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 grea ...
, Austria – 18 October 1983,
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
, 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 ...
in
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 opposing ...
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 region, 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 ...
. His experiences were the basis for a book, a television series, and a
film.
Life
Rost was born on 27 March 1919 in
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 grea ...
,
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
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
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 opposi ...
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 previo ...
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 transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
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
![Cornelius Rost signature](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Cornelius_Rost_signature.jpg)
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 ...
.
See also
*
Sławomir Rawicz
*
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 ...
References
External links
1959 series at IMDB2001 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