Rudi Rolf has left us

[Dirk Peeters1]

the great writer of many books has left us , he left us many good books and did a wonderfull research for the Regelbauten and other things . He was one of the first real writers of the Atlantikwall , I ll remember Rudi , we spend a week together with Hans Sakkers in the nineties in the Bundesarchiv in Freiburg , I ll remember also the nights spend after our resarch their in the pubs of Freiburg , specialy the Rattenkeller , i had the privilige that he visited my archive and i also visited him in his house , a great loss for the bunkerworld
Rip Rudi

[VanillaNuns]

I am very sorry for your personal loss and also someone who was a specialist in his field of expertise and happy to share his knowledge with fellow enthusiasts.

[Eax-E]

We lost one of our main authors. His books are definitely references for german fortification enthusiasts.
Rip and thanks for your job.

[SEMPER-FIDELIS]

The REFERENCE in this little world
R.I.P

[Jihem]

When begining, I used to have always in my pocket his book « Atlantic Wall Typology » which was often a precious help in the field.
Rip Rudi Rolf

[jopaerya]

May he rest in peace .

Great lost for our bunker-world , our guru .
Condolences to his family and friends .

Regards Jos

[Bo2]

It is a loss for all lovers of fortifications.
His pocket-sized books have been and will be a reference for a long time for use in the field !

R.I.P.

[AW]

RIP "Sir Beton"

thx for your geat work!
I will cherish all your books

greetz
Alex

[moonraker]

hello all,
Sad new,a bunker scholar has disappeared.
Condolences to his family and friends .

Me belfra-team

[TH]

Reading his books, I keep wondering how he managed to visit so many places in so few years. It's like he visited the whole Atlantikwall in the 80s.
His early books may have been the most influential for our community, but I also quite like his more recent works and was hoping for more.

Definitely a great loss, my condolences.

[Chazette]

RiP Rudi you are with the Angels
AC

[v60pih]

->

[Hans1906]

Even without having known the author and the man, your topic touches me.

Wenn Du an mich denkst, erinnere
Dich an die Stunde, in welcher Du
mich am liebsten hattest.
(Rainer Maria Rilke)


Hans

[herring]

In my case, his "blue book" was a gate to the bunkerworld...
What he did was a great analytical work, putting together multiple threads and making a coherent pictures of different fortification systems. A great loss.
RIP

[20P7]

What a loss to the circle of fortification friends!

I never meet him, but had email contact occasionally about some AW Norway tasks.
Thirty years ago I started this hobby and from the time I started interest in the AW his collection of standard design bunker drawings joined me nearly every trip and really helped a lot! You all have already mentioned nearly the same experiences.
But I also would like to focus your interest on RR's very excellent books about the imperial Austrian fortification and the German imperial fortification system. I read lots of books and original sources about those aspects of fortification too, but from my point of view Mr. Rolf was the first author to bring all the information about those fortification systems together in one book to get a very good overall view and understanding of the development, the needs and leftovers of those lines.

Last but not least let us not forget his overall view of the German fortification system from 1871 - 1945. This book, just called as simple as "Atlantikwall, Batteries and Bunkers" is the standard work. You can compare it with the importance of encyclopedia in times before the internet.