Georg Domizlaff

Georg Heinrich Christian Domizlaff (* 14. June 1854 in Soest , † 24. October 1937 in Leipzig ) was president of the regional post office in Leipzig and field upper postmaster in the First World War .

family

• Father: Helmuth Leonard Julius Dumzlaff , from 1885 Domizlaff (1828–1902), post director in Witten , then in Celle , in Göttingen and finally in Hanover .
• Mother: Marianne Emilie Lorsbach (1825–1855), daughter of District Court Councilor Heinrich Lorsbach (1789–1869) in Werl, son of Professor Georg Wilhelm Lorsbach (1752–1816) in Herborn and Jena.
• Wife: Anna Catharina Boeter (born December 10, 1866 in Hamburg-Eppendorf ; † 1944, Murnau , Upper Bavaria ).
• Children:
  • Emilie (1889–1895)
  • Elisabeth (1890–1895)
  • Hans Domizlaff (1892–1971), advertising consultant and writer in Hamburg .
  • Jürgen Domizlaff (1896–?), Farmer.
  • Hildegard Domizlaff (1898–1987), sculptor in Cologne .
  • Helmuth Domizlaff (1902–1983), antiquarian in Munich .

biography

He got his nickname Georg after his mother's grandfather, Professor Georg Wilhelm Lorsbach (1752-1816), who had studied theology at the University of Herborn and in 1812 had been appointed to the professorship for oriental literature in Jena. Georg Domizlaff was the only child from his father's first marriage to Emilie Lorsbach. His mother died at the age of 29 when he was 9 months old.

Georg Domizlaff started his post at the Imperial Post in 1874 under his father, the post director Julius Dumzlaff in Celle , as Post eleve . In the summer of 1877 Georg Domizlaff was admitted to the first examination, the so-called secretary examination, after the usual three-year elite period had expired, and after he had successfully passed it, he was appointed a post-graduate intern. From October 1, 1877, he did his military service with the 1st Hanover Infantry Regiment No. 74 as a one-year volunteer . On September 30, 1878, he was dismissed as a "surplus NCO with qualification as a reserve officer". On April 14, 1883 he was appointed second lieutenant of the reserve of the 1st Rhenish Infantry Regiment No. 25 .

On October 1, 1878, Georg Domizlaff started his first job as a postal trainee in the area of ​​the imperial Oberpostdirektion Strasbourg in Alsace . Soon afterwards he took the second, so-called higher postal administration examination, which was necessary for promotion to higher ranks. After that, he was initially transferred on a trial basis from March 1, 1883 to the 1st class office clerk in the Reich Post Office. On September 1, 1883, he was appointed Imperial Post Office Secretary and on October 1, 1884, Imperial Postal Cashier.

In the spring of 1894, the postal inspector Georg Domizlaff took over the administration of a postal council office in Frankfurt am Main and was appointed Imperial Postal Council on July 7, 1894.

On April 20, 1896, he was given the post of postal councilor at the Imperial Post Office in Erfurt . The Reich Post Office appointed him on May 7, 1901, in the event of mobilization, as Army Post Director of the Army Post Office in Brandenburg (Havel) ; at the same time he was returned from arms service. On August 11, 1904, he was appointed field postmaster for the same case. Almost exactly ten years later - with the outbreak of the First World War - he was to take on this task.

On March 30, 1903 he received his appointment to the Imperial Upper Post Council and on March 9, 1904 to the Imperial Senior Post Director. Georg Domizlaff was 50 years old at the time and had already been employed for 30 years.

On April 1, 1904, he took over the post of chief post director in Leipzig . On December 17, 1910 he was given the character of a Privy Senior Post Councilor with the rank of Councilor II class.

At the beginning of the First World War , Georg Domizlaff was 60 years old when he took over his position as field postmaster and head of the German field post in August 1914. He stayed in office until the end of the war. The only available model for the measures to be taken in the event of war was the field post organized by Heinrich von Stephan during the war in 1870/71 . On August 1, 1914, the order to mobilize was issued and all postal authorities were notified of the mobilization by telegram. The field post office of the Great Headquarters was initially set up in Berlin on August 2, but it did not start operating in Koblenz until August 14.

As the top head of the field post office , he initially had to deal with considerable difficulties. Most recently, more than forty years earlier, the field post had been mobilized and directed by Heinrich von Stephan during the Franco-German War. In the first months of the war, the field post was not prepared to set up an organization across half of Europe. Since the installation of the field post did not go so smoothly as a result, the Feldoberpostmeister Domizlaff was criticized from various sides. Only after a change of responsibilities - Domizlaff was subordinated to the quartermaster in the main headquarters - an improvement arose. By being awarded the rank of First Class Council on January 6, 1916, Georg Domizlaff obtained the position of General in the Imperial Headquarters.

Shortly after the end of the war, Georg Domizlaff was suggested by patrons and friends for the position of post minister, but the change in political conditions and the emperor's abdication prevented this. He has received numerous domestic and foreign war awards as well as eight high peace awards. a. the Prussian Red Eagle Order II. Class with oak leaves on a black and white ribbon. On February 4, 1908, the King of Sweden awarded him the Commander's Cross, Second Class, of the Wasa Order.

As Chief of the General Staff of the Army in World War I, Paul von Hindenburg thanked Field Postmaster Domizlaff on January 6, 1919: “With the demobilization of the field army, the activity of the field post ended. I feel the need, from my position, to take this opportunity to express my gratitude and appreciation for the service rendered to the field army during the four and a half years of war. - I cannot here in detail all the merits of the field post, which - following the expansion of the army - had to create an organization that could not even have been foreseen. They will find their well-deserved appreciation before the history of war. - "

Georg Domizlaff officially ceases his service as Feldoberpostmeister on January 16, 1919 and resumes his post in Leipzig.

In 1921 Georg Domizlaff co-founded the association “German Feldpostbund (eV), Headquarters Leipzig”, which was brought into being by former members of the field post, the step telegraphy and the German postal administrations in the previously occupied hostile areas. He was later appointed honorary president of this league.

In addition to his official activities, Georg Domizlaff was an artist, culturally and historically interested man. The guests and friends of the family in Leipzig included political and social functionaries as well as a number of well-known artists and intellectuals, such as For example, the writers Theodor Däubler and Franz Werfel , the family of the director of the Gewandhaus Orchestra Arthur Nikisch , the doctor and writer Curt Thesing and the sculptor and painter Max Klinger .

After almost 50 years of service, Georg Domizlaff retired in June 1923. On September 17, 1937, he celebrated the golden wedding anniversary with his wife Anna Katharina, née. Boeter. A few weeks later, on October 24, 1937, he died in Leipzig after a brief illness.

Georg Domizlaff was buried on October 28, 1937 as part of a solemn state funeral in the Südfriedhof in Leipzig. At the end of the 1960s , the large tomb was cleared away by the authorities.

Works

• Georg Domizlaff: The Jomsburg. Investigations into the Jomswikinger Seeburg . Leipzig: Verlag JJ Weber 1929

literature

• Lutz Mohr : Dragon ships in the Pomeranian Bay. The Jomswikinger, their Jomsburg and the Gau Jom . Edition Rostock maritime series. Edited by Robert Rosentreter . Rostock: Ingo Koch Verlag 2013, chapter The Jomsburg in Pomerania - in memory of the local researchers Dr. F. Grautorf and privy councilor G. Domizlaff , pp. 176–178, ISBN 978-3-86436-069-5
• Erwin Müller-Fischer:  Domizlaff, Georg. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 68 ( digitized version ).
• Peter Sumerauer, Carmen Zotta: Georg Domizlaff - President of the Oberpostdirektion in Leipzig, Feld-Oberpostmeister, in: Mühlrad, Schulbank und Carrière - History and family traditions of Domizlaff from Pomerania and Prussia, Tübingen: Attempto 2003, pp. 417–448, ISBN 3 -89308-360-X .
• Daniel Krause: A life for the Post . In: Orders and Medals. The magazine for friends of phaleristics. Ed .: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ordenskunde , Issue 119, Volume 21, Gäufelden 2019. ISSN 1438-3772

Web links

• Literature by and about Georg Domizlaff in the catalog of the German National Library
• Peter Sumerauer: Domizlaff (until 1885 Dumzlaff), Georg Heinrich Christian . In: Institute for Saxon History and Folklore (Ed.): Saxon Biography .