Robert Walter Richard Ernst von Görschen


Robert Walter Richard Ernst von Görschen was a member of the Prussian Upper Governing Council and government Vice-President.

Career

After his graduation in autumn 1884 in Kleve, Robert von Görschen studied law and Political Sciences in Munich, Marburg, Heidelberg and Berlin. Here he passed his first examination in law on 13 May 1888. From 9 June 1888, Robert von Görschen served as a trainee barrister in the District Court of Eschweiler, and was sworn in on 22 June 1888. He completed his internship in Eschweiler at the Country Court in Aachen.
On 9 September 1890, he began his career as a junior barrister with the Government of Aachen. Three years after his second examination in law he was appointed as assessor of the government in Aachen, working later with the Government in Kassel, with the district office in Stormarn and probably still with the district office in Wandsbek, before going back to the government in Kassel. Finally, on 1 August 1902 he was promoted as a governmental councillor. A month later, he worked first as acting and, from 23 February 1903 as a definitive district administrator in Altenkirchen. On 10 October, 1912, he was finally appointed as a chief councillor of government of Cologne. At the last stop of his career, he was promoted, on 1 June 1919, to vice president of government of Aachen.
In 1923, he was, together with the President of Aachen, William Rombach, and the Police President Fritz von Korff captured, due to passive resistance against the supreme authority at that time by Frenchmen and Belgians in the occupied Rhenish Republic. On 23 January 1923, they were released, but with the stipulation that they should not enter certain areas. The “Inter-Allied Rhineland Commission” initially deported them into the unoccupied area around Wuppertal-Elberfeld and were placed, several days later in Königswinter and Altenkirchen /Westerwald. After constantly travelling back and forth, Aachen President Rombach and his vice president von Görschen finally ended up, in February 1923 in the town hall of Wuppertal-Barmen a branch office of the Government of Aachen and both could now resume their governmental duties. After intensive discussions with the occupying authority, after the end of the struggle under the occupation of the Ruhr, the banishment was withdrawn a year later and von Görschen was, on 12 March 1924 again returned to Aachen. Here, Robert von Görschen, now exhausted and frustrated, applied for retirement. This claim was initiated on 1 July 1924.

Additional activities

In addition to his professional career as a high administrative officer, Robert von Görschen was also instrumental in a number of other areas in Aachen, mostly in management positions in various active associations and institutions. These were as follows:
Robert von Görschen originated from the old German and Thuringia noble family Von Görschen of Protestant-style. He was the son of Robert Oskar Julius von Görschen and Elise Brüggemann. Von Görschen was married to Emy Rosalie Marie Honigmann and they had one son and one daughter. The son Hans-Wolf von Görschen was an honorary senator of the University of Greifswald, banker and businessman in Cologne and Rotterdam and a resistance fighter in the “Kreisau Circle”, so he was arrested in December 1944 and in April 1945 was executed by the Gestapo.

Personal and literary sources