Demeter Diamantidi

Demeter Diamantidi

Demeter Diamantidi (also Demetris Diamantidis, born March 20, 1839 in Hietzing , † April 4, 1893 in Vienna ) was a Viennese alpinist , ice skater and painter.

Life

The Diamantidi family were Greek merchants who, after a stopover in Romania, settled in Vienna. Demeter Diamantidi married the Catholic Karoline Elizabeth Fruhwirth in the Greek Church of the Holy Trinity . Demeter Diamantidi studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna from 1860 . In his artistic works I mainly dealt with sports topics, for example he painted the Vienna ice rink. He himself was considered to be one of the best ice skaters in Vienna at that time, but gained importance due to his theoretical work in this area. Together with Carl Korper von Marienwerth and Max Wirth, he wrote the textbook “Traces on the Ice”, which is considered to be groundbreaking for modern ice skating. In this book, the so-called regulative was presented, which formed the basis of the ISU rating system for figure skating and ice dancing that is still valid today . The illustrations for this work also came from Diamantidi. Georg Zachariades is shown on some .

Diamantidi was also considered an important mountaineer and an important member of the Austrian Alpine Club . In 1881 he was able to climb the 2554  m high Sasso di Mur in the Dolomites for the first time . In the same year, led by Michel and Hans Innerkofler , he was the first to climb the summit of all three peaks in one day. In 1887, together with Carl Hofer and Albert Wachtler, led by Peter Kotter, he managed the first ascent of the 3,196  m high Agglsspitze . In 1888 Diamantidi was a member of a personal committee for the erection of the Kaiser-Franz-Joseph-Obelisk on the 3905  m high Ortler . After the failure of this venture, he climbed the summit as a substitute to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the throne of Emperor Franz Joseph I with a Habsburg flag. In 1892 Diamantidi was able to climb Schneeberg , Rax , Schneealpe and Veitsch within 24 hours, a tour that included an ascent of about 3200 meters and a descent of about 3500 meters. In the same year he succeeded in the first ascent of the north face of the 2846  m high main summit of the Latemarstock in the Dolomites, which was later named Diamantiditurm in his honor . At the end of his life, Diamantidi was also active in the Western Alps.

Diamantidi was also politically active, from 1884 to 1889 he represented the Liberals in the Vienna City Council.

plant

• Demeter Diamantidi, Carl Korper, Max Wirth: Tracks on the ice: the development of ice skating on the track of the Vienna Ice Skating Club . Ed .: Alfred Hölder. 2nd Edition. Vienna 1892 ( archive.org ).

literature

• Felix Czeike : Historical Lexicon Vienna. Volume 2: De-Gy. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-218-00544-2 , p. 29.

Web links

• Personal folder on Demeter Diamantidi (PDF) in the historical Alpine archive of the Alpine clubs in Germany, Austria and South Tyrol (temporarily offline)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Non-profit and exhilarating house calendar for the Austrian Empire (etc.) (Red.) By Joseph Ritter von Seyfried, Volume 10, 1820. P. 136
2. ↑ John Tzafettas, Elvira Konecny: Nikolaus Dumba (1830-1900): A Dazzling Figure in Imperial Vienna, p.19
3. ^ Elisabeth Sopper: 100 years of the “Artificial Ice Rink Association on the Engelmann Sports Field” . S. 47 ( eke-vienna.net [PDF; accessed July 26, 2010]). eke-vienna.net ( Memento of the original from October 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Carl Diener : The Sexten Group . In: Eduard Richter, German and Austrian Alpine Association (ed.): The development of the Eastern Alps . tape 3 . Publishing house of the German and Austrian Alpine Club, Berlin 1894, p. 512 .
5. ↑ Helmut Dumler: Drei Zinnen. People - mountains - adventure . F. Bruckmann, Munich 1968, p. 28 .
6. ↑ Theodor Christomannos : The Latemargruppe . In: Journal of the German and Austrian Alpine Club . Publishing house of the German and Austrian Alpine Club, Munich 1900, p. 303 ( anno.onb.ac.at [accessed on July 26, 2010]).