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

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

, his last post being from 1976 to 1997 at the

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 Timeline of Hanover, history of the city, ...

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

Life

Born in

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

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

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) 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. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

and

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

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

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

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 ("). 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 The rise to power of Adolf Hitler, dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919, when Hitler joined the '' Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' (DAP; German Workers' Party). He quickly rose t ...

, ''

Kristallnacht ( ) or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilia ...

'', 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.''