Gut Rohrbeck

Blatt 321 der Sammlung Duncker · nach H. Krämer, ausgeführt von Theodor Albert, Druck Winckelmann & Söhne, Verlag Alexander Duncker, Berlin · Digitalisat Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin, gemeinfrei

The family's principal seat in the Mark Brandenburg and cradle of the Gerlach-Rohrbeck family archive (today ~17,000 documents at the University of Erlangen). Acquired in 1805 by Carl Friedrich Leopold von Gerlach, father of General Leopold and politician Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach. In 1879 the estate comprised 1,131 hectares.

Chronicle

1. 1248

   First recorded mention under the Slavic name "Rosnowe".

2. um 1281

   A lord von Sack founds the German village; the church of granite blocks rises on a hill thought to be an ancient place of sacrifice. Until 1738 Rohrbeck stays wholly or partly with the von Sack family – from whom the Gerlachs descend through Countess Küssow.

3. 1337

   Rohrbeck is recorded in the Landbook of Ludwig the Elder with 64 Hufen of land; a knight's seat with mill, smithy and sheepfold.

4. 1626

   Half of the estate has to be sold in two shares; one quarter goes to von Waldow, one to the town of Königsberg. The village suffers under imperial, Hungarian and Swedish troops.

5. 1760–1781

   The town of Königsberg in the Neumark sells its "town-hall share" of the village of Rohrbeck to Court Marshal von Thiele, who in 1774 applies for a tavern licence of his own for the estate (Brandenburg State Main Archives, Rep. 3 Neumärkische Kammer no. 10891 and 9551).

6. 1765–1811

   The land and mortgage file of the whole estate – von Thiele, von Kleist, von der Osten, von Gerlach – is held in the Brandenburg State Archive (Neumark mortgage directorate, three volumes).

7. 1769

   The last Margrave of Schwedt buys the three shares back together and leaves Rohrbeck to his court marshal von Thile. In 1798 his widow bequeaths it to her niece, later the wife of Field Marshal Kleist von Nollendorf; in 1802 it passes to Captain von der Osten.

8. 1813–1889

   How the property was divided among the heirs a footnote of the 1903 memoirs states down to the fraction. Otto’s share was bought by Leopold, who thereby held one half; the other lay with Wilhelm’s children and Ludwig. After Ludwig had made his over to Wilhelm’s sons Friedrich and Jakob, and Leopold had left his to his son Berndt, the figures stood thus: Friedrich and Jakob a quarter each, Berndt one half. When Berndt died on 1 December 1889 Friedrich bought his share – three quarters for him, one quarter for Jakob. In print the figures are fractions; the text recognition rendered them illegibly, the page image is unambiguous.

9. 1. Mai 1848

   How the revolution reached the village Ernst Ludwig noted down: with his nephew Friedrich he attended the electors’ meeting in the hall of the tenant Stubenrauch. Stubenrauch was returning officer, the cantor Kloß kept the minutes, the under-forester Entreß and his son-in-law counted the votes. Stubenrauch was elected to Berlin and the day-labourer Radloff to Frankfurt. "It forced itself upon me how demoralising this mere act of voting must be for the village," he wrote – and collected the jokes that went round: a man who had stolen a watch excused himself by saying he was an hour-voter.

10. Anfang 19. Jh.

    South of the village the new Agneshof farmstead is established, its name probably honouring Agnes von Gerlach née von Raumer.

11. 1805

    Carl Friedrich Leopold von Gerlach, President of the Electoral Mark War and Domain Chamber, acquires the estate for 106,000 Taler. The purchase is funded by the proceeds of his Pomeranian estates Ganzkow, Schötzow and Mechenthin, sold in 1796/97. He is the father of Leopold and Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach. The estate comprises some 1,180 hectares (Kraus 1994).

12. 1806

    The family comes to the estate for the first time: on 19 July the mother travels to Rohrbeck with the children Sophie, Ludwig and Otto; on 26 July the father and Leopold arrive. On 11 August the first news of war comes from Berlin, and on 15 August the uncle from Parsow arrives on his way back to Pomerania and confirms it. "So the beginning at Rohrbeck was nothing but worry and want", the family history says. After the father's death the four brothers own the estate jointly with their sister's daughter, Countess Stosch, who is bought out – as later are the brothers' daughters and Otto, when he enters the church.

13. 1810

    The French years all but crush the estate. On 17 March the mother writes to her son Leopold that Rohrbeck is now worth only 34,000 Taler; houses once worth 30,000 to 40,000 now fetch 9,000 to 10,000. Since 1 August the estate has yielded 200 Taler while 2,090 Taler have been paid in from the Berlin income: "It will take a miracle if we do not lose everything."

14. 1817/18

    Separation and redemption: Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach negotiates with the peasants as his mother's assistant and inserts into the deed a clause meant to preserve the law and constitution of the estate; the commission strikes it out. With that the manorial constitution of Rohrbeck comes to an end.

15. um 1822

    On the estate and in the neighbourhood the revival movement takes hold. Ernst Ludwig and his brother Otto visit the "awakened people" at Nahausen; the village headman's wife describes it to them in Low German: it was as when the trees burst into leaf in spring. Their mother corresponds with the Rohrbeck preacher Kuchler, urging him not to preach Christ merely as a model of virtue and a teacher.

16. 1817–1820

    Bridges and water channels are built on Rohrbeck territory along the post road from Königsberg to Schönfließ (Brandenburg State Main Archives, Rep. 3B I V no. 2090).

17. 1830–1860

    General Leopold writes "Rohrbeck. Description and administration by us" – some 230 manuscript pages on the estate and its management (Gerlach Archive, Erlangen, LE01122).

18. 1841

    The old manor house of the von Waldow family burns down completely. In its place rises the neo-Gothic house with stepped gables, later enlarged by General Leopold von Gerlach. After 1945 it falls into ruin; the remains are cleared in the 1960s. For the rebuilding Colonel von Gerlach receives a support loan from the von Schöning foundation fund (Brandenburg State Main Archives, Rep. 3B III D no. 3149).

19. 1847

    A new roof structure and a new organ for the village church.

20. 19. Jh.

    Gut Rohrbeck is the centre of the Gerlach-Rohrbeck family archive: letters, diaries and documents of Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach (1795–1877) and other family members.

21. 1854

    General Leopold changes his "Rohrbeck building plan" and has the dwelling house built before barns and stables – as a retreat in case of political downfall (letters to Bismarck, January 1854).

22. 1856

    General Leopold von Gerlach marks fifty years of service at Rohrbeck on 20 September and stays on the estate in the autumn because of his daughter's illness (Dortmunder Kreisblatt 25 September, Aachener Zeitung 3 December 1856).

23. 1861

    The revival in the neighbouring village of Nahausen reaches its height: the Neue evangelische Kirchenzeitung reports "an awakening of more than 100 souls". Forty years earlier Ernst Ludwig and his brother Otto had visited the first of the awakened there.

24. 1864

    The estate becomes the seat of a district head: the official gazette of the Frankfurt an der Oder government of 10 February lists in its schedule of official districts a "Gerlach at Rohrbeck", with the estate administrator Boldt at Päzig as his deputy. The district includes Nahausen, Lower and Upper Kränig, Nieder-Saathen, Grabow, Rehdorf and Päzig.

25. um 1863

    Alexander Duncker includes Rohrbeck as plate 321 in his series on the country seats of the Prussian landed nobility. The coloured lithograph – after a drawing by H. Krämer, executed by Theodor Albert, printed by Winckelmann & Söhne – shows the house with stepped gables and pointed-arch porch behind wall, drive and pond. The accompanying text sheet traces the succession of owners from 1281 onwards and records that the von Waldow house burnt down in 1841 was rebuilt and enlarged by General Leopold von Gerlach.

26. 1861

    Burial of General Leopold von Gerlach beside his wife Johanna, née Countess von Küssow, at Gut Rohrbeck.

27. 1863

    Rohrbeck appears with a lithograph and text in Alexander Duncker's collection of country seats and residences.

28. 1873–1943

    The credit files of the Märkische Landschaft list Jacob and Martin von Gerlach, later Servatius, as owners: after Jakob († 1908) Friedrich's sons – Pastor Martin (1860–1929) and cavalry captain Servatius (1868–1950) – hold the estate; in 1933–36 "the estate owner Gerlach" disputes an incorporation with the authorities.

29. 1876–1889

    Berndt von Gerlach, the general's son, is Landrat of the Königsberg district in the Neumark; he dies at Rohrbeck in 1889.

30. 1879

    The estate comprises 1,131 hectares and belongs to the von Gerlach family (Niekammer's estate directory).

31. 1880

    On 26 October Landrat Berndt von Gerlach hosts at Rohrbeck the wedding of his sister-in-law Margarethe Countess von Kanitz and Heinrich Count von Lehndorff-Steinort, general à la suite and later adjutant general of Emperor William I (Hallische Zeitung 23 October 1880).

32. 1890

    Land-register extracts for the manor from May 1890 enter the family archive.

33. 1890

    Between 1 and 10 May the district court of Königsberg in the Neumark drew up extracts from the land register of the estate for Jakob von Gerlach – eleven pages, now in the family archive. They are the most exact surviving description of the holding before the turn of the century.

34. 1897

    A neo-Gothic vestry is added to the village church.

35. Anfang 20. Jh.

    The estate is held by the heirs of Marie von Gerlach.

36. 1910

    Marie von Gerlach née von Rohr, Friedrich's widow, dies in October at Rohrbeck (Reichsanzeiger 31 October 1910).

37. 1913

    A postcard written at Rohrbeck on 23 June shows the house in full width. In the same year Landrat Nikolaus von Gerlach gives up his share.

38. 1917–1919

    Nikolaus von Gerlach, who had given up his share of Rohrbeck and was still Landrat at Bütow in 1913, serves from 1917 as Landrat of the Kolberg-Körlin district, which contains the Parsow satellite estates Trienke, Drosedow and Rabuhn. In November 1918 he tells his fellow Landräte that it is wrong for them to carry on. In December 1918 the workers' and soldiers' council suspends him because he took down the red flag hoisted over his office; the peasants' and farm workers' council votes for his reinstatement. Regierungsassessor von Alvensleben stands in for him.

39. 1920/21

    Servatius von Gerlach (1868–1950), retired major and son of Friedrich, farms the estate: "von Gerlach, major, Rohrbeck N. M." appears with oats and rye in the seed-certification lists of 1920/21, and in June 1920 the landowner is elected to the board of the Rohrbeck savings and loan association (Reichsanzeiger 10 August 1920, 18 January and 3 September 1921).

40. 1945

    After one hundred and forty years the holding ends that Carl Friedrich Leopold von Gerlach had established in 1805.

41. 1954

    Klaus von Gerlach transfers the family archive (~17,000 documents) to the University of Erlangen, where it is preserved as the Gerlach Archive.

42. 1980

    The manor park is entered in the Polish register of monuments as the remnant of the manor house (no. 936). Nothing of the house itself remains; the church was rebuilt from its ruins in 1965. The Polish register now lists the park as A-1178 (5 December 1980), the church as A-976 (31 July 1956) and, since 14 December 2015, also the old churchyard (13th–20th century) – the site of the family graves (pl.wikipedia "Rosnowo").