Small history book of Rotter
By Gernot Rotter
Professor of Islamic and Arabic Studies Asia-Africa Institute at the University of Hamburg
Prof. Gernot Rotter Professor of Islamic and Arabic Studies Asia-Africa Institute at the University of Hamburg
German Orient Institute
Website: /Dr. Ekkehart Rotter ist Mittelalterhistoriker, Professor Gernot Rotter Islamwissenschaftler
Foreword
Why now?
This small book owes its origin
I never wrote a book before for many occasions and reasons. The main reason why wrote it now is referred to in the title: The 90th birthday of my aunt Herta Rotter. And to you, dear Aunt Herta, this little book is dedicated with my very best wishes for your further life. May you, first of all, keep your alert mind for a long time.
Another reason why I dedicate this book to you, dear Herta, is that you together with your eldest brother Walter, my father, collected the dates for our first family tree,which at that time, before the Second World War, was a costly and time-consuming undertaking. You and Walter managed to collect the dates of ten generations of some branches of our Rotter-clan who had been living in the villages and parishes around the Altvater mountain range back to abt. 1700.
The reason why I myself, about 10 years ago and at the age of 56 years, remembered this family tree was connected with my profession as an Orientalist. In January 1997 I was invited to give a lecture on Middle Eastern politics at Graz in Austria. In the evening on the way back I had to change airplanes at the Vienna airport but I was informed that my connecting flight booked to Hamburg had been cancelled because of bad weather. I hastened to the Lufthansa-corner to have my booking altered for another plane to Hamburg. "Hurry up", said the lady at the corner, "give me your ticket! The last plane to Hamburg this evening is ready for boarding." So I did. but when the lady had looked at the ticket she suddenly stood up and went offwithout saying a word and with my ticket while the last call for boarding came over the loudspeaker. Minutes later the lady came back and asked me: "Where did you get this ticket from?" First I was so dumbfounded
by this question that I didn't know how to react. Finally and very angry I told the lady the Austrian institution which had sent me ticket. "Okay", she said, "I believe you but one thing remains curious. Only seconds before you came here another passenger asked for altering his booking to Hamburg and I put him on the last plane. His name was also G. Rotter." I started understanding. The lady had thought that I might have stolen the ticket of this other G. Rotter. To calm down my anger and since the last plane had taken off anyway, I insisted that the lady handed over to me all the personal data of this mysterious G. Rotter she could find in her Computer. Finally she told me that his first name was Gabriel and his permanent address was Tel Aviv/Israel.
To shorten the story: First by phone, then by letters and finally, after having overcome some understandable hesitations many Jews still have against Germans because of the holocaust, also by personal visits in Tel Aviv as well as in Germany I learned that Gabriels family in Tel Aviv originally came from Cracow in Poland and that in Tel Aviv alone there were living 20 more Jewish Rotter-families who originally came from Poland, Galicia, Hungary and other countries which, until 1918, had been part of the Austrian Empire. And some of these families came from towns like Katowice an Tychy (now in southern Poland) which are very close to our native area Upper Silesia.
This was the reason that I got interested in the history of our name Rotter in general which inevitably led me to the concrete history of our own Rotter-clan as well as to many others in Germany, Austria, northern Italy, France, England, Sweden, Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Russia, Uzbekistan, South Africa, Israel, USA, Chile, Brazil and Australia. Only thanks to today's communication facilities, especially the Internet, such a global research is possible. And yet, despite this modern technical facilities and especially for a deeper research of the history of the own clan, it remains essential to travel to the respective archives to look for preserved church records and other documents where traces of ancestors may have survived.
This led me to travel mainly to the archives at Troppau, my native town, Olomouc, Brno and Prague, during which I repeatedly made extended trips to and around the Altvater. I learned to understand the grief of our parents and siblings over the loss of this wonderful home. During these long stays at Troppau I made friends with Czech historians and quite "normal" people who can understand this grief very well and helped a lot in my research. For this I am very grateful.
In the last ten years I have filled many files and drawers with various results of my research. In order not to lose the overview completely, I started evaluating this extensive material for composing a voluminous book on the history of the Rotter-clans. But since nearly every week new findings come in I had to realize that this work will never be completed, at least not by myself. Furthermore, four years ago I was reminded suddenly and painfully that also my life is not endless. The fear that one day all the many thousands of pages may carelessly be thrown into the garbage persuaded me to write this short abstract of at least some results of my research up to now.
Dear Aunt Herta, you are the prehistoric rock and the living symbol of our Rotter-clan for all of us, your nephews and nieces including their children and grandchildren. Your ninetieth birthday is the most beautiful occasion for me, to present to you this book.
Stade, in April 2008 Gernot Rotter
He | es Chapter
The dissemination of the name Rotter / Rother today
Today, there are probably about 8,000 people in the world with the family name Rotter. In Germany alone there are currently 2,259 phone numbers listed. (d.h. 2007) under this name. The vast majority of the Rotters in Germany live south of the Main, also in Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg. In Austria, some 700 additional telephone numbers, with most in the metropolitan area of Vienna are registered. Considering the number of phone numbers a series of double nominations (firms, practices, etc.), but expects the children not covered by the normal concentration of statisticians added, alone for Germany and Austria about 5,000 Rotter
Originally from the northeast Czech Republic, also from the north Moravia and the former Austrian Silesia, as well as the adjacent areas in Bohemia and in the former Prussian Upper Silesia (now the south-west Poland), -- Or are their descendants. Jeseniky was about the geographical Focus. And this in turn Rotter are most directly after the end of World War II from their original homes. Especially after Austria, however, many economically Not even out in the decades and centuries before emigrated; and from Vienna are the times of k.k. Monarchy also many Rotter in other regions of Austria-Hungary away, why it is not surprising that today the telephone book of Budapest contains16 times the name Rotter and that in Hungary a total of nearly 100 telephone lines under the name Rotter rolls
In the traditional schlesisch-Moravian areas can be found today the name Rotter only very rarely, such as in Opava (Opava), Moravian Schönberg (Šumperk) and Olomouc (Olomouc). When I with my family in 2001 in small Mohrau (Malá Moravka), a picturesque village in Altvater, Holiday made the Czech based owner of our house, my name when she pointed me to an old Rotter in the village. I then visited several times, and he told me that his father a carpenter and the largest sawmill had far and wide, so he used as a wood specialist not distributed 1946 , as the Czechs such professionals urgently needed.
Together, almost all of these schlesisch-Moravian Rotter, Catholic faith that they are (or were). Those of them, the result of the Reformation in the 16th and at the beginning of the 17th Century Protestant, mostly migrated earlier to the north in 1742 from the Prussian Upper Silesia, Lower Silesia, Brandenburg and Berlin, where her name but as a rule, "Rother" was written (see below).
Since we ourselves to the Catholic schlesisch-Moravian include Rotter, I will mainly deal with this, but I want the other not quite over. For example, I first country in South German and Austria also some Rotter families, which no doubt say: "We have always been here." And as far as 10 I was able to verify this has, this seems at least to a large clan in the area of Fuerth and another in the area south Schwaben / Allgäu really declared, also in Vienna assured me a doctor named geschichtsbewusster Rotter, that his Ancestors "for many generations," a farm in Tyrol had managed, and indeed there are today in the Italian Alps about 20 Rotter in the phone book of Bolzano. Several large-Rotter families had their homes at least since the 17th Century in the north of Alsace, where most of the 18./19. and at the beginning of the 20th Century emigrated to America, even in Alsace, in France, are only a few left behind, such as Deputy Mayor (Adjoint) by Schwighouse, Willy Rotter, I propose several years and visited me a lot about the Alsatian "Rotterei" tells.
If not in such extent as from the Alsace, they are but also from other clans Rotter-some families in the 19th and in the first half of the 20th century emigrated overseas. In the U.S., I have over 400 telephone addresses under the name Rotter counted. Many of them are concentrated in the north to the Great Lakes, but there are only a few states in which the name does not occur. So I have been to contact a older couple, namely Jean & Art Rotter, which we already have visited in Germany. Art's grandfather immigrated from Habelschwert in Ländchen Glatzer (northwest of the Altvater in today's Poland) to the United States and settled after a long walk through the "wild west" finally in the state of Oregon on the coast of the Pacific. And finally there are also other overseas Rotter some families, such as in Brazil, Chile, Australia and South Africa.
In the U.S., specifically in California, lives a certain Jim Rader, the intense family history operates and much of it also published on the Internet. His ancestor, once in Philadelphia in 1750 entered American soil, signed still there when Johann Casper Rotter, 1811 while on his grave stone then Casper Rader. As in Europe were the family name was also in the USA "by ear" written, especially in the southern states from Rotter light "Roder" or "wheels". (Jim Rader also operates genetic ancestry research, which he leaves in a specialised laboratory saliva samples from the DNA of individual person and decode it puts this in relation to the DNA of other persons of the same name. A comparison his DNA with the mine revealed a common ancestor, before about 20,000 years ago, is still in the Stone Age, in beautiful southern France have lived! How seriously we take such gimmicks, I do not know.)
But in English-speaking, it seems not the only reason why time and again to amend this name came to be. Sun told me a former Rotter (Opava!), Called me from Australia that he changed his name so, because his children in school were always so gehänselt. Indeed rotter means in today's English is simply "villain" or worse. The following Ausriss Inernet from an American dictionary (The free dictionary) may not only verbally but also English or visually illustrate illustrate (Fig. 3):
Rotter - a person who is deemed to be despicable or contemptible; "only a rotter would do that"; "kill the rat"; "throw the bum out"; "you cowardly little pukes!"; "the British call a contemptible person a `git'" ; dirty dog, git, lowlife, puke, scum bag, skunk, so-and-so, stinker, stinkpot, bum, crumb, rat, disagreeable person, unpleasant person - a person who is not pleasant or agreeable.
It is noteworthy that many still in Rotter Overseas proudly retains its name.
Reading carefully the first name of the American Rotter, it is interesting to note that many clearly Jewish origin, such as Sara, Hershel, Ari [el] or Nathan. Many more are listed in both Christian and Jewish families in common, such as Abraham, Ben [jamin], David or Jonathan. First by phone, then mainly through the Internet, I have several of these families contacted. Here I noticed that probably about half of American Jews are actually Rotter. For a German non-belief, because of the history still difficult to contact Jews, especially when it comes to such a polluted topic such as "genealogy". Many Jews respond with rejection and schroffer refuse any information. I am therefore pleased that I at least some of them in the United States to talk came to me and also their original region of origin named. Considerably more information is obtained, however, about the Jewish-American genealogy service (jewishgen) on the Internet. Here e.g. a list of Jews (right column), which Rotter.Sippen their relatives in various parts of the world search (Fig. 4):
Surname / Town / Country / LastUpdated / Researcher (JGID Code)
Rotter / Sedea Nachum/
Gilboa / Israel / Before 1997 / Thomas Ottenstein (#1184)
7374 Victory Lane #9504
Delray Beach, FL 33446
United States
The 70-year-old resident of Delray Beach, Florida, died at his home in Washington, D.C., after a long bout with cancer, AUGUST 3, 2000
Rotter / Chicago, IL / USA / Before 1997 / Rifka Wassercier Spiszman
(#1903)
Rotter / Lagow / Poland / Before 1997
Rotter / Los Angeles, CA / USA / Before 1997
Rotter / Pulawy / Poland / 13 May 1997 / Henry S. Rose (#5787)
816 Glenmere Way
Los Angeles, CA
90049-1304
Rotter / Chisinau / Moldova / Before 1997
Rotter / Rascov / Moldova / Before 1997
Rotter / Tiraspol / Moldova / Before 1997
Rotter / Chicago, IL / USA / 30 Jan 1997 / Sharlene Rohter (#5931)
365 F Haleloa Place
Honolulu, HI 96821 2269
Rotter / Milwaukee, WI / USA / 30 Jan 1997
Rotter / Rzeszow / Poland / 16 Oct 2003 / Stephen Schmideg (#7405)
Rotter / Lubaczow / Poland / 17 Feb 1998 / Allan S Muller (#10954)
PO Box 332 Gunnison, CO
81230 0332 United States
Rotter / Wien / Austria / 6 Oct 2005 / Georg Gaugusch (#12257)
Rotter / Any / Russia / 18 Feb 1999 / Joscelyn Krauss Litvak
(#22124)
Rotter / Buenos Aires / Argentina / 18 Feb 1999
Rotter / Galicia, (region) / Poland / 22 Apr 1999 / Martin L. Lipson (#25949)
Rotter / Krakow / Poland / 17 Jan 2000 / Lena Fiszman (#26662)
Rotter / Any / Ukraine / 5 May 1999 / Bernice Rotter (#26730)
16 Chai Taib Jerusalem, 95405
Israel
Rotter / Chmielnik / Poland / 6 Nov 2003 / Lucette
Tucker (#27054)
Rotter / Kielce / Poland / 6 Nov 2003
Rotter / Mielec / Poland / 4 Jun 1999 / Emil Roth (#28345)
41/193 Domain Road
South Yarra, VIC 3141
Australia
Rotter / Any / Russia / 10 Nov 1999 / Lesly-Claire Greenberg (#29265)
Rotter / Wien / Poland / 22 Aug 2000 / Katarina Stahre (#33059)
Rotter / Any / Romania / 17 Jan 2000 / Harry Rotter (#38442)
Rotter / Bielsko Biala / Poland / 13 Jul 2000 / Marvin R. Rotter (#46135
Rotter / Any / Ukraine / 14 Jul 2000 / Jose H. Suarez Villarreal (#46167) Melesio Morales #35-6
Col. Guadalupe Inn Mexico City, DF 01020 Mexico
Rotter / Virovitica / Croatia / 15 May 2001 / Researcher #54735
Rotter / Krakow / Poland / 7 Jun 2001 / Beny Neta (#59636)
Rotter / Warszawa / Poland / 21 Jun 2002 / Researcher #71222
Rotter / Philadelphia, PA / USA / 4 Apr 2003 / James L Rader (#78021)
2633 Gilbert Way
Rancho Cordova, CA
95670-3513 United States
Rotter / Dynow / Poland / 5 Nov 2003 / Researcher #83230
Rotter / Any / USA / 5 Mar 2004 / Jacqueline Marie Murray
(#100793)
Rotter / Any / Russia / 5 Mar 2004
Rotter / Iasi / Romania / 25 Jul 2004 / Researcher #109534
Rotter / Bolekhov / Ukraine / 25 Jul 2004 / Researcher
#113954
Rotter / Skole / Ukraine / 25 Jul 2004
Rotter / Stryy / Ukraine / 25 Jul 2004
Rotter / Verkhnyaya
Rozhanka / Ukraine / 25 Jul 2004
Rotter / Verkhneye Sinevidnoye / Ukraine / 25 Jul 2004
Rotter / Boryslav / Ukraine / 25 Jul 2004
Rotter / Nizhnyaya Rozhanka / Ukraine / 25 Jul 2004
Rotter / Lviv / Ukraine / 11 May 2005 / Frederika Maria Rotter
(#161635)
If the name listed in the right column clicks, you get the email Access to the appropriate family researchers and can in this way via the Internet to communicate with him what I have at 2-3 name also tried , however - probably from the said reason - still without success.
Rotter many families during and after the Second World War fled or emigrated are. In the phone book of Tel Aviv are two dozen Rotter - Telephone numbers listed. As a German, which I also Arabic but not Hebrew speaking, in my visits in Jerusalem is always with a known PLO family and I live in Germany in the media is often very critical with the Israeli policy addressed, I am of course particularly in Israel "Bad cards." Still I am in Tel Aviv to two families Rotter won a friendly contact. These are originally from Krakow and Bratislava (Bratislava), and the mother in the introduction of the above-mentioned Gabriel Rotter, Eugenia Rotter born Rotbart, an old lady who in Krakow in a large cloth merchant family named eingeheiratet Rotter, eventually sent under the Rotter in Tel Aviv and an environment Questionnaire, with whom she requested information about the origin of the families asked. About half of the families sent the questionnaire.
All these contacts and research ultimately brought the first result, which is a Jewish historian once summed up in the phrase: "Trees have roots, Jews have legs." That means it is difficult for individual Jewish families assigned to specific regions in which they, for example, in 18th or 19 Century concentrated lived. Because of their political / religious Situation and its main activity as traders were moving with them gang practice. It seems, e.g. Rotter the cloth merchants from Krakow in the 19th Century a whole chain of family businesses from Krakow and Katowice on Lem15 berg (Lvov) in Galicia, Ukraine to Moldova down to the Black Sea built it. And almost everywhere in the k.k. Jewish individual lived monarchy Rotter families, in central Poland (for example, in Lodz), Hungary, Serbia and of course in Vienna. But deep into Russia and Central Asia finds itself in. the name. So lived before the First World War in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan Caspian Sea, Abraham Rotter, who introduced himself as a gifted cartoonist made a name. And of course there were Jewish Rotter in Germany. At least three of them, namely Munich, Frankfurt and Darmstadt, found in the death camps.