Hermann Ernest Georg Dietz | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 13, 1861 |
| Died | February 21, 1944 (aged 82) |
| Nationality | German |
| Occupation(s) | physician, social activist |
| Years active | 1900s-1940s |
Hermann Ernest Georg Dietz, generally called Hermann Dietz, (1861-1944) was a German physician, a member of the Bromberg city council, a senator of the Republic of Poland and a prominent social activist in the first half of the 20th century in Bromberg/Bydgoszcz.
The Dietz ancestors were German colonists who established in the city after the First Partition of Poland in 1772. [1] The family branch in Bydgoszcz relates also to Heinrich Dietz (1840-1901), a Prussian rentier, member of the Bromberg city council, member of the Prussian parliament and a prominent philanthropist.
Hermann was born on November 13, 1861, in Poznań. He was the son of Hermann Theodor Dietz, a restaurateur in Bromberg at 12 Schloss Straße (today's Grodzka Street). [2] After graduating from medical studies in the 1890s, he opened a private medical practice at 17 Linden straße (today's Lipowa street) [3] and at the same time started working in a railway outpatient clinic. Within ten years, Dietz made himself known as one of the best medicine specialists in town.
Hermann married Sophie Welle, the widow of a wealthy mill owner. Thanks to her money, he could achieve financial independence and was quickly considered one of the richest citizens of Bromberg. As such, in 1904, he was able to buy an automobile for his private use, a real novelty in the city at the time. While he gave up his tiring activity at the clinic for railwaymen, he moved his private practice downtown at 88-90 Gdańska Street [4] and set up as well a small sanatorium in the suburban village of Rynkowo (now a district of Bydgoszcz).
At the time of the German Empire (1871-1918), Dietz was very active in politics. He was a city councilor and vice-chairman of the City Council. [5] After World War I, he became involved in activities to keep Bydgoszcz within German territory: he was then one of the most energetic activists in the city. However, Hermann had never shown any anti-Polish behaviour and never attacked verbally (let alone physically) the Polish minority of Bromberg/Bydgoszcz.
Though the signature of the Treaty of Versailles endorsed the return of Bydgoszcz to the re-born Polish nation, Hermann Dietz decided to stay in the city. On January 19, 1920, he sided with Hugo Wolff, the German mayor, to take part in the ceremony handing over the municipal authority to Jan Maciaszek, the new city magistrate appointed by the Polish government. [5]
Although the transfer of power went smoothly, the atmosphere in the city was tense. In this situation, the new city council, afraid of riots, took the decision to preventively isolate some of the most active German leaders. Hence, the 60-year-old doctor Hermann Dietz wound up in Poznań citadel, jailed for three months. [6]
At his return, Dietz resumed his political activity in German minority organizations, defending its rights: he was being considered anew one of the leaders of the German citizens in Bydgoszcz. During the interwar period, he also gained a great respect among Poles, distinguishing himself by a favorable attitude towards them, whenever the tensions arose, with conflicts and disputes between both nationalities being a daily business. Hermann opposed at court another German, Maksymilian Neumann. The latter, living at Kosciuszko street, addressed sick Poles in his tenement whom the doctor visited as "[...] dogs to (let) die". After having been reported by neighbourgs, the case against H. Dietz was judged in the spring of 1939: Neumann was sentenced to six months in prison.
During the Bydgoszcz Bloody Sunday episode which started on September 3, 1939, Dietz hid in the basement of his own tenement house. Discovered by Polish soldiers looking for saboteurs, he was protected from arrest thanks to the intervention of a Polish coachman who vouched for him: the 78-year-old man was left alone. [7]
A few days later the situation changed and the Germans started shooting the Poles, but Dietz intervened in their defence. He even had his neighbours, family of the industrialist Stanisław Rolbieski, murdered by the Nazi forces. Although he was regularly vocal in his critics upon Nazism, he was nevertheless received in 1941 by the German city authorities for a ceremony celebrating his 80th birthday. He died three years later, on February 21, 1944, [8] and was buried in the Evangelical cemetery then located at Jagiellońska street: in 1945, the cemetery was closed and transferred to the Lutheran cemetery in Zaświat Street. [9]
In 2018, the Evangelical parish renovated most of the tombstones, including Hermann Dietz's. [10]
Among his children, Herma Dietz (born in 1919) married Walter Sontheimer, a school headmaster. Their son, Prof. Dr. Günther-Dietz Sontheimer (1934-1992), was a scholar in indology. [11]
During World War I, Hermann Dietz together with Elimar Schendell and other doctors organized nursing courses [12] at the "Auguste-Viktoria-Heim" (today's Kuyavia Pomerania Cultural Centre at 6 Kościelecki Square), where young infants were coming not only from Bromberg city but also from other regions. Around 130 patients were cared for each year and the institution had set up there a clinic for young mothers. [5]
After his return from arrest in 1920, Dr. Dietz kept on working in his private practice at 123 Gdańska street. He also operated two shelters for the poors, the first at 54-57a Dworcowa Street and the second in Szwederowo district, at 5 Dąbrowskiego street. [13] With such actions, he gained a good reputation among Poles: he helped the poor, healed them for free and often provided medicines. He was particularly well known among the new displaced citizens coming from the Eastern Borderlands. [6]
Even during the WWII years and despite his age (over 80), Hermann Dietz continued to help Poles in the way he used to do, something really uncommon in these perilous years. He took care of the sick until his last breath, traveling to his patients in a black carriage with a shed. [14]
Alexander Timm House is a tenement located in Bydgoszcz, Poland, at 17 Gdańska street.
Wool Market square is located in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Many of its buildings are either registered on Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship heritage list, or part of Bydgoszcz local history. On its centre stands a statue of Leon Barciszewski, ancient mayor of Bydgoszcz (1932-1939).
Przyrzecze street is a street located in the old town district of Bydgoszcz, Poland. Many of its buildings are part of Bydgoszcz local history. Due to the proximity of the river, its townhouses represent a picturesque urban complex.
The Franke family was an important Prussian family of Bromberg, whose members were entrepreneurs, industrialists and businessmen from the 1820s to the eve of the First World War. Some of their edifices are still standing today in the city.
Świętego Floriana Street is located in the downtown district of Bydgoszcz, Poland. Despite its short length of roughly 200 metres (660 ft), it features many notable buildings in a variety of architectural styles, including Eclectic, Art Nouveau and early modernist. The street is named after Saint Florian.
Garbary street is located in the Okole district of Bydgoszcz city, Poland. Its development occurred during the second half of the 19th century and today it displays several buildings listed on the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Heritage list, with a variety of architectural styles, from eclectic to early modernist. The area also nurtured a series of local successful factories, under the Prussian and the Polish periods.
Marcinkowskiego street is located in the downtown district of Bydgoszcz. It has been laid in the 1850s. Most of the frontages on this street offer 19th century architectural interests, starting from the house along the city lock on the Brda river to a tenement by Józef Święcicki on the crossing with Dworcowa Street.
Lewin Louis Aronsohn (1850–1928) was a German banker of Jewish origin. As a liberal politician, he was a member of the regional parliament of the Province of Posen, the Prussian House of Representatives and the Prussian Constitutional Assembly. In 1918, he has been given the title of Honorary Citizen of Bydgoszcz.
Szwederowo is a district of the city of Bydgoszcz, Poland, located on its southern territory. Szwederowo population is the second largest of all Bydgoszcz districts.
Doktora Emila Warmińskiego street is an old street of the Bydgoszcz centre. Many buildings along this path carry historical interest in the framework of the development of the city.
Emil Warmiński was a Polish physician, social and national activist and founder of the Polish House in Bydgoszcz.
Heinrich Ernst Dietz, generally called Heinrich Dietz or Henryk Dietz, (1840–1901) was a Prussian rentier, member of the Bromberg city council, member of the Prussian parliament and a prominent philanthropist in the second half of the 19th century.
Chrobrego Street is an avenue located in downtown Bydgoszcz. Its frontage carries tenements which present a character of uniformity in their architectural features, several of them being listed at the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship heritage list.
Jan Biziel (1858-1934) was a German and Polish physician, social activist, city councilor of Bydgoszcz. He was designated "Honorary Citizen of Bydgoszcz" in 1930.
New Market Square is a city square located in downtown Bydgoszcz, Poland. Dating from the early 19th century, it has been remodelled since its creation.
3 Maja Street is a historical street of downtown Bydgoszcz, Poland, which displays several murals.
Teofil Magdziński was a Polish lawyer, conspirator, activist in exile who participated in several Polish uprisings of the second half of the 19th century. He was one of the most prominent politician in Bydgoszcz, representative at the Reichstag and a staunch defender of Polishness.
Makrum is a firm in Bydgoszcz established in 1868, by Hermann Löhnert and manufacturing heavy industrial devices.
Adama Czartoryskiego street or Czartoryskiego street is a path located in the Old Town District of Bydgoszcz, Poland. It portrays the industrial development that the city witnessed in the middle of the 19th century.
The Peterson family was a family whose several members had a historical importance in the city of Bydgoszcz, Poland. They were influential from the beginning of the 19th century till the 1930s in the area of politics, engineering and entrepreneurship.
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