Kompetenzteam

Dr. Harald Heimbach

Executive Director

Dr. Harald Heimbach was born in 1966 in Ehingen on the Danube. He attended elementary school from 1972-1976, then secondary school until 1981. This was followed by three years of high school in Ulm. In 1984/85 he did his military service in the air force.

This was followed by a degree in industrial engineering in Esslingen, which he graduated with honors in 1991. Among other things, he financed his studies as a freelancer at Pro Heraldica. He began his work at Pro Heraldica in May 1990, following his studies as an assistant to the management, and in 1996 he took over management himself.

He has been the main shareholder since 1997 and the sole shareholder since 2001. In 2001 he succeeded in uniting the two companies that had been the most important companies in Germany to date, Pro Heraldica, and the Wappengilde founded by Alfred Dochtermann in 1937 under one roof through this acquisition. In 2010 the company also received the international accolade. Pro Heraldica organized the world congress of genealogical and heraldic sciences in Stuttgart. In 2013 Pro Heraldica USA was founded. On July 29th, 2020 he defended his dissertation at the renowned Comenius University in Bratislava in: management on an internationalization strategy for Pro Heraldica under the direction of Prof. Ing.Lubica Bajzikova PhD.

In addition to many interests, he has two main hobbies: history and sports. It used to be football, tennis and athletics. Today he trains in the gym, runs marathons and is fascinated by triathlon. He completed his first middle-distance Ironman at the age of 51 in 2017. This was followed by a few more competitions, and he would like to practice this versatile sport into old age if possible.

He prefers to run through the woods around Stuttgart with his two Rhodesian Ridgebacks.

He has been married to Petra Heimbach since 2012. Both want to use the next 25 years to pass Pro Heraldica on to the 4th generation and to offer the services to a more international audience.

Clemens L. Herzog born Kech

Scientific Director

Scientific director at Pro Heraldica since January 1st, 2017. Clemens L. Kech was born on March 19, 1985 in Ulm, where he grew up and went to school. After successfully passing his Abitur in 2004, he studied history and English / American studies at Connecticut College in New London, USA and at the University of Stuttgart, which he graduated with the state examination in 2012.

Clemens Kech was already connected to the Pro Heraldica during his studies (from 2007). In 2014 he accepted a permanent position as assistant to the scientific management in our company. He was (and continues to be) in intensive exchange with our long-term scientific director Dr. Rolf Sutter whose areas of responsibility he gradually began to take over. In summer 2016 this was initially the head of the genealogy department; In January 2017, he was given responsibility for the heraldry and scientific management of Pro Heraldica.

In his free time, he deals primarily with German and American literature in addition to historical topics; he likes to play the piano and has been a footballer in the club since his youth.

Dr. Rolf Sutter

Scientific Advisory Board

Born 1944.
Married, three children
High school graduate
Studied German philology, political science, art history, psychology.
Completed studies with a degree for his thesis on the genealogical structures in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s “Parzival”.

scientific director at PRO HERALDICA from 1980-2016
Since 1.1.2017, scientific advisory board at Pro Heraldica
Member of the Académie Internationale d’Héraldique
Member of the Académie Internationale de Généalogie
President of the Wappen-HEROLD, Deutsche Heraldische Gesellschaft e.V.
Chairman of the foundation council of the Gerhard Tietz Stiftung Heraldik Internationale
Member of the Association of German-speaking Professional Genealogists

Dr. Rolf Sutter first got to know Dr. Ottfried Neubecker whose work and personality had always fascinated him in 1980. This first meeting led to 12 years of close cooperation. For Dr. Sutter these years were an invaluable apprenticeship and for Dr. Neubecker an opportunity to promote a successor to his life’s work. He consequently appointed Dr. Sutter as treasurer in 1980 in the association Wappen HEROLD Deutsche Heraldische Gesellschaft e.V. which he had founded in 1967 and which Dr. Sutter still directs today as its president.

What began then was for both a lucky strike even though the common benefits were at first one-sided. Dr. Sutter learned the tools of his trade which he needed for scientific and creative heraldry from the most important German-speaking herald of the day. Very soon, Dr. Neubecker was able to harvest the fruits of his intellectual investments and the birth and growth of his favorite project the ALLGEMEINE DEUTSCHE WAPPENROLLE (the General German Heraldic Register). The first volume appeared in 1980 under the direction of Dr. Sutter and is still continued by him today.

On Dr. Neubecker retirement and death in 1992, Dr. Rolf Sutter followed in Neubecker’s international footsteps. He attended international congresses and colloquia and expanded Dr. Neubecker’s numerous national and international contacts. In the aftermath, Dr. Sutter held numerous lectures:

1999 International Colloquium St. Pölten: Gampilun and Ecidemon – on the function of heraldry in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s “Parzival”
2000 International Congress in Besaucon: Genealogy as a medium of social and individual identity: the “Parzival” novel by Wolfram von Eschenbach.
2001 International Colloquium Groningen: Talking elements in communal heraldry and heraldic development in the second half of the 20th century in Baden-Württemberg
2002 International Congress Dublin: Logo ad Portas – snapshots of the current relationship between “identity icons/logo” and coats of arms in German State heraldry.
2004 International Congress Bruges: Genealogy and heraldry at the beginning of the third millennium
2005 24th Austrian Historians’ Day Innsbruck: Back to the future – South Africa’s new heraldic identity
2005 International Colloquium St. Petersburg- Emanzipation in heraldry- women’s right to bear a name and a coat of arms
2006 International Congress St Andrews: “Trees that grow up into the sky?-genealogy between myths, explanation of the world and transcendency
2007 International Colloquium Xanten: The shields of the free cities
2008 International Congress Quebec: Quète et Reconquète (quest and re-conquest) – colonial and post-colonial heraldry in Africa
2009 International Colloquium Verviers: Heraldry in Germany and German-speaking countries
2010 International Congress Stuttgart scheduled : The Heraldic Spring ; heraldry and identity

Dr Sutter a worked together with Pro Heraldic as Dr. Neubecker had done and still looks after and maintains the heritage and the reference library. In thirty years, Dr. Sutter has directed hundreds of genealogical researches and carried out more than 3,000 researches into coats of arms and their design.

During one of his lectures, one of his international colleagues described Dr. Sutter as follows” Dr. Sutter is a phenomenon. He is just as happy in the field of genealogy as he is in heraldry. Regarding heraldry, his expertise covers the Middle Ages up to the present day, from public heraldry to family heraldry both in the theoretical and in the creative field”.

What is striking is his commitment to current living heraldry. His lecture in Dublin in 2002 Logo ad Portas led to the spontaneous foundation of the “Ständige Komitee für zeitgenössische Heraldik” (a permanent committee for contemporary heraldry) under the umbrella of the Internationale Akademie der Heraldik. The committee strives to establish generally accepted heraldic principles on a national level.

Whatever he participates in at an international level he follows up on a national level. Explanations on heraldry on a wide basis, struggle against unprofessional handling of the subject, standardization of the rights to bear a coat of arms, the establishment and institutionalization of a center of competence for conscientious experts, the creation of a generally binding regulations are all matters to which he is openly dedicated.

Dr. Ottfried Neubecker

Dr. Ottfried Neubecker was one of the greatest experts on heraldry of the 20th century.

Dr. Neubecker, who in professional circles was known as “the Pope of Heraldry” would have celebrated his hundredth birthday in 2008. Dr. phil. Ottfried Neubecker was born on March 22, 1908 in Berlin-Charlottenburg. His father was Prof. Karl Neubecker, his mother was Renée, née von Meyenburg. At the age of six, he already showed great interest in coats of arms and standards – a passion which was to accompany him all his life.

His father insisted that he read law after gaining his university entrance qualification, but he soon changed over to studying history and art history. He studied at the universities in Geneva, Heidelberg and Berlin where he was awarded a PhD in 1931 for his thesis “German Coats of arms 1806-1871”. At the same time, he was working with the then Reich art supervisor, Edwin Redslob and later in the Reich Department of the Interior and Naval Administration. Neubecker was able to distance himself from the prevailing Nazi ideology in spite of the pressure put upon him.

During this time, Ottfried Neubecker created more than 50 municipal coats of arms, drafts for ecclesiastical crests and concepts for academic insignia and coats of arms. In addition, he was employed on behalf of the aforementioned ministries to work on official standard works and further more was involved with leading publishers such as Brockhaus, Knaur, Chamber’s Encyclopaedia and many others as an advisor. The Gestapo had an eye on him several times as his wife was Jewish but by frequently switching his place of residence, he was able to escape persecution right up to the end of the war.

After 1945, Ottfried Neubecker took on teaching at the universities of Mainz and Berlin. Although he was born and bred in Berlin and after the Second World War – politically unencumbered – helped many cultural associations to renew their permits, he located his activities from the Fifties onwards increasingly to the Federal Republic of Germany where he continued his work first in Wiesbaden, later in Stuttgart until 1992.

These were the years of his success when he received numerous distinctions:

Commander with star of the Spanish Order of Knights from Raimundo de Peňafort (Comendador de numero de la Orden de raimundo de Peňafort), December 13, 1955.
André Duchesne Award (Spain), 1956
Member of the Board of the International Academy of Heraldry, 1964
Scientific advisor to Pro Heraldic as from 1977.
C.-F. Menestrier Award (Spain), 1977
President of the HEROLD, Deutsche Heraldische Gesellschaft as from 1978
Holder of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1982
Gustav-von-Numers Award, Finland, 1982
Médaille de mérite de la Confédération Interantionale de Génealogie et d’Héraldique, 19085
Honorable and corresponding member in almost all genealogical, heraldic, vexillological and phaleristic professional associations in Europe and overseas.

Ottfried Neubecker was an all-rounder scientist. He always viewed his special fields of knowledge i.e. heraldry (the study of armorial bearings) and vexillology (the study of flags) and phaleristics (the study of orders, medals and decorations) to be an interdisciplinary science and became a sort of “walking encyclopedia” for his employees and colleagues.

Ottfried Neubecker dedicated 25 years of his life to Pro Heraldic in whose foundation and development he was significantly involved. After almost 80 years, we still have his today’s renowned reference library in the company! He was able to implement many of his ambitious projects; he trained and educated people who are continuing his work today. He was known for his strong opinion that heraldry was a topic to be dealt with professionally. He helped thousands of families with the researching, verification, rectification and granting of family crests.

His literature is documented in 300 individual letters, anonymous cooperation in the work of others, translations, work on encyclopedia e.g. periodicals, essays in newspapers and journals, advertisements and images etc. We can make this comprehensive list of publications available to anyone who is interested in reading or downloading it.

You can download his bibliography in German here (PDF, 21MB)

Alfred Dochtermann

Alfred Dochtermann was a renowned herald and genealogist. He was self-taught as these occupational titles were neither protected in Germany nor did any kind of training exist for such professions.

In 60 years of research, he collected a unique archive of family history and an important specialist reference library for genealogy and heraldry. They are both regarded as the second largest private collection containing more than 30,000 research files with information from pre-war sources which are no longer accessible. They further contain unique documentation and a bibliography. Alfred Dochtermann’s life work is surpassed only by the famous collection of Ottfried Neubecker.

During his life, Alfred Dochtermann created 10,000 – 20,000 coats of arms plus a forum for the right to bear arms with a series of publications entitled “Wappenrolle Dochtermann”(Dochtermann’s Heraldic Register).

After the death of Hans Winter, his successor, both collections passed into the possession of Pro Heraldica.
Of all the coats of arms created by Dochtermann only a mere 2,500 were published and so protected (some of them with genealogical data in the Dochtermann heraldic register). Most of the family coats of arms and genealogical data are still slumbering in the around 30,000 research files. They are a firm and essential part of our archive for the research they contain is a unique source of information including data from sources destroyed in the Second World War.

This post is also available in: German

Kompetenzteam

Dr. Harald Heimbach

Clemens L. Herzog born Kech

Dr. Rolf Sutter

Dr. Ottfried Neubecker

Alfred Dochtermann

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