Franz Itting

Franz Itting (born September 11, 1875 in Saalfeld / Saale ; † May 21, 1967 in Ludwigsstadt ) was a Thuringian industrial pioneer.

Itting built a power station in Probstzella in 1909 (commissioning on September 2, 1909) and made a name for himself through his social commitment. From 1925 to 1927 he built the House of the People in Probstzella as the cultural center of the region. Itting made it possible for “ordinary people” to take advantage of a high-quality cultural offer.

During the Nazi era, the avowed social democrat was politically hostile and imprisoned as "Roter Itting". After the end of the war, Itting was considered a “capitalist” and was imprisoned again in 1948. After his release from prison, his family was expropriated and moved to Ludwigsstadt in Bavaria.

In 2002, the journalist Roman Grafe took up the story of the industrialist persecuted under both dictatorships and described it in the book The Border Through Germany (study edition, Siedler 2005). Three years later, the same author made the documentary Mehr Licht. The life's work of Franz Itting (D 2005 / MDR 2007). In 2012 Roman Grafe published a book biography of the same name. In 2014 he designed a Franz Itting Museum in the Probstzella People's House.

Honors

• 1955: Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany

literature

• Roman Grafe : More light. The life's work of "Roten Itting". Mitteldeutscher Verlag Halle (Saale) 2012, ISBN 978-3-89812-941-1 .

Web links

• More light - The life's work of Franz Itting , page for an mdr documentation ( Memento from October 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• Bauhaushotel Haus des Volkes (Probstzella), accessed on November 6, 2017