The Low German writer, teacher and folk artist Johannes Gillhoff was born in Glaisin in 1861. In the Johannes-Gillhoff-Stuv, the life and work of the author, who became known through his epistolary novel "Jürnjakob Swehn der Amerikafahrer", is documented in a permanent exhibition.
Today, the former village school of Glaisin houses the Johannes-Gillhoff-Stuv. Since 1992, this has provided a comprehensive insight into the life and work of the Low German writer and poet Johannes Gillhoff, who was born in Glaisin on May 24, 1861 and spent his childhood and youth there. The exhibition focuses on his literary work, which is now an integral part of the cultural heritage of northern Germany. His epistolary novel "Jürnjakob Swehn der Amerikafahrer", published in 1917, became a bestseller in the 1920s and 1930s and was also widely read in foreign languages. In it, Johannes Gillhoff tells the story of Jürnjakob Swehn, son of a day laborer from Mecklenburg, who emigrates to America in 1868. Authentic letters to Gillhoff's father form the basis for the plot. And so it is no coincidence that another focus of the exhibition is the emigration movement in the Griesen area. Between 1815 and 1914, Mecklenburg was the state with the highest percentage of emigrants in relation to its population. Corresponding emigrant lists document this and are available in the Gillhoff-Stuv for reading and research. A memorial stone in front of the former village school commemorates the writer, who, along with Fritz Reuter, is the second Low German author from Mecklenburg whose work has been published beyond the German-speaking world. The Johannes-Gillhoff-Stuv is open by appointment.
