Queer Places:
Waldeck Castle, Burg Waldeck 1, 56290 Dommershausen, Germany
Dorweiler (Dommershausen) Cemetery Dorweiler, Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany

Robert Oelbermann (born April 24, 1896 in Bonn , † March 29, 1941 in the Dachau concentration camp ) was the founder of the Nerother Wandervogel . In 1936, Robert was convicted under the Nazi-revised criminal code's paragraph 175 which outlawed homosexuality. By 1941 he had been transferred to the Dachau concentration camp and was required to wear an identifying pink triangle. Forty-four-year-old Robert died at Dachau in 1941.

Robert Oelbermann was born in Bonn in 1896 - together with his twin brother Karl . They grew up in middle class with four other brothers. In 1908 they lost their father. They attended the pre-school of the municipal high school and later the junior high school. In their free time they were active in a Bible study group and took part in some holiday camps . When the mother became seriously ill in 1910, both boys came to the Protestant alumnat in Lennep in the Bergisches Land . In 1911, the twin brothers Robert and Karl entered the migratory bird. The nature-loving life in the migratory bird and on their journeys led them to decide to work as agricultural elves in Schleswig-Holstein.

At the outbreak of war in 1914, they volunteered for the Bonn Hussar Regiment and, after completing their military training, marched with the 29th Infantry Regiment. In 1917 Robert's leg was injured and had to retire from military service. Robert, along with his brother, who also ended the service to look after his brother, was awarded the Iron Cross First Class .

Fascinated by the ideas of the educationalist Gustav Wyneken, Robert and Karl dreamed of the idea of ​​a youth castle after the war . In the hiking bird e. V. fought against resignation and for a new departure. In 1918 Robert published a battle cry to the "determined youth", which included, among other things: "You get on, but you cannot inspire your wrong leader. You can only chat in the form of leaflets and revolutionary speeches. True leaders are silent and act. The only king is Wyneken, but the real ones have already recognized it and so you will no longer disgrace and use the migratory bird. ” ^[1]

On New Year's Night 1919/20, Robert Oelbermann founded in the millstone cave at Nerother Kopf , not far from the village of Neroth in the Vulkaneifel , with seven selected friends - his twin brother Karl, L. Heller, L. Barbens, K. Kohl, H. Speicher, H Frank and A. Sahne, the so-called Ur-Nerommen - the "secret society of the Nerommen". The red velvet beret was the outward sign of the Nerommen. That evening Robert talked about the fact that they had responsibility for youngsters and migratory birds and that it was their job to regain the old impetus of the migratory bird like Karl Fischer and his pachants once did . ^[2]Then the wise men write the wisdom as a basic law. In the next few months, several new recordings will follow in the Liedberger Höhle and at the Märchensee , an old quarry near Bonn.

In 1920, a handful of women from Koblenz , led by Robert Oelbermann, went on a castle tour. First they came to the Schöneck ruin , then the next day to the Rauschenburg and, although they thought they had found the Jugendburg here, they went on to examine the Waldeck castle ruins , which are not far away . There was no longer any doubt there: it should be the Rheinische Jugendburg. The projects of the Nerommen were put into practice on a Gautag of the Wandering Birds Rhineland in Mausaue in early 1920. The separation from the girls was made, and the whole district came out of the Wandering Bird. V. from and the Alt-Wanderervogel under Ernst Buske. In addition, twelve Gauadelige were elected, including nine Nerommen, which meant that nothing stood in the way of Robert Oelbermann being elected leader.

Easter 1920 was a knight's journey to the Bundestag des Wandervogel e. V. instead. On this trip the Nerommen met Karl Fischer. At the Bundestag, the girls were separated from all over the Bund. The first crusade that led to the Gautag on the ruined castle of Waldeck took place at Pentecost in 1920. Karl Buschhüter too was present and made the first plans of the youth castle. The "Association for the Establishment of the Rheinische Jugendburg" was founded and a statute was also created immediately. The castle was to become a memorial to the fallen migratory birdmates of the World War. In August 1920, the Bundestag of the old migratory bird took place on the Waldeck. The federal leadership disagreed with the Nerommen knighthood. Robert, Karl and two other boys took a trip across the Alps from August to December 1920 and entered Italy illegally, which resulted in a longer prison stay.

For the Christmas party in 1920, a few Nerommen met in the Trier hiking bird nest. Then they set off for the Waldeck, from where the first so-called hatschi ride to Neroth after the Hajj took place. There were a total of 13 boys. Not far from the castle Pyrmont they saw on the Swan church a flag with a fighting Swan - later covenant sign - it. In the Nerother cave the idea of ​​Nerommen became a federal idea.

In January 1921, Robert and a few nerds met with Ernst Buske in the Essen bird walker. After a long conversation, the knighthood of the Nerommen was released from their oath of allegiance and released in friendship from the Altwanderervogel. On January 16, 1921, Robert Oelbermann called in a newsletter to the Rhineland migrant birds to found the Nerother Migratory Bird. In February and March 1921, all groups of migratory birds from the Gau Rhineland announced their willingness to found the new migratory bird group. On March 27th the "Nerother Wanderer - German Knight Association" was founded at Drachenfels Castle in Wasgau . Three medals, under whose umbrella the individual groups gathered, were formed and vowed loyalty to the federal government. These were the orders of the raven claw, the buck rider and the werewolf. The blue cloth with the silver, fighting wild swan on it was declared a federal symbol. The color of love and friendship and the color of loyalty, red and blue, became the national colors of the Nerother migratory bird, which was shown in the Nerother velvet berets.

Robert led world tours with students from Africa to the Canary Islands, Egypt, Palestine, Anatolia, Lebanon, Japan and from North America to Chile. On a trip in India he met the poet and sage Rabindranath Tagore , who made a return visit to Waldeck Castle in 1930. Also in 1930, the Nerother at Burg Waldeck visited Karl Fischer together with Gustav Wyneken for the inauguration of the new column house. The Nerother made numerous films on their trips, and Robert also wrote several books. With the income from this work, they financed the further expansion of the youth castle. When Robert was not on the move, he lived with his Nerother migratory birds on the Waldeck, where they worked as a hut to build the youth castle.

After the National Socialists “ seized power ” in 1933, the Nerother wandering bird was forced to dissolve. On June 18, 1933, Waldeck Castle was occupied by the HJ , SA and SS . Thereupon Karl Oelbermann, who represented Robert, who had been on a world tour since 1931, as federal leader, declared the federal government in the German Reich on June 22, 1933 for dissolved. Robert Oelbermann revoked the dissolution a little later, but had to realize after his return to Germany that the Nerother migratory bird could not in the long run resist the Nazi regime out of responsibility towards the young members. At the turn of the year 1933/34, he finally dissolved the Nerother Wanderervogel.

In December 1934 Robert tried again to organize money through the trip films. He became a member of the Reichsfilmkammer and distributed films there. The HJ criticized the film in India as dangerous. It would lead young people to unprepared trips abroad. The re-examination of the censorship had a positive result.

Since many Nerother migratory birds, like other groups from the youth movement , continued their group life, the Reich Youth Leadership became active. In 1936 they started the campaign "to destroy federal remains". Robert Oelbermann was also taken into custody in the course of this extensive action against all groups that did not form part of the state youth (HJ and young people ). The accusation of homosexuality and a violation of section 175 also played a role. The National Socialists considered homosexuality to be a "state danger". Oelbermann, on the other hand, defended same-sex love as "solely founding a state": This could not only be stated as "an impeccable fact that all real leaders have same-sex tendencies", but also "all really great deeds and works" arise "from this instinct". That is also why it is "the greatest human and injurious to the state to present same-sex love as abnormal, pathological and punishable". ^[3]/font>