Berndt von Gerlach

Chronicle

1. 1828

   Born in Berlin on 15 February, son of General Leopold von Gerlach and Johanna née Countess von Küssow.

2. 1859–1861

   In May 1859 the Referendar Bernhard Georg Wilhelm von Gerlach is appointed court assessor in the Kammergericht district; in February 1861, a few weeks after his father's death, he is released from the judicial service at his own request in order to take over Rohrbeck (Justiz-Ministerialblatt 27 May 1859, 23 February 1861).

3. 1860

   Marries Maria Adelaide Emilie Countess von Kanitz (1839–1909), daughter of Emil von Kanitz and Charlotte née von Sydow, at Podangen on 25 September. Children: Elisabeth (b. 1861), Ulrike (1863–1940, m. Günther Count Finck von Finckenstein), Marie (b. 1865), Charlotte (b. 1869), Agnes (1875–1878) and Leopold (b. 1879). His father and his uncle Ernst Ludwig attend the wedding – the brothers' last family celebration together (Kraus 1994).

4. 1863

   The Staats-Anzeiger lists him as first lieutenant in the 2nd Landwehr Dragoons and court assessor "of Rohrbeck near Schönfließ".

5. 1864

   After the division of the inheritance takes over his father's estate of Nordhausen (pl.wikipedia: "from 1864"); in the 1880s he builds the neo-Gothic manor house there and founds the Order of St John's district association at Königsberg. The Gotha calls him "lord of Nordhausen and a third of Rohrbeck".

6. 1875

   In September he stands as "Ritterschaftsrath von Gerlach at Rohrbeck" in the Reichstag by-election for the constituency Frankfurt 3 (Königsberg Nm.) and loses to the National Liberal Schroeder (Reichsanzeiger 28 September 1875).

7. 1876–1889

   Landrat of the Königsberg district in the Neumark, successor of Albert von Levetzow; major, director of the knighthood, knight of justice of the Order of St John (accolade 1878). Lord of Rohrbeck and Nordhausen. The appointment of "district deputy Berndt Georg Wilhelm von Gerlach of Rohrbeck" is announced in the Reichsanzeiger of 27 June 1876.

8. 1878

   The Berlin portrait painter Rosa Petzel (1831–1912) painted two oils in Berlin: "Herr and Frau Landrat v. G." It did not stop there – in 1885 she painted him again at Rohrbeck and in 1897 his widow at Nordhausen. The record stands in the painter’s diaries, now being edited by her family; of the pictures themselves there is no trace. What that hand looked like can now be seen: three works by Rosa Petzel are publicly traceable, all in the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin. A pastel of 1876, the portrait of an unknown young woman; a child’s portrait of 1880; and a lithograph after one of her oils, the portrait of a Herr von Alvensleben. Out of six hundred and twelve portraits, that is three.

9. 1879

   In July the son Berndt-Leopold is born (family notices of the Kreuzzeitung, Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung 18 July 1879). The memorial volume of the Queen's Cuirassier Regiment gives the day and the full names: born on 13 July 1879 at Rohrbeck as Emil Bernd-Leopold von Gerlach.

10. 1880/81

    On 26 October 1880 the wedding of General à la suite Heinrich Count von Lehndorff-Steinort and Margarethe Countess von Kanitz, his wife's sister, is celebrated at Rohrbeck – the bride's parents are no longer alive (Hallische Zeitung 23 October 1880). In July 1881 he dines with Lehndorff at the table of Emperor William I at Bad Gastein (Dresdner Anzeiger 24 July 1881). At the baptism of the Lehndorff child in Berlin in October 1881 – with Emperor William I, Moltke and Bismarck's son-in-law Count Rantzau as godfathers – "Frau v. Gerlach-Rohrbeck" is godmother (Hannoverscher Kurier 28 October 1881).

11. 1884

    In November the Brandenburg provincial synod elects him – alongside court chaplain Stoecker and general superintendent Schulz – among its deputies to the general synod of the Protestant church (Berliner Tageblatt 19 November 1884).

12. 1886–1889

    Member of the Prussian House of Representatives. Also a member of the Brandenburg provincial diet, whose president by seniority von Bornstedt honours him in March 1890 among the deceased members; on 25 June 1878 "Major (ret.) and Landrat Berndt von Gerlach of Rohrbeck near Schönfließ" receives the accolade as a knight of justice of the Order of St John in the order's church at Sonnenburg (Reichsanzeiger 4 July 1878; Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung 5 March 1890). Elected in November 1885 for the constituency of Königsberg in the Neumark as successor to Baron von Dobeneck, alongside the re-elected von Neumann (Kölnische Zeitung 6 November 1885).

13. 1889

    Dies at Rohrbeck on 1 December. Of his six children the son Leopold – Berndt-Leopold (1879–1948) – continues the House of Nordhausen. The Berliner Börsen-Zeitung reports the death of the "Landrat, retired major" after a short illness. Shortly before, in October 1889, he had been elected to the Imperial Insurance Office as first member of the employers' associations and executive authorities for agricultural accident insurance (Hallesches Tageblatt 3 October 1889); the press calls him "Landrat, Major (ret.) Berndt v. Gerlach, a son of General Leopold von Gerlach" (Duisburger Tageblatt 5 December 1889).

14. 1889

    A Berlin directory of notable residents lists him as "Landrat, major retired, member of the house of deputies (Rohrbeck)" with his address at Pariser Platz 2 – the finest address in the city, beside the Brandenburg Gate. In the same column stands his kinsman Servatius von Gerlach, second lieutenant in the 1st Guards Dragoons, Lankwitzstraße 9, born 1 March 1868.

15. 1893

    The Order of St John hospital at Königsberg in the Neumark, which he had brought into being, receives a grant of 10,000 marks – the newspaper calls him a knight of justice of the order (Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, 1 March 1893). The order's chapter under Prince Albrecht grants the Brandenburg provincial association 10,000 marks for taking over the house (Berliner Tageblatt 1 March 1893).

16. 1896

    Daughter Marie (1865–1931) marries Rudolf von der Schulenburg (1860–1930), Landrat of the Oschersleben district, later Regierungspräsident at Potsdam and Oberpräsident of the province of Saxony; grandchildren Werner (b. 1897), Bernd (b. 1900) and Elisabeth (b. 1902), at Nordhausen on 8 January – evidence that the family lives at Nordhausen after Berndt's death (Gotha). In February 1914 the son-in-law is appointed Oberpräsident of the province of Brandenburg (until 1917, then the province of Saxony); the press introduces him as the husband of Marie, "daughter of Berndt von Gerlach of Rohrbeck, Landrat of the Neumark district of Königsberg, who died in 1889, and of Countess Maria von Kanitz" (Weißeritz-Zeitung 4 February 1914).

17. 1908

    For the sixtieth anniversary of the Kreuzzeitung the memorial volume "At the cradle of the Kreuz-Zeitung" appeared. In the list of those who contributed to it stands his widow – "Frau von Gerlach, née Countess Kanitz, in Potsdam, daughter-in-law of the adjutant-general of King Frederick William IV" – and a few lines below the "entailed estate owner von Gerlach-Parsow", that is Carl August. The two branches of the family kept in touch.

18. 1909

    His widow Maria née Countess von Kanitz dies in October at Nordhausen (death notice in the Reichsanzeiger 29 October 1909).

Sources and literature