Fritz Michel

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Monument to Fritz Michel in Koblenz

Fritz Michel (born September 17, 1877 in Niederlahnstein ; † October 30, 1966 in Koblenz ) was a German doctor , politician , historian and art historian .

Life and work

Fritz Michel was born on September 17, 1877, the eldest son of a country doctor in Niederlahnstein. His parents were Theodor Michel and Luise Schild. He studied medicine at the Universities of Tübingen , Kiel and Marburg and became a member of the Corps Suevia in Tübingen . After completing his studies in 1905 he took up a position as a gynecologist at the Evangelical Monastery of St. Martin . In the same year he married Luise von Ibell, a great-granddaughter of the Nassau statesman Carl Friedrich Emil von Ibell .

During the First World War he served from 1914 to July 1918 as a surgeon and medical officer on the western and eastern fronts as well as in Italy. He experienced the end of the war as the military chief physician of a reserve hospital in the monastery. Michel recorded his experiences in a war diary, which he added to more than 500 drawings and watercolors of his own. From 1919 to 1929 he was a city councilor on the Koblenz city council. From 1927 until his retirement in 1947 he worked as chief physician at the Evangelical Monastery.

In 1941 he was awarded by the suggestion of his friend Paul Clemen , then there Director of the Kunsthistorisches Institut and also the first provincial curator of the Prussian Rhine Province , the honorary doctorate of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University of Bonn . On his 75th birthday on September 17, 1952, Mayor Josef Schnorbach made him an honorary citizen of the city of Koblenz for his services to art and local history. The cities of Nieder- and Oberlahnstein also made him an honorary citizen. This has recently been criticized, as has the naming of a street after him, as he had carried out forced sterilizations during the Third Reich.

For this reason, the Koblenz city council revoked Fritz Michel's honorary citizenship on May 15, 2020. In June 2020, the Lahnstein city council also revoked his honorary citizenship, but the Dr.-Michel-Strasse there, named after Fritz Michel, will not be renamed, as the name will in future refer to his father.

No decision has yet been made on how to deal with the street name Fritz-Michel-Straße in Koblenz and the memorial in front of the Evangelisches Stift hospital.

Fritz Michel died on October 30, 1966. He was buried in the main cemetery in Koblenz .

Working as a historian and art historian

Plaque

Fritz Michel was mainly active in regional and home history, especially in the Middle Rhine region. The cities of Lahnstein and Koblenz formed another focus. Michel has done many basic research.

As a schoolboy, he came into contact with local studies through the principal of his grammar school, Simon Widmann. He not only taught him to read medieval manuscripts, but also got him a vacation job at the archive of the city of Niederlahnstein, where he organized files and did the first preparatory work for his later history of Niederlahnstein . His first publication on the history of Nieder- and Oberlahnstein dates from 1895, his first contribution in the regional historical journal Nassauische Annalen to 1898.

According to Kampmann, history and art history served Michel as a counterbalance to his work in the hospital. Over the years, this has resulted in more than a hundred publications. His areas of interest ranged from Allerheiligenberg near Lahnstein to the cultural history of the St. Castor Foundation in Koblenz, from the administration of the city during the French era to the Ehrenburg feud and from Eltz Castle to the extensive collection of the city of Koblenz's art monuments on 584 pages. In particular, the two volumes on the art monuments of the city of Koblenz are valuable today because they document the state before the destruction in World War II (and during the subsequent reconstruction, to which many damaged but actually rebuildable buildings finally fell victim). His entire estate in the Koblenz State Main Archive comprises around ten meters of shelving with 303 files and a few hundred photos.

Honors

Works (selection)

  • On the history of Sporkenburg , 1900.
  • The Lords of Helfenstein , 1906.
  • The former Jesuit college in Coblenz and its buildings , 1919.
  • Eltz Castle and its owners. In: Journal for local history of the administrative district Coblenz , issue 13, January 1921 online edition dilibri Rhineland-Palatinate
  • History of Oberlahnstein , 1925.
  • The Ehrenbreitstein , 1933.
  • The church monuments of the city of Koblenz , 1937 (Die Kunstdenkmäler der Rheinprovinz 20.1).
  • The Florins Church in Koblenz , 1939.
  • St. Kastor Koblenz , 1939.
  • On the history of the spiritual jurisdiction and administration of the Trier archbishops in the Middle Ages , 1953.
  • The art monuments of the city of Koblenz , 1954 (The art monuments of Rhineland-Palatinate).
  • History of the city of Niederlahnstein , 1954.
  • Overview of the history of St. Goar and Rheinfels Castle , 1956.
  • Forestry and hunting in the old ore monastery of Trier , 1958.
  • Traffic on the Rhine in the Middle Ages , 1960.
  • History of the city of Koblenz in the Middle Ages , 1963.
  • Collaboration: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Landkreis Koblenz , 1944 (Die Kunstdenkmäler der Rheinprovinz 16.3).

literature

  • Michel, Fritz. In: Robert Volz: Reich manual of the German society . The handbook of personalities in words and pictures. Volume 2: L-Z. Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1931, DNB 453960294 , p. 1250.
  • Hellmuth Gensicke : Nekrolog: Fritz Michel In: Nassauische Annalen . Volume 78, 1967, p. 371.
  • Helmut Kampmann: When stones speak. Memorial plaques and memorial plaques in Koblenz. Fuck-Verlag, Koblenz 1992, p. 57ff. ISBN 3-9803142-0-0
  • Ekkehard P. Langner: Dr. med. Dr. phil. hc Fritz Michel, September 17, 1877 to October 30, 1966. Selected bibliography and inventory, Koblenz City Library, Koblenz 1987.
  • Udo Liessem: Fritz Michel as an art historian. In: Koblenz contributions to history and culture. New episode 13, published by Görres Verlag, Koblenz 2005, pp. 129–135.
  • Eva-Christine Raschke: Dr. Dr. hc Fritz Michel (1877-1966) on his 125th birthday. In: Koblenz contributions to history and culture. New episode 13, published by Görres Verlag, Koblenz 2005, pp. 115–127.
  • Otto Renkhoff : Nassau biography . Short biographies from 13 centuries, 2nd, completely revised. and exp. Ed., Wiesbaden, 1992. ISBN 3-922244-90-4

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Speech by Fritz Michels on the award of an honorary doctorate in 1941, quoted from: Raschke, p. 120.
  2. ↑ a b Kampmann: When stones talk , 1992. p. 58.
  3. ↑ https://www.mahnmal-koblenz.de/PDF/KoSch_04_07_2018.pdf
  4. ↑ See Rhein-Zeitung No. 117, May 20, 2020, p. 18
  5. ↑ https://www.rhein-zeitung.de/region/aus-den-lokalredaktion/rhein-lahn-zeitung-bad-ems_artikel,-mit-einem-kniff-darf-drmichelstrasse-in-lahnstein-ihren-namen- keep-_arid, 2128408.html
  6. ↑ Revoked by the Koblenz City Council on May 15, 2020, cf. Rhein-Zeitung No. 117, May 20, 2020, p. 18
personal data
SURNAME Michel, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor and historian
DATE OF BIRTH September 17, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Niederlahnstein
DATE OF DEATH October 30, 1966
Place of death Koblenz