Kurt Obitz

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Kurt Alfred Obitz (born January 16, 1907 in Brosowen , district of Angerburg ; † August 26, 1945 in Lautrach , Unterallgäu ) was a veterinarian, parasitologist and publicist who was persecuted by the National Socialists as a “Masurian separatist and Polish spy”.

Life and work

Kurt Obitz was born into a Masurian farming family who lived in the Angerburg district. After attending preschool and the Königliche Hufenrealgymnasium as well as passing the Abitur in Königsberg on March 16, 1925, after a semester at the Prussian State University in Königsberg in 1925, he began studying at the University of Veterinary Medicine (today the Anatomical Theater of the Veterinary School ) in Berlin. Upon graduation, the veterinarian in January 1930, followed on May 31, 1930 Promotion to Dr. med. vet. He then got a job in Hamburg and from April 1931 worked as a senior assistant to Wilhelm Nöller, who was regarded as a parasitologist and member of the SPD, at the Institute for Parasite Science and Veterinary Zoology at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Berlin.

After Obitz had already suspected that his German-speaking family had Polish ancestry when he was at high school in Königsberg, he also began to learn Polish late and, in the sense of a German-Polish friendship, dealt intensively with the history, culture and literature of Poland. Together with Nöller, Obitz organized a German-Polish cultural association in 1926, the members of which were exclusively German-speaking, and Nöller took over its patronage, although Obitz acted as the “spiritus rector” of this association, known as the Masurian Federation. From 1926 Obitz was also editor of the magazine Cech - Masurischer Brief later Cech - organ of the Masurian Federation . At the end of May 1931 the poem Masurian Youth was printed there:

The sun is awakening in the east
From shimmering dawn
… Perhaps wake you up, Masuria
Also once the Creator's Law.

Because of the "Obitz Affair" he was banned from working and was suspended from the veterinary college in early summer 1931. Because of the dismissal, he brought a lawsuit in Berlin. The defense took over Dr. iur. Bruno von Oppenkowski . In July 1931 he emigrated to Warsaw , sought political asylum and then from 1935 worked as the head of the Institute for Parasitology and Invasive Diseases in Puławy .

After the attack on Poland in September 1939, he left for Volhynia . After returning to Puławy, he was persecuted by the Gestapo , arrested in February 1940 and then deported to the Dachau concentration camp . There he became the object of Claus Schilling's pseudo-medical experiments . He only saw his daughter Ewa Obitz in a photo that his wife sent him. After the US Army liberated Dachau concentration camp , he was seriously ill and sent to the sanatorium for tuberculosis sufferers in Lautrach, where he died at the age of 38.

Kurt Obitz wrote about himself: "Both officially and privately, I am often asked, whose ultimately I am:" German "or" Polish "? I always answered: "I am a Masur" ".

In memory

On the occasion of the 100th birthday of the Republic of Poland in 2007, the translation of the monograph History of the Masurian People (Dzieje ludu mazurskiego) was published. According to him, which was Kurt-Obitz Street (ulica Kurta Obitza) in Olsztyn -Kortowo and the elementary school in Węgielsztyn in the town of Węgorzewo (Szkoła Podstawowa im. Kurta Obitza w Węgielsztynie, Gmina Węgorzewo) named.

Publications

  • About the distribution of some parasitic worms and protozoa of cattle in some low- lying pasture areas of the North German lowlands, the West Havelland district . Auerdruck, Hamburg 1930.
  • About the feeding infection of wild rats (Mus decumanus Pall.) With Belantidium coli cysts from pigs . Parasitic Journal, August 1931.
  • Badania nad jajami niektórych tasiemców z rodziny Anoplocephalidae . Towarzystwo Naukowe Warszawskie, Warszawa 1934.
  • The history of the Masurian people . Preuss. Secret State Archives, Berlin 1938.
    • Dzieje ludu mazurskiego. Wprowadzenie i opracowanie Grzegorz Jasiński, Oficyna Wydawnicza Retman, Dąbrówno 2007. (Polish edition of The History of the Masurian People ) ISBN 9788392399148

Participation

  • Witold Stefański, Kurt Alfred Obitz: O rozmieszczeniu w Polsce gzów bydlęcych . Warszawa 1935.

literature

  • Kurt Obitz in: Melchior Wańkowicz: Na tropach Smętka . Bibljoteka Polska, Warszawa 1936 (first edition), ISBN 8308015816 .
  • Joseph Parnas: Memories of Kurt Obitz and his Berlin and Pulawyer environment . Würzburg Medical History Announcements No. 6/1988.
  • Janusz Jasiński: Obitz, Kurt In: Polski Słownik Biograficzny . Volume 23, Polska Akad. Nauk, Zakład Narod. Im. Ossolińskich, Wrocław 1978, pp. 429–431, ISBN 8-304-00148-9 .
  • Kurt Obitz denounced p. 257 in: Richard Blanke: Polish speaking Germans? Language and National Identity among the Masuriens since 1871 . Böhlen Verlag, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3412120006 .
  • Veterinarian Kurt Obitz pp. 139-140 (PDF; 8.4 MB) in: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte . Issue 2, Oldenburg April 2003.
  • Krystyna Jarosz, Adam Jankiewicz: Dr Kurt Obitz - lekarz weterynarii, dziennikarz, działacz mazurski: wystawa z cyklu "Życiorysy niezwykle" . Węgorzewo 2004.
  • Włodzimierz A. Gibasiewicz: Biogram OBITZ KURT ALFRED pp. 70-73 (PDF; 6.2 MB) in: Niepowtarzalni. Lekarze weterynarii ofiary II wojny światowej . Copyright by Włodzimierz Gibasiewicz., Warszawa-Kraków 2009, ISBN 978-83-928526-3-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Joseph Parnas: Memories of Kurt Obitz and his Berlin and Pulawyer environment. In: Würzburger medical historical reports 6, 1988, pp. 337–341; here: p. 337 f.
  2. ↑ Parnas (1988), p. 338
  3. ↑ Andreas Kossert : "Grenzlandpolitik" and Ostforschung on the periphery of the empire - The East Prussian Masuria 1919-1945. Institute for Contemporary History , 2003, pp. 139–140 , accessed on April 27, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Szkoła Podstawowa im. Kurta Obitza w Węgielsztynie. Szkoła Podstawowa - Węgielsztyn , 2007, accessed August 24, 2013 (Polish).
personal data
SURNAME Obitz, Kurt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Obitz, Kurt Alfred (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German veterinarian, parasitologist and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH January 16, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Brosowen , Angerburg district
DATE OF DEATH August 26, 1945
Place of death Lautrach