Gottfried Sprock
1899 - 1989

Gottfried Sprock was born in Frankfurt on the Main in November 1899. His father Josef Sprock, born in Frankfurt in 1869, was the municipal auditor and died in 1917. As his mother Else, née Rühl, born in Butzbach in 1876, was also no longer alive, Sprock came to live with his uncle Gottfried Rühl, who was also his guardian. Rühl had been the rentmaster of the Frankfurt orphanage at Nidda street 30 and, like Josef Sprock, lived at Hegel street 17.

Gottfried Sprock went to the Klinger-Oberrealschule on Hermesweg and obtained his university entrance qualification there. He was married to Felicitas Sprock, née Hartig, who was born in Frankfurt on the Main in 1899. The marriage was childless.

Gottfried Sprock studied chemistry at the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Frankfurt University from December 1917 to October 1924. In 1923, he passed the association examination and was awarded his doctorate in November 1924 with the thesis "On a d-glucose-5.6-dichlorohydrin and related compounds". The Frankfurt on the Main address books list him as a chemist who lived in Ginnheim at Raimund Street 58 from 1926, and then in Eschersheim at Lucae Street 15 from 1933. In the Frankfurt on the Main directory of 1940, he was listed as head of department. Finally, from 1941, the address books no longer listed him as a chemist, but as a businessman and as Dr. phil. nat. Why this was the case has not yet been clarified.

From August 1939 to August 1940, he did military service in the Wehrmacht, initially as a private, and attained the rank of reserve sergeant and reserve officer candidate. He was deployed as a soldier in the Landesschützen-Bataillon V/IX in Poland and from June 1940 in France. In October 1940, by his own admission, he was conscripted as a chemist at Dynamit A.G. in the Krümmel factory near Geesthacht (Prussia). Gottfried Sprock thus worked in one of the most important explosives factories in the German Reich.

In the 1950s and 1960s, we find Dr. Gottfried Sprock as an employee of Chemische Werke Hüls AG in Marl. There he was regarded as a specialist in corrosion protection, among other things. Finally, in 1974, 50 years after his doctorate, he was awarded the "Golden Doctorate" by the Department of Chemistry at Goethe University Frankfurt on the Main. Gottfried Sprock last lived in Rengsdorf, around 5 km north of Neuwied, where he passed away in 1989.

It remains unclear when Dr. Gottfried Sprock joined the Frankfurt on the Main section of the German and Austrian Alpine Club. He is not yet listed in the 1925 directory. However, Gottfried Sprock was elected to the section committee as early as 1929 and was one of three deputies of Carl Barth, who was responsible for hiking. In 1930, he became the administrator for guiding and was also a deputy to Wilhelm Schneider, who was responsible for hiking, and a deputy to Paul Gentsch, who was responsible for rescue.

Over time, he took on more and more tasks in the section. At the Alpine Club general meeting in Freiburg in July 1930, he attended alongside the first secretary Curt Weißgerber as a representative of the Frankfurt on the Main section. In July 1931, the section again nominated him, this time together with Willi Jureit, as Frankfurt's voting leader for the general meeting held in Baden near Vienna (Austria). One year later, Dr. Sprock was already the administrator for guides, one of four deputies for huts and trails (administrator Dr. Rudolf Seng), deputy for the youth section (administrator August Zull), one of four deputies for hikes (administrator Paul Gentsch), one of two deputies for the student section (administrator Prof. Dr. Matthias Friedwagner; also Ernst Meissinger from the student section) and one of two deputies for the ski section (administrator Albert Kopp). In March 1933, he was finally elected to replace Dr. Arthur Kutz, a Jew, who did not stand for re-election after 25 years due to the changed political situation, that is the beginning of the Nazi rise to power.

Since at least 1928, he also made numerous recommendations for the admission of new members to the section, such as the treasurer Hans Müller, his own wife Felicitas Sprock and the businessman Valentin Falter, the latter together with Max Moritz Wirth. Gottfried Sprock also took part in section events together with his wife Felicitas Sprock. For example, according to a report by Ernst Meissinger, they both took part in a "cozy evening with ladies" of the student section in November 1930. From 1928, Dr. Sprock was also among the leaders of day trips in the surrounding area, for example a winter hike in the nearby Taunus hills in November 1928, a spring hike in the Bergstrasse low mountains in April 1930 and a walk to Berkersheim in August 1931.

Dr. Sprock occasionally published articles in the section's Mitteilungs-Blatt (such as "Taunuswanderung" in no. 12 of December 1928 and "Der Hohe Dachstein" in no. 8 of September 1932) as well as giving lectures (for example a photographic lecture in February 1931 in the ski section together with "Fräulein Schmidt" on "Skiing in Samnaum and in the Säntis Group" and on March 29, 1933 at the home evening of the young team (in German: Jungmannschaft) a photographic lecture on "Skiing across the Alps").

In July 1933, Dr. Ernst Wildberger, the new section leader, appointed Dr. Gottfried Sprock as secretary and "Führerwart", as well as deputy administrator of the huts and trails, the "Jungmannschaft", the lantern images, the skiing department and the student department ("Studentische Abteilung"). The distribution of offices thus continued what had been common practice in the Weimar Republic since 1930.

However, Sprock was not appointed to the new advisory board by the new section leader Dr. Rudolf Seng in May 1934 and was no longer a trustee or deputy--unlike Ernst Wildberger, who was responsible for lectures and legal matters on the advisory board, or Dr. Max Tasche, who was responsible for the scientific department on the advisory board. Gottfried Sprock thus left the leadership of the Frankfurt on the Main section without it being possible to prove at present why he was no longer considered or why he no longer wanted to be active. However, Dr. Sprock had begun his actual work on the board by taking over the position of administrator for guides in April 1930 at Dr. Seng's expense, so to speak, because the latter had previously been responsible for huts and trails as well as guides. It is therefore possible that Dr. Seng's negative attitude led to the end of Gottfried Sprock's board activities.

Interestingly, Gottfried Sprock's application to join the Nazi party, the NSDAP, in May 1933 was rejected by a party court in November 1933, even though he had already received the membership number 2,370,033 and had paid membership fees by November 1934. This rejection was confirmed by the NSDAP General Examination Committee in conjunction with the Gau Court of the Hesse-Nassau district in February 1935, without us currently knowing the reason for this. Perhaps Rudolf Seng did not leave Gottfried Sprock on the board because he had not joined the NSDAP. In any case, he was admitted to the NSDAP again in June 1939 with the membership number 5.226.306, retroactive to May 1937.

Felicitas Sprock was awarded the silver edelweiss for her 25 years of membership at the annual general meeting of the Frankfurt on the Main section of the Alpine Club in March 1953. She therefore remained a member of the section even after moving to Marl.