Cornelius Rost (27 March 1919,

Kufstein Kufstein (; Central Bavarian: ''Kufstoa'') is a town in the Austrian state of Tyrol, the administrative seat of Kufstein District. With a population of about 19,600 it is the second largest Tyrolean town after the state capital Innsbruck. The great ...

, Austria – 18 October 1983,

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, Germany)a short biography with a small image of his gravestone
Retrieved 23 December 2011. was an Austrian drafted into the German army as a

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

who escaped from a Soviet

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

camp in

Chukchi Peninsula The Chukchi Peninsula (also Chukotka Peninsula or Chukotski Peninsula; russian: Чуко́тский полуо́стров, ''Chukotskiy poluostrov'', short form russian: Чуко́тка, ''Chukotka''), at about 66° N 172° W, is the eastern ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

. His experiences were the basis for a book, a television series, and a

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

Life

Rost was born on 27 March 1919 in

Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...

, Austria. He was living in

when the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

broke out, and during the war, he was captured by the

Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...

. By his own statement, made in 1942, he held the rank of private, although Clemens Forell, his alias in his novel, was depicted as a

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...

officer. According to the Munich

registration office {{Unreferenced, date=June 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) A registration office commonly refers to a government agency at which compulsory information needs to be lodged. The most common type of a registration offices are companies registration offic ...

, Rost returned from war imprisonment in Russia on 28 October 1947. In 1953, he started working in the in-house printing division of the Franz Ehrenwirth

publishing house Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

in Munich. After ruining numerous book covers, Rost said that he had been made color blind by being imprisoned in

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

lead mines. Seeking an explanation, Ehrenwirth learned of Rost's prisoner of war experiences. Sensing a good story, Ehrenwirth asked Rost to write down his recollections. Rost's script was of very poor quality, but Ehrenwirth was keen on the story and hired professional writer Josef Martin Bauer to get the material into shape.

Book

Fearing a possible backlash by the post-war Allied authorities, Rost agreed to an oral interview only after being granted the use of the alias Clemens Forell. Bauer then processed the eight hours of taped material into his famous 1955 novel ''So weit die Füße tragen'' (''As far as my feet will carry me''). In the 1960s, Rost used some of his recollections in his own paperback, ''Unternehmen Konterbande'' (''Mission Contraband''), but it was never printed or published. Bauer’s novel, however, was translated into at least 15 languages and is still being re-published.

Death

Rost died on 18 October 1983 and was interred at Munich's Central Cemetery.

True identity

Almost 20 years after Rost's death, Ehrenwirth's son Martin revealed Rost's true identity to radio journalist Arthur Dittlmann, who researched the life of Bauer for a radio feature-documentary for the author's 100th birthday anniversary.
(Sueddeutsche Zeitung – Online), accessed: 23 December 2011

Adaptations

In 1959, Rost's story was the subject of a As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me (TV series), six-part television adaption, starring the German character actor

Heinz Weiss Heinz Weiss (12 June 192120 November 2010) was a German film actor. Weiss is best known for playing the role of Phil Decker in the Jerry Cotton series of films and the role of Captain Heinz Hansen in ''Das Traumschiff''. He also played the chara ...

. When it was first aired, it quickly became Germany's first television blockbuster. In 2001, it was remade as the film ''

As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me ''As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me'' (german: So weit die Füße tragen) is a 2001 film about German World War II prisoner of war Clemens Forell's escape from a Siberian Gulag in the Soviet Union back to Germany. It is based on the book of the ...

'', starring Bernhard Bettermann as Forell. Added to the story was a duel between Forell and a Soviet officer who was chasing him, ending in a showdown on a bridge on the Soviet-Iranian border. Many scenes feature characters speaking Russian and other foreign languages, without any subtitles; the intention was to convey to German and other non-Russian viewers the feeling of helplessness experienced by the protagonist with his limited knowledge of

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

References

External links

1959 series at IMDB

2001 Movie at IMDB
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rost, Cornelius German escapees 1919 births 1983 deaths German prisoners of war in World War II held by the Soviet Union Escapees from Soviet detention