Rostock-Apartments

Monument to General von Blücher

by Kathrin_E

In 1814 a newspaper in Hamburg reported the city of Rostock’s intention to install a monument dedicated to Gerhard Leberecht von Blücher, the Prussian general who had won the final battles against Napoleon. (Blücher was born in Rostock.) Blücher was flattered and wrote the most polite thank you letter to the magistrate of his hometown. Mayor and aldermen, however, went something like, Errrrm…. waddya talkin’ ‘bout???

As not to lose their faces they started collecting donations among the local nobility and in the end the monument was indeed put up in 1819. Gottfried Schadow, the famous neoclassical sculptor, created the statue. The verse on the pedestal was written by no one less than Goethe himself…

The Library

by Mariajoy

The Rostock Municipal Library stands in the pedestrian precinct. Established in the 15th century, it was one of the few buildings that survived the allied bombing raids of the second world war. Unfortunately, shortly after the war it was destroyed by arsonists!! Several years of reconstruction took place.

The building was originally the Holy Spirit Hospital parsonage and the biblical scenes shown on the fascia are a reference to the Minister, a former inhabitant.

Thanks to VT member maartenw for helping me find some info about this building!

My very first trip abroad

by Vinitha

"Rostock seen through teenage eyes"

Rostock, Eastern Germany, year 1988, a year before the destruction of the German wall. I am just 14 going to be 15 and on my way to see the world outside the soviet borders...We went there by train through Lithuania making a stop in Vilnius and rolling further via Poland. From Vilnius I remember the center with lots of ortodox churches and me desperately looking to find something typically Lithuanian ...Then at some border, must be Lithuanian/Polish the train was stopped for several long hours to change the soviet wheels for more comfortable rolling towards the socialist country... The rest of my journey is a string of snaps trapped in my memory gallery like:
- eating a German icecream of green colour, no smell but artifical taste,
- visiting shops overloaded with goods,
- being able to buy small gifts not only to my family members but almost every relative
- me dancing with a girl in a public disco because the girls did that,
- a sight of a man of African origin as alive as myself for the first time in my life,
- eating out in a Berlin restaurant trying to figure out what from the cutlery to use with what dish...

My conclusion was that a socialist country is wealthier than a soviet country which must mean that a capitalist country should be even wealthier than the socialist one!

"The first contact with a capitalist country"

The same year, only in the fall, my father flew to England to meet his father after 44 years of not seeing each other in flesh... My father was just 2 years old when my grandfather had to leave Latvia in order not to be deported to Siberia... the year was 1944. Forty-four years later my father flew home after meeting his father with his luggage full of England in form of Cadbury chocolate, chewing gum, modern clothing and lots more... As to me I had to wait another 7 years to see a capitalist country with my own eyes...