From the Holy Roman Empire to the Land of the Tsars: One Family's Odyssey, 1768-1870

Johannes Ambrosius Rosenstrauch (1768-1835) was a German eyewitness to Napoleon's Russian campaign who wrote a manuscript in a Russian archive. He was a barber-surgeon, actor, merchant, Catholic, Freemason, and Lutheran pastor who lived a restless life and was a prominent figure in the Age of Revolution and the bourgeois era. The manuscript offers a glimpse into life in the German lands and Russia from the Old Regime to modernity.

Format: Hardback
Length: 416 pages
Publication date: 03 March 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press

In a manuscript housed within a Russian archive, an anonymous German eyewitness provides a vivid account of his experiences in Moscow during Napoleon's Russian campaign. The identity of this nameless memoirist remains a mystery, but his journey to Moscow in 1812 sheds light on a remarkable chapter in the history of Germany and Russia.

Johannes Ambrosius Rosenstrauch, the author of the manuscript, was a man of constant movement and reinvention. He spent half his life in the Holy Roman Empire and the other half in Russia. Rosenstrauch's diverse career included roles as a barber-surgeon, actor, merchant, Catholic, Freemason, and Lutheran pastor. He witnessed the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, established a successful business that thrived for sixty years, and actively participated in the Enlightenment, the consumer revolution, the Pietist Awakening, and Russia's colonization of the Black Sea steppe. A restless wanderer and seeker, Rosenstrauch also played a pivotal role in shaping the influential merchant family that he founded.

This microhistory delves into the intricate interplay between individual lives and the historical forces that shaped them. It offers a comprehensive perspective on life in the German lands and Russia from the Old Regime to modernity, exploring how individuals molded and were molded by the sweeping historical transformations of their time. Through the lens of Rosenstrauch's experiences, readers gain a deeper understanding of the complexities and contradictions of the era, as well as the resilience and adaptability of human beings in the face of change.

Weight: 1g
Dimension: 240 x 163 x 30 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780192844378