Christian Graf von Krockow

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Christian Graf von Krockow, (May 26, 1927 - March 13, 2002) was German writer and political scientist,

Krockow was the son of a historic Pomeranian noble family. He was born in Rumbske (Rumsko) near the city of Stolp (Słupsk). In 1945, as the Red Army advanced into the Province of Pomerania, he became a refugee and fled to Hamburg.

Krockow studied sociology, philosophy and law at the University of Göttingen in 1947-54, where he earned his doctoral degree, and the University of Durham, England. In 1961-69 he was a professor of political science at the universities of Göttingen, Saarbrücken and Frankfurt. In 1970-73 he served as a founding regent of the University of Oldenburg, which in 1995 named him an honorary professor. He was named professor emeritus by the University of Göttingen in 1981. Thereafter he lived as an independent political scientist and writer in Hamburg.

Krockow received several German literary prizes in 1994. His biographies of Frederick the Great, Kaiser Wilhelm II and the resistance fighter Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, who attempted to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944, won wide readership.

Krockow died on March 13, 2002, in Hamburg, aged 74. He was buried in at Parkfriedhof cemetery in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf.

Of his native region, lost to Germany with the border changes of 1945 and the Expulsion of Germans after World War II, Krockow wrote:

“ What broke forth over the people of East Prussia, Silesia and Pomerania and cost them

their homeland, was set in motion long before: It was the result of our own German madness.

 ”
— Christian Graf von Krockow: Die Reise nach Pommern: Bericht aus einem verschwiegenen Land.
Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich, 1985. ISBN 3-421-06251-x. Page 215.

[edit] Works of literature

  • Begegnung mit Ostpreußen (Familiarity with East Prussia)
  • Otto von Bismarck Biography (1997)
  • Churchill (biography) (1999)
  • Der deutsche Niedergang. Ein Ausblick ins 21. Jahrhundert (The German Collapse: A view into the 21st Century) (1998)
  • Die Elbreise (Journey on the Elbe)
  • Erinnerungen (Memoirs)
  • Fahrten durch die Mark Brandenburg (Travels through Brandenburg) (1991)
  • Die preußischen Brüder (The Prussian Brothers)
  • Die Reise nach Pommern (Journey to Pomerania) (1985)
  • Die Rheinreise (Journey on the Rhine)
  • Rheinsberg
  • Die Stunde der Frauen (The Hour of the Women) (1988)
  • Vom lohnenden Leben (On Worthwhile Life)
  • Die Deutschen in ihrem Jahrhundert (The Germans in this Century) (1990)
  • Über die Deutschen (On the Germans)

[edit] Notes

Regarding personal names: Graf is a title, translated as Count, not a first or middle name. The female form is Gräfin.