Otto Rosencrantz

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Otto Rosencrantz

Otto Rosencrantz (born December 9, 1875 in Insterburg , † January 19, 1963 in Bückeburg ) was a German administrative lawyer .

Life

In the summer semester of 1895 , Rosencrantz enrolled at the Albertus University in Königsberg for law . After completing his traineeship, he was awarded a Dr. iur. PhD . From 1903 to 1907 he was a lawyer in Insterburg. Having entered the internal administration of the Kingdom of Prussia , he became a councilor and syndic in Brandenburg an der Havel in 1907 . After he had been Senator in Altona for seven years from 1909 , he returned to Insterburg as Lord Mayor in 1916 . Endeavoring to alleviate the housing shortage there, Rosencrantz was open to new construction methods. The main street in the Sprindt district was named after him. In 1919, he signed together with Hans Scharoun the call for colored building of Bruno Taut and promoted the artistic life in the city. The first building of the "colored building" based on the drawing of the appeal was built between 1921 and 1924 on the outskirts of Insterburg. From 1919 to 1921 he represented Gumbinnen in the East Prussian provincial parliament . At the end of the First World War, Rosencrantz and Ernst Siehr (then members of the Reichstag) ensured that Insterburg remained a "quiet oasis" during the revolution . In 1920 - after the Kapp Putsch - he became the district president in the Gumbinnen district . Responsibility, seriousness, energy and relaxed joie de vivre brought the “Gumbinner style” into the Prussian state administration. The Nazi regime removed him from this office in 1933 and transferred him to a smaller town in the Demmin district .

With the intervention of his former Vice President, he came to Wunstorf from Western Pomerania in 1947 . He made himself available to the ruling chambers for denazifications . He moved to Nienburg / Weser and finally to Bückeburg , where he married a second time as a widower. The Corps Palaiomarchia Halle awarded him the ribbon in 1960 .

Appreciation

In 1988, Klaus von der Groeben wrote about Rosencrantz:

“Apart from President Bolck, who was only in office for a short time, he was the only 'real' East Prussian among the four East Prussian governments between 1920 and 1932. Due to his successful work, he soon enjoyed general respect and became an honorary citizen. In 1920 he succeeded Magnus von Braun as district president in Gumbinnen. He belonged to the German Democratic Party, the same party as the Oberpräsident Siehr, was free from any doctrinal attitude and has proven himself in his office as district president [] with a sense of proportion, sound sense and political skill. "

- Klaus von der Groeben

One of the district administrators subordinate to him , District Administrator Roderich Walther in Gumbinnen , who belongs to the DNVP , wrote about Rosencrantz :

“The new district president was an exponent of a different direction. But after a relatively short period of being alien to one another, he knew how to gain understanding for himself from his subordinates and slowly from the so conservative population through skillful negotiation and a winning character. He has always been a benevolent superior to me too, to whom I owe my entire further career in no small measure. The district president let me have my political convictions, respected them and encouraged me regardless. "

“He was not inclined to careless harshness and was also involved in the sanctions against the Kapp district administrators, which were particularly numerous in the administrative district, for moderation, especially since Gumbinnen was exposed to good officials anyway and it took considerable effort to fill the gaps: removed from the Reich in these and officials relocated to a somewhat disreputable place tried in every way to reverse the transfer and sometimes did not even start the service. "

“Rosencrantz's official acts were determined by genuine concern for the people entrusted to him. During his tenure, the district, initially known for its strong political differences, was steered into relatively calm waters. There was a reason why Rosencrantz was less hostile in his district than his colleague v. Who belonged to the German People's Party, i.e. a party further to the right. Bahrfeldt from Königsberg. Despite his membership of one of the 'system parties', Rosencrantz was not removed from his post by the government of the 1932 Prussian strike, but only by the National Socialists. He withdrew bitterly to the fishing village of Sarkau on the Curonian Spit, where he had owned a small house [since the late 1920s]. That he was no longer allowed to work for the state and the people and was soon forgotten, touched him painfully. But fate had given him worse. Torn into flight, he and his wife [in Neustettin ] were overrun by the Russians and, dragged from one quarter to another, had to endure unspeakable things in squalor and filth, in hunger and cold: "We had to endure the merciless excesses of this war up to the Everything got worse when the ailing wife broke the neck of her thigh and became almost immobile; and since he, too, was barely able to get food because of a knee ailment, the couple was exposed to the greatest need. When the old people finally managed to get permission to move to West Germany, any help for the practically starved woman came too late. "Her death touched me more painfully than the loss of home and property." In Wunstorf and then in Bückeburg, Rosencrantz lived for eighteen years, mostly on a wheelchair, "only bearing the desolation of this existence with great difficulty."

- Roderich Walther

Honors

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dissertation: The constitutional position of Alsace-Lorraine .
  2. ↑ Kamswykus settlement , Hans Scharoun, commission 1919–1920
  3. ↑ Directory of members of the East Prussian Provincial Parliament (Korfmacher)
  4. ↑ Gerd Brausch: Siehr, Ernst Ludwig
  5. ^ A b Hans Lippold: Obituary for Otto Rosencrantz . Altmärker-Masuren newspaper 32, Kiel 1963, p. 480 f.
  6. ^ Main State Archives North Rhine-Westphalia , Düsseldorf
  7. ^ List of all members of the Corps Masovia 1823–2005 . Potsdam 2006
  8. ↑ With permission from: Administration and Politics 1918–1933 using the example of East Prussia . Kiel 1988, p. 359 ff.
  9. ↑ Gumbinnen was Germany's easternmost administrative district with the districts of Angerburg, Sensburg, Lötzen, Johannisburg, Lyck and Marggrabowa (Oletzko).
  10. ^ Roderich Walther: Autumn leaves . Manuscript, privately owned
personal data
SURNAME Rosencrantz, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rosencrantz, Otto Hermann (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German administrative lawyer; District President in Gumbinnen
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Insterburg , East Prussia
DATE OF DEATH January 19, 1963
Place of death Buckeburg