Christian Graf von Krockow

Christian Graf von Krockow, (May 26, 1927 – March 17, 2002) was a German writer and political scientist,

Christian Count of 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. After resigning from his tenured position, he moved to Nikolausberg near Göttingen, where he made a name and a living as in independent writer and speaker. He also worked as speechwriter and political advisor to Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and the Dutch royal family. Towards the end of his life, he moved to Hamburg, where he continued to publish books and articles, albeit living in near seclusion.

Krockow received several German literary prizes. 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.

His book Stunde der Frauen (Hour of the Women), which he wrote with his sister Libussa Fritz-Krockow, describes her ordeal fleeing Pomerania in 1945. When Germany collapsed, it was the hour of the German women, who rebuilt Germany from its ruins. The book remained a national bestseller for almost a decade and ushered in a period in which Germans began to rethink the immediate post-war period and come to terms with the loss of Pomerania, East Prussia, and Silesia. The book was translated into Polish, French, English, and Japanese.

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

Works of literature

Notes

Regarding personal names: Until 1919, Graf was a title, translated as Count, not a first or middle name. The female form is Gräfin. In Germany since 1919, it forms part of family names.

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