Richard Puschke

Richard Franz Puschke was the youngest son of the Steinort teacher Friedrich Puschke and his wife Louise, both of whom were also buried in the same cemetery. At the death of his father in 1874, Richard succeeded him, just twenty years old, as a village teacher in Groß Steinort. He remained in this position until his retirement in 1920.^[1]

Richard Puschke seems to have been a multifaceted man. The reference to Psalm Timothy 4:7 on his grave cross indicates this with retrospective satisfaction. The psalm reads: “I have fought the good fight, I have completed the course, I have kept the fifth.” His commitment took several forms.

Like most teachers of his time, Richard Puschke was a nationally minded person. He proved this during the 25th anniversary of the accession to the throne by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1913, when he gave a patriotic address “for the appreciation of the day” to the assembled students from Groß Steinort, Rosengarten, Taberlack and Stawisken after a visit to the cemetery and Lehndorff mausoleum.

Above all, on this occasion, as in other occasions, he indulged in another passion, namely his enthusiasm for local history. He first showed the students the remains of a house that had sunk into the Steinort lake during the 16th century, supposedly the first house of the village. He then led them to the tomb of the Lehndorffs; then through the castle park of Steinort, where he interrupted the tour again and again with explanations on sandstone figures, clay vases, inscriptions and the sundial produced in 1765; and in the end he showed the students historical furniture and tapestries in the castle itself.^[2]

In 1919, Richard Puschke apparently searched for old documents in archives for Count Carol Meinhard von Lehndorff in order to prove historical property rights.^[3] With the Count, if one may believe an anecdote, he had a “real, cordial friendship”. This is said to have gained a special quality after a school visit, which the count carried out one day in the Steinort school. During this lesson, a pupil’s reckless statement revealed that the teacher kept a bottle of potato brandy in his desk. The Count was not bothered by this, on the contrary – he himself was all too inclined to a good drop. In any case, the visitation is said to have marked the beginning of a particularly close relationship between the count and the school teacher.^[4]

However, this anecdote may also refer to Richard’s son Richard Alexander, who after him took over the school of Groß Steinort. In 1879 Richard had married Therese Marie David, the 19-year-old daughter of the Lehndorff castle gardener Samuel David and his wife Charlotte.^[5] Richard’s parents-in-law are also buried in the cemetery of Groß Steinort. Therese and Richard had five children together.