Anton Schiestl (firefighter)

From December 20, 1864 to 1890, Schiestl was the fire brigade commander of Bozen

Memorial plaque for Anton Schiestl in Bozen (destroyed in 1944 due to an American bomb attack)

Anton Schiestl (born September 10, 1832 in Innsbruck , † November 15, 1900 in Bozen ) was the founder of the Bozen gymnastics club and the Bolzano volunteer fire brigade . He is also known as the " father of gymnastics in South Tyrol".

Life

Raised in Innsbruck as the son of a master locksmith and house owner, he came to Munich and various other cities in Bavaria , Württemberg , Thuringia and Saxony as a craftsman in 1850 . Here he got to know gymnastics . Military duty led him back home. He served ten months in the Austrian army. Then he trained as a gymnastics teacher with his friend Franz Thurner . In 1856 Thurner was employed by the University of Innsbruck as a "real gymnastics teacher", and Schiestl as an assistant gymnastics teacher the following year.

When the war began in 1859 , he moved in as platoon leader for Innsbruck's voluntary snipers and came to Bolzano in the process. He liked it here so much that he returned in September 1860 to set up a gymnastics school. He was so successful that by November 1860 more than 100 people were doing gymnastics and on January 22nd, 1862 the Bozen gymnastics club was founded.

At the end of November 1862, Mayor Joseph Streiter approached him with the request to provide the operating team for the new fire brigade syringe from the city of Bozen. As a result, on November 11, 1863, 74 gymnasts signed up to join the Turner fire department . The Bolzano volunteer fire brigade emerged from this on January 17, 1874. Schiestl was the fire brigade commander from December 20, 1864 to 1890.

Four years after his death, on September 25, 1904, a memorial stone made of white marble was ceremoniously unveiled in his honor at the former fire station on Waltherplatz , where the city hotel is now located. The memorial plaque was created by Andreas Kompatscher , the most famous sculptor of the turn of the century in southern Tyrol. This bore the inscription "Anton Schiestl, gymnastics teacher and fire chief, founder of the gymnastics and fire department in this city" . Under the Bolzano coat of arms (the six-pointed Bolzano star was chiseled into a five-pointed "Italian star" during the fascist era) there was a firefighter rescuing a child from the flames in three relief fields on the left, the relief portrait of Schiestl in the middle and on the right a gym teacher with students. The fire brigade and gymnast coats of arms with the 4 F were attached below. During the Second World War, the memorial was destroyed by aerial bombs. Since 2011, several Bozen associations have tried to restore the memorial plaque for Anton Schiestl true to the original. The new memorial plaque for Anton Schiestl was inaugurated on September 27, 2015.

Publications

Exercise regulations of the voluntary fire brigade in Bolzano: in addition to the general rules of conduct when a fire breaks out, as well as the special service regulations for the various departments . 2. verb. Bozen edition: J. Wohlgemuth 1888 (Teßmann digital)

Awards

Golden Cross of Merit (1890)

Web links

Bolzano volunteer fire brigade
H. Strohmeyer: Schiestl Anton. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 10, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-7001-2186-5 , p. 119 f. (Direct links on p. 119 , p. 120 ).

Individual evidence

↑ Monika Hilpold: Development of the gymnastics club in South Tyrol , housework University of Vienna 1981, p. 17.
^ Announcement of the Bozen Gymnastics Club for its 50th founding festival on June 15 and 16, 1912, p. 9.
^ History of the fire brigade in Bolzano . provinz.bz.it. Archived from the original on January 9, 2010. Retrieved May 6, 2012.
↑ Karl Felix Wolff: Guide through Bozen-Gries: with special consideration of the four new mountain railways and the great Dolomite road Bozen 1909, p. 30.
↑ Bruno Mahlknecht : Bozen through the centuries . tape 1 . Athesia Spectrum, Bozen 2005, The former Bozner Turnverein, p. 147 .
↑ http://www.unsertirol24.com/2014/11/14/ein-denkmal-fuer-den-vater-der-zivilgesellschaft-bozen/ , seen on November 21, 2014.
↑ http://www.unsertirol24.com/2015/09/27/einweihung-der-anton-schiestl-gedenkafel

personal data
SURNAME	Schiestl, Anton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Founder of the Bolzano gymnastics club in 1862 and the Bolzano volunteer fire brigade, South Tyrol's father of gymnastics
DATE OF BIRTH	September 10, 1832
PLACE OF BIRTH	innsbruck
DATE OF DEATH	November 15, 1900
Place of death	Bolzano

[1] Monika Hilpold: Development of the gymnastics club in South Tyrol , housework University of Vienna 1981, p. 17.

[2] Announcement of the Bozen Gymnastics Club for its 50th founding festival on June 15 and 16, 1912, p. 9.

[3] History of the fire brigade in Bolzano . provinz.bz.it. Archived from the original on January 9, 2010. Retrieved May 6, 2012.

[4] Karl Felix Wolff: Guide through Bozen-Gries: with special consideration of the four new mountain railways and the great Dolomite road Bozen 1909, p. 30.

[5] Bruno Mahlknecht : Bozen through the centuries . tape 1 . Athesia Spectrum, Bozen 2005, The former Bozner Turnverein, p. 147 .

[6] ttp://www.unsertirol24.com/2014/11/14/ein-denkmal-fuer-den-vater-der-zivilgesellschaft-bozen/ , seen on November 21, 2014.

[7] ttp://www.unsertirol24.com/2015/09/27/einweihung-der-anton-schiestl-gedenkafel