Eduard Zwick

Eduard Zwick (born August 15, 1921 in Bakova , Banat , Romania ; † March 25, 1998 in Bern , Switzerland ) was a Romanian-German doctor who made a decisive contribution to the rise of Bad Füssing to a spa in the 1960s. With the establishment of the local Johannesbad , named after his son, Zwick acquired the image of the "bathing king".

Zwick belonged to the inner circle of the circle of friends of the long-time Federal Minister, CSU Chairman and Bavarian Prime Minister Franz Josef Strauss . In the 1980s he became part of the Chronique scandaleuse of that era and ended up as a tax refugee in Switzerland.

Life

Eduard Zwick attended school and high school in Temeschburg and Mediasch . In 1941 he completed a bachelor's degree in Temeschburg and then began to study medicine in Vienna , Greifswald , Breslau and Göttingen . After he was arrested by the KGB in Eisenach in 1945 and imprisoned for six months, he continued his medical studies in Greifswald. He passed the state examination in Göttingen in 1948 and received his doctorate in Greifswald. In East Berlin he then worked as a hygiene officer for the city ​​slaughterhouse and as chief physician at a polyclinic. In 1953 he fled to the Federal Republic of Germany and became an assistant at the University Women's Clinic in Würzburg , where he received his doctorate for the second time. From 1955 to 1958 he went to Sumatra as a doctor , where his son Johannes was born in 1955. In 1961 he built the Tannenhof Sanatorium in Füssing . The Johannestherme was created there by drilling in 1964, and in 1982 he passed its management to his son Johannes.

Tax scandal

In the early 1980s, the thermal bath entrepreneur Zwick owed the tax office a tax of around DM 41 million plus approx. DM 30 million late payment surcharges. Zwick then fled abroad with his wife Angelika. He stayed either in Switzerland or on his “Horseshoe Ranch” near Beowawe, northeastern Nevada , while his son Johannes continued to run his father's business. In 1990 the Bavarian Ministry of Finance put down Eduard Zwick's tax liability in the amount of 71 million DM in return for a payment of 8.3 million DM. The extensive waiver of the entire debt by the tax authorities was attributed to Zwick's good connections to the Bavarian CSU (in the sense of the so-called amigo economy), in particular to Franz Josef Strauss (long-time Prime Minister of Bavaria until his death on October 3, 1988) and to Gerold Tandler , who held several influential positions in the 1980s (including Secretary General of the CSU, from 1982 to 1988 chairman of the CSU parliamentary group , from June 1988 Minister for Economics and Transport ). Strauss had proposed Zwick for the Federal Republic of Germany's 1st Class Cross of Merit . Zwick did not accept the medal, as it was fugitive at the time of the award in 1983.

The allegation of aiding and abetting tax evasion against Zwick's son Johannes could not be pursued at the end of the 1990s due to the expiry of the statute of limitations .

literature

• Eckhard Henscheid, Regina Henscheid: The Zwicks. Bailiffs, captains and vassals. The story of an important family. Haffmans, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-251-00272-4 .
• Eduard Zwick: Hot water - a doctor takes stock. Eduard Zwick, Lugano / Passau 1986, ISBN 3-924484-03-1 .
• Advancing into genius. How Eduard Zwick became a millionaire with warm water. In: Der Spiegel . No. 14 , 1994, pp. 30 ( online ).
• Edi, we'll do that. In: Der Spiegel . No. 14 , 1994, pp. 18-25 ( online ).

Footnotes

1. ^ Andreas Mettenleiter : Personal reports, memories, diaries and letters from German-speaking doctors. Supplements and supplements III (I – Z). In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 22, 2003, pp. 269-305, here: pp. 303 f.
2. ↑ Der Spiegel: Federal Cross of Merit: Die Blechlawine - Building contractor Eduard Zwick , September 2, 2011.

Web links

• Website of Johannesbad AG