Dietrich Schmoll

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Lydia and Dietrich Schmoll, doctor of the German Mission Community
Schmoll in the 1960s while doing medical work in Ethiopia. Photos: DMG

Dietrich Schmoll (born October 19, 1930 in Flein near Heilbronn ) is a German doctor who has been a missionary doctor for people in Ethiopia for more than 40 years . He is an employee and co-founder of the "German Mission Association, Association for Charity eV", today DMG interpersonal , and received the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon for his life's work .

Life

Schmoll studied medicine in Frankfurt and Lyon, was involved in the founding of the German Mission Community (DMG) in Beatenberg (Switzerland) in 1951 , and graduated from the Beatenberg Bible School and Theological Seminary in 1955 (today: Beatenberg's Biblical Theology Seminar ). In 1965 he worked as a doctor at the Tropical Institute in Tübingen. Through the DMG he came into contact with a missionary doctor in Ethiopia, who inspired him to do medical work in Africa.

Initially only with the help of financial support from circles of friends, later also from the German Leper Aid Organization and the Christoffel Blindenmission , Dr. Schmoll and his first wife Ruth (née Rödl) started setting up a health service and training local employees in the regions of northern Ethiopia affected by drought, famine and disease at the end of the 1960s. In 1967 he lived with his family in Shashemene at the southern leprosy hospital, in 1970 they moved to the northern leprosy hospital in Dessie-Boru Meda, where he worked in leprosy control in Wollo province until the communist revolution in 1974 . In the Boru Meda mission station of the Kale Heywat Church ( Church of the Word of Life) in the north of the country, he provided medical care to the population with two nurses and 36 local helpers.

To fight a famine in 1973, Schmoll and Stern magazine initiated a large fundraising campaign that raised a total of 21 million marks in donations. With one helicopter from the Helimission and four from the German armed forces and border guards, food was brought to remote villages. This hunger relief saved the lives of thousands of people in Ethiopia.

After the beginning of the communist military revolt in Ethiopia, Schmoll returned to Germany and worked as a country doctor in Schopfloch near Freudenstadt until he retired in 1993 . After the death of his first wife, he married the DMG missionary Lydia (née Beck) in 1995. Since 1995 they have been working regularly for the German Mission Community in Ethiopia, advising local churches on setting up kindergartens and mills, training staff, for example in family planning and the use of local medicinal plants, and helping with irrigation projects. Together with his wife, he also looks after an orphanage for war and AIDS orphans in the Tigrai region and the branch of the Ethiopian Bible Society in this region, which was set up by a local aid organization Hope Community Services.

Award

Schmoll received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2009 .

When the award was presented in Stuttgart on February 3, 2009, the Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg Günther Oettinger paid tribute to Schmoll's selfless commitment to the people of Ethiopia. Between 1965 and 1974, the doctor treated over 10,000 lepers.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h German Mission Community - DMG missionary received the Federal Cross of Merit. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved August 23, 2010 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.dmgint.de  
  2. ↑ Helping with passion: A heart for Ethiopia / Interview with Dr. Dietrich Schmoll on ERF television, seen here online. Retrieved May 6, 2011 .
  3. ↑ MP3 radio interview with Dietrich Schmoll from SWR4-Frankenradio. (MP3; 3.2 MB) (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved July 1, 2010 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.dmgint.de  
  4. ↑ Miserable than the animals . In: Die Zeit , No. 48/1973
  5. ↑ PDF file: Article from the Schwarzwälder Bote about Schmoll. (PDF; 613 kB) (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved July 1, 2010 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.dmgint.de  
  6. ^ Orphans of Ethiopia - orphanage. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 10, 2011 ; Retrieved August 25, 2010 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.orphansofethiopia.org
  7. ↑ Hope for Ethiopia. Retrieved August 30, 2010 .
  8. ↑ State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg : Press release about Dietrich Schmoll  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.stm.baden-wuerttemberg.de   dated February 3, 2009. Retrieved July 1, 2010
personal data
SURNAME Schmoll, Dietrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schmoll, Dieter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German medic
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Flein near Heilbronn