Curt Liebich (genealogist)

Curt Liebich

Curt Liebich (* December 22, 1890 in Leipzig ; † December 3, 1966 in Wolfenbüttel ) was a sewer engineer , genealogist and founder of the Working Group of Silesian Family Researchers (today: Working Group of East German Family Researchers eV (AgoFF)) and initiator of the archive East German genealogist (AOFF).

Life

Curt Liebich was born as the eldest of six children of the businessman Robert Liebich and Marie Korn. After graduating from the Petrischule Leipzig in 1910, Curt Liebich completed his studies in geodesy and urban civil engineering at the Technical University of Dresden as a graduate engineer (surveying).

During the First World War , Liebich was a meteorologist in the Navy in Wilhelmshaven and Reval from 1916 to 1919 . As a civil engineer for water and wastewater management, he worked in Dresden, Plauen, Zwickau and Leipzig after the war.

In 1921 Curt Liebich married Charlotte (Lotte) Fischer (* 1899, † 1989). The marriage produced three sons. On November 1, 1924, he was employed as a scientific clerk at the Leipzig Civil Engineering Office.

In 1929 Liebich moved with his family to Breslau . His passion, genealogical work, was the main focus of his Silesian homeland. In 1939 he was appointed municipal building officer as a specialist in sewer systems.

Battle for Wroclaw

As part of his work, Curt Liebich was involved in the defense of the encircled city in the Battle of Wroclaw at the end of the Second World War, as operations manager and expert on the Wroclaw sewer system . For the book So fought Breslau - Defense and Downfall of Silesia Capital by Hans von Ahlfen and Hermann Niehoff , he wrote the version on the topic of sewerage.

After the end of the Second World War

In 1946, Liebich and his family found a new home in Wolfenbüttel in Lower Saxony, where they designed numerous sewage treatment plants and sewer systems in urban and rural communities as a consulting engineer for waste water issues - especially in the western Harz; Among other things, he worked on designs for sewage and sewage treatment plants for Wolfenbüttel, Bad Gandersheim and Bad Harzburg.

In 1950 Liebich also took over the management of the Association for Keeping Waters clean in the administrative district of Braunschweig in Lower Saxony.

After his retirement, Curt Liebich devoted himself entirely to family research together with his wife Lotte. He died on December 3, 1966 at the age of 75 during an operation. His wife continued his genealogical work until her death in 1989.

Genealogy

In 1927 Liebich wrote the essay The Value of the Pedigree as well as equipment and hints for family history research trips . In 1929 Curt Liebich returned to Breslau and was active there as a member of the “Lower Silesian Working Group for Family Research in Breslau” founded in 1927, which he headed from 1941 to 1945 as chairman. In addition, Liebich was a deputy chairman on the executive committee of the association publication “Der Schlesische Familienforscher”, which was first published in September 1930 under the editorship of Alfred Schellenberg.

In 1933, the Degener-Verlag published another paper by Curt Liebich in the issue of the series “Internship for Family Researchers” (No. 26) with the title “Graphic representation of research results in family history”.

1944 doctorate Liebich at the age of 54 years with his work "and growth of Petersdorf in the Giant Mountains - Siedlungskundliche and economic studies of a Silesian Waldhufen village from its founding to 1945" Dr. Ing. At the Technical University of Wroclaw. As a supplement to this dissertation, he compiled a list of all Petersdorf house residents from 1600 onwards. Liebich deposited the extensive material on this, as well as the family archive, in the diocesan archive of Breslau before his expulsion in 1946.

Foundation of the Working Group of Silesian Family Researchers

After the end of the war, Curt Liebich tried to locate the former members of the working group, first from Breslau and after the expulsion from Wolfenbüttel in 1946, and in January 1948 he was able to revive the working group of Schlesischer Familienforscher (ASF). In January 1949, the Göttinger Mitteilungen published a two-page supplement under the title “The Silesian Family Research” for the first time after the Second World War.

Archive of East German genealogists

In 1952, Liebich initiated the first delivery of the Archiv ostdeutscher Familienforscher (AOFF), a compilation in annual volumes in which master lists , pedigree tables , chance finds and source editions with geographical reference to the historical eastern regions of the German Reich are printed. For this he developed the space-saving "Liebich System", which remained in use for many years. In the same year, the ASF was renamed the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Ostdeutscher Familienforscher (AGoFF), which has published the collection from the beginning until today.

Curt Liebich's genealogical work found expression and appreciation in 1954 with the entry in Kürschner's German Scholar Calendar .

In 1962 the working group of East German family researchers named Curt Liebich an honorary member. In the same year he handed over the chairmanship to his compatriot Rudolf Schönthür. In 1960, on the occasion of Liebich's 70th birthday, he wrote a bibliography of his writings and essays, which at the time comprised 80 works.

Family archive

In 1964 the genealogist managed to retrieve the material for the Petersdorf house directory, which he and the extensive family archive had deposited in the Diocesan Archives in Wroclaw in 1946 before his expulsion from Wroclaw.

Shortly before his unexpected death on December 3, 1966, Curt Liebich, with the help of his wife Lotte , was able to prepare this list of all the houses and residents of Petersdorf in the Giant Mountains (today Piechowice in western Poland) for printing by Degener-Verlag.

The extensive family archive from Curt Liebich's estate was documented and cataloged by the couple's youngest son, Reinhold Liebich. Today the archive is stored with his nephew Horst, the youngest son of his brother Helmut Liebich who died in 2009.

Web links

• Working group of East German family researchers
• Göttingen genealogical-heraldic society

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans von Ahlfen, Hermann Niehoff : So fought Breslau - defense and fall of Silesia capital . Gräfe and Unzer , Munich 1959, p. 100 ff: remarks by Dr.-Ing. Curt Liebich “The Sewer”.
2. ^ Curt Liebich: Equipment and hints for family history research trips. In: Oswald Spohr (ed.): Internship for family researchers. Issue 17, Degener Verlag Neustadt / Aisch 1927.
3. ^ Association history of the working group of East German family researchers AGoFF www.agoff.de.
4. ↑ Curt Liebich: Becoming and growing of Petersdorf in the Riesengebirge - settlement and economic studies of a Silesian forest hoof village from the foundation to 1945. Holzner-Verlag, Würzburg 1961.
5. ^ Göttinger genealogical-heraldic society: Göttinger Mitteilungen. June 1951.
6. ↑ G. Ostreich (Ed.): Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar. Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin 1954, p. 1396 f.
7. ↑ Curt Liebich, Lotte Liebich: House book of Petersdorf in the Riesengebirge. Degener Verlag, Neustadt / Aisch 1965.