzbach . He dedicated a village chronicle he wrote to Ostheim.

On January 17, 1958, Rosenow, who had meanwhile moved to the Laubach am Vogelsberg retirement home, celebrated his 85th birthday with full spiritual freshness and unbroken creativity. On March 21, 1958, he suffered a fatal stroke. Karl Rosenow's body was buried in the village cemetery in Ostheim.

Fonts (selection)

• Ruegenwalde. For the 600th anniversary of the old Hanseatic city on May 21, 1912. Self-published by the author, Rügenwalde 1912.
• Legends of the Schlawe district (= local history of the Schlawe district. Vol. 1). Mewes, Rügenwalde 1921.
• Zanower Schwänke. A happy book (= local history of the Schlawe district. Vol. 2). Mewes, Rügenwalde 1924.
• Ducal castle and royal crypt. Rügenwalder buildings and art monuments (= local history of the district of Schlawe. Vol. 3). Mewes, Rügenwalde 1925.
• Ruegenwalde. Guide through town and office. Mewes, Rügenwalde 1928.
• History of the Rügenwalder Agricultural Citizens' Association. Mewes, Rügenwalde 1929.
• The field mark of Rügenwalde. A supplement to the city's history. Mewes, Rügenwalde 1932.
• History of the Rügenwalder trade. Corporation of the Merchants, Rügenwalde 1939.

literature

• Carlheinz Rosenow: Karl Rosenow. In: Manfred Vollack (Ed.): The Schlawe district. A Pomeranian homeland book. Volume 1: The circle as a whole. Husum-Druck- und Verlags-Gesellschaft, Husum 1986, ISBN 3-88042-239-7 , pp. 450–453.
• Ernst Pahlow: Karl Rosenow. His literary legacy. In: Manfred Vollack (Ed.): The Schlawe district. A Pomeranian homeland book. Volume 1: The circle as a whole. Husum-Druck- und Verlags-Gesellschaft, Husum 1986, ISBN 3-88042-239-7 , pp. 453-455.
• Karl Rosenow: As a “museum director” under Polish rule. In: Manfred Vollack (Ed.): The Schlawe district. A Pomeranian homeland book. Volume 1: The circle as a whole. Husum-Druck- und Verlags-Gesellschaft, Husum 1986, ISBN 3-88042-239-7 , pp. 642-647.

Web links

• Literature by and about Karl Rosenow in the catalog of the German National Library

Footnotes

1. ^ Erwin Framke: The Rügenwalder Schools . In: Manfred Vollack (Ed.): The Schlawe district. A Pomeranian homeland book. Volume 1: The circle as a whole. Husum-Druck- und Verlags-Gesellschaft, Husum 1986, ISBN 3-88042-239-7 , pp. 362-371.
2. ^ Karl Rosenow: Rützenhagen in the Rügenwalder office. A contribution to the history of the German peasant class (= walks through the Rügenwalder Amt. Vol. 2). A. Mewes Nachf., Rügenwalde 1931. Review: Emil Gohrbandt: In: Baltische Studien. NF Volume 35, 1933, p. 379, (available in the Greifswald digital library ( memento of the original dated June 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to instructions and then remove this notice. ). 
3. ^ Meyer's travel books . German Baltic coast. Part 2: Rügen and the Pomeranian coast with its hinterland. 2nd Edition. Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1924, p. 194.