Ernst von Heynitz (Johanniter)

Ernst von Heynitz
(as Johanniter in Schutztruppe uniform)

Ernst von Heynitz
(in Saxon Rittmeister uniform)
Photo by Otto Mayer

Georg Friedrich Ernst von Heynitz (born December 17, 1840 on Gut Weicha ; † March 20, 1912 in Berlin-Lichterfelde ) was a Saxon cavalry master , landowner and farm owner. In the years 1896–1912 he was responsible for the organization of nursing care for the Imperial German Schutztruppe in German South West Africa on behalf of the German Red Cross .

Life

He was the son of the landlord August von Heynitz (1804–1870), landlord on Weicha and Dröschkau , Vogt of the St. Marienthal Abbey and a lifelong member of the Saxon Chamber of Estates, and Anna Baroness von Maydell (1818–1898).

Heynitz spent his school days in Niesky , Schleiz and Liegnitz . He then joined the Saxon Army , became an active officer in the Leibgrenadier Regiment in Bautzen and took part in the campaigns against Denmark in 1864 and against Austria in 1866.

Between the two wars Heynitz married 24-year-old on August 8, 1865 in Dresden Marie of Kotwitz (born May 31, 1841 Good Frauendorf ; † April 8, 1926 at Gut Drieschnitz ), the daughter of the landowner Herrmann Aurelius Theodor von Kotwitz (1809 –1878), Herr auf Hermsdorf , Nieder-Gebelzig and Mittel-Oderwitz and Frauendorf (Cottbus district), and Marie von Linnenfeld (1818–1870) from the Mittel-Oderwitz family. Marie brought the Neuhausen estate into the marriage with the neighboring estate Bräsinchen (both now districts of Neuhausen / Spree). The couple had two sons and six daughters. Daughter Margarete married the German government official Hans Bogislav Graf von Schwerin in 1913 .

In 1867 Heynitz was transferred to the cavalry and was first lieutenant in the Guard-Reiter-Regiment . With this he fought in the Franco-German War of 1870/71. After the end of the war, he took his leave as Rittmeister and moved to his Dröschkau estate, which he inherited after his father's death in 1870. He made the estate a family fideikommiss and determined that the respective owner should determine the successor among his sons. Heynitz lived with his family on Dröschkau until 1880 and then moved to Gut Neuhausen to take over the management of the estate and the management of the mill on the Spree himself. From then on, these family members occasionally gave themselves the name “Heynitz-Neuhausen”.

From 1881 Heynitz was a member of the Order of St. John in the Cooperative of the Kingdom of Saxony and was appointed a legal knight in 1908.

After a few years at Gut Neuhausen, differences developed between the married couple and the now grown-up children. Heynitz fled these disputes in 1896 in the German colony of German South West Africa, bought on August 22, 1898 by Nama - Kaptein Hendrik Witbooi about 20,000 hectares of land and founded the Farm Breekhorn (now Breckhorn) between Maltahöhe and Mariental (Region Hardap ). He was one of the first six settlers in the Maltahöhe area. On the farm he bred utility horses with imported Arabian stallions. a. sold to the protection force.

During the Herero uprising (January 1904), as a delegate of the German Red Cross, he took over the supply of the imperial protection force with field hospitals and doctors from Germany. He was also responsible for distributing the “love gifts” from Germany to the soldiers of the Schutztruppe. In Keetmanshoop he carried out the planning of the Johanniter Hospital, which was not to be inaugurated until August 22, 1913 after his death. After the Herero uprising, he was responsible for the entire organization of nursing for the protection force in German South West Africa and pushed ahead with his idea of building a hospital.

At the end of 1904 Heynitz returned briefly to Germany because of the Nama uprising (October 1904). There he organized a. a. the recruitment of nurses.

His farm Breekhorn was attacked and looted during the Herero uprising.

Heynitz died of lung cancer in 1912 in the Großlichterfelde hospital in Berlin . His body was buried in the family crypt at Gut Dröschkau.

literature

Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels , Adelige Häuser A. Volume XXIV, Volume 111 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1996, ISBN 3-7980-0811-6 , p. 107.
Benno von Heynitz: Contributions to the history of the von Heynitz family and their goods. Self-published, Grömitz 1959, p. 29f.
Leonhard von Dobschütz : A farm in Africa. family owned unpublished manuscript. Berlin 2009.
Gottreich Hubertus Mehnert: Short stories from South West Africa. 4th edition. Glanz - & - Gloria-Verlag, Windhoek 2011, ISBN 978-99916-782-8-3 .

Web links

Commons : Ernst von Heynitz (Johanniter) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ She was the aunt of Marie-Esther von Rabenau, b. von Kottwitz, whose husband Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Rabenau took part in the suppression of the Nama uprising in German South West Africa in 1904/05 as a German naval and colonial officer in the Battle of Kub .
↑ After the chapter meeting on February 1, 1909, the Lord Master of the Order of St. John, Prince Eitel Friedrich von Prussia , informed his father Wilhelm II , the Emperor and Protector of the Order, that the Order intended to build a hospital in Bethanien and to provide 50,000 marks for this. In a telegram, the emperor immediately expressed his “lively joy and satisfaction” at this decision, with which the “eight-pointed white cross will also be carried out to one of our colonies” . In fact, after overcoming some difficulties, a hospital with 14 beds was opened in Keetmanshoop for 120,000 marks in 1913, primarily for women and children. The foundation stone was laid on June 27, 1912, and the inauguration took place on August 22, 1913. At the laying of the foundation stone as well as at the opening, the idea behind Ernst von Heynitz was remembered. - Source: From the history of the order. Right knight Georg Friedrich Enst v. Heynitz. In: Bulletin of the Order of St. John, summer 2009.
↑ In this function he engaged u. a. also the Red Cross sister Emmy Krigar , later married Surén , who had responded to an advertisement in the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger . When Rittmeister Ernst von Heynitz saw little sister Emmy among the other candidates, he burst out: “We need material like this wiry little sister for the tropics. The grossest parasites in Africa cannot harm them. ” Horrified by his impolite statement, he was reprimanded by colleagues, but Heynitz was more than proved right. Emmy Surén developed into the “ Florence Nightingale of South West Africa” and opened her own maternity clinic in Windhoek in 1911 . - Source: Leonhard von Dobschütz : A farm in Africa .

personal data
SURNAME	Heynitz, Ernst von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Heynitz, Georg Friedrich Ernst von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Saxon captain and farm owner in German South West Africa
DATE OF BIRTH	December 17, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH	Good Weicha
DATE OF DEATH	March 20, 1912
Place of death	Berlin

[1] She was the aunt of Marie-Esther von Rabenau, b. von Kottwitz, whose husband Karl Wilhelm Friedrich von Rabenau took part in the suppression of the Nama uprising in German South West Africa in 1904/05 as a German naval and colonial officer in the Battle of Kub .

[2] After the chapter meeting on February 1, 1909, the Lord Master of the Order of St. John, Prince Eitel Friedrich von Prussia , informed his father Wilhelm II , the Emperor and Protector of the Order, that the Order intended to build a hospital in Bethanien and to provide 50,000 marks for this. In a telegram, the emperor immediately expressed his “lively joy and satisfaction” at this decision, with which the “eight-pointed white cross will also be carried out to one of our colonies” . In fact, after overcoming some difficulties, a hospital with 14 beds was opened in Keetmanshoop for 120,000 marks in 1913, primarily for women and children. The foundation stone was laid on June 27, 1912, and the inauguration took place on August 22, 1913. At the laying of the foundation stone as well as at the opening, the idea behind Ernst von Heynitz was remembered. - Source: From the history of the order. Right knight Georg Friedrich Enst v. Heynitz. In: Bulletin of the Order of St. John, summer 2009.

[3] In this function he engaged u. a. also the Red Cross sister Emmy Krigar , later married Surén , who had responded to an advertisement in the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger . When Rittmeister Ernst von Heynitz saw little sister Emmy among the other candidates, he burst out: “We need material like this wiry little sister for the tropics. The grossest parasites in Africa cannot harm them. ” Horrified by his impolite statement, he was reprimanded by colleagues, but Heynitz was more than proved right. Emmy Surén developed into the “ Florence Nightingale of South West Africa” and opened her own maternity clinic in Windhoek in 1911 . - Source: Leonhard von Dobschütz : A farm in Africa .