Waldemar R. Röhrbein (9 September 19355 October 2014) was a German historian. He worked as a museum director in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

, his last post being from 1976 to 1997 at the

Historisches Museum Hannover (german: Historisches Museum Hannover) is an historical museum situated in Hanover, the capital of Lower Saxony, Germany. The museum was founded in 1903 as the Homeland Museum of the City of Hanover (). Its collections are related to the histor ...

, and was president of the . He contributed to encyclopedias about Hanover's history and culture.

Life

Born in

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, Röhrbein grew up in the rural . He studied history, English language and literature, education and philosophy at the universities of

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

and

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. In the winter semester 1964/65 he was awarded his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

at the University of Göttingen with his thesis ''Hamburg und der hannoversche Verfassungskonflikt, 1837–1840''. In 1965 he joined the museum service. In 1967, Röhrbein became director of the , the municipal museum of

. From 1976 up to his retirement in 1997, he was director of the

, the historical museum of

, the capital of

. He managed to make the museum attractive to visitors, including pedagogical efforts to reach children. His creed was that visitors have to see what the past has to do with their own lives. ("Die Besucher müssen sehen, was die Vergangenheit mit ihrem eigenen Leben zu tun hat") He achieved national recognition when the museum became one of the first to hold large historical exhibitions dedicated to specific topics, such as

Nazi seizure of power Adolf Hitler's rise to power began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919 when Hitler joined the '' Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' (DAP; German Workers' Party). He rose to a place of prominence in the early years of the party. Be ...

, '' Kristallnacht'', and the bombing of the city. From 1995 to 1997 he also directed the Museum August Kestner.Klaus Mlynek: ''Ein Museumsdirektor geht in den Ruhestand. Waldemar R. Röhrbein nimmt Abschied vom Historischen Museum.'' In ''Heimatland. Zeitschrift für Heimatkunde, Naturschutz, Kulturpflege.''