Reginald Czermack

Reginald Czermack, Austrian entrepreneur and fire service pioneer

Grave in Teplice

Reginald Johann Alois Czermack (born March 4, 1847 in Prague as Reginald Cžermák, † March 3, 1929 in Graupen ) was an Austrian entrepreneur and fire service pioneer .

Live and act

Reginald Czermack was born in Prague in 1847 as the son of Aloys Czermak (* 1814), secretary at the Academy of Fine Arts, and his wife Josepha Krežmarž (* 1827). He came to Teplitz from Prague as a teenager and began building fire engines in 1868. In 1879 he built a factory on Feuerwehr-Strasse in Teplitz, which was one of the largest in the area in Austria-Hungary.

At the same time he supported the establishment of new fire brigades in numerous places, which he could then equip with his devices.

However, its importance also lies in its activities at higher levels. He is considered to be the founding father of the Austrian Federal Fire Brigade Association by uniting all of the state fire brigade associations of the Austrian half of the monarchy. As chairman of the then Standing Austrian Fire Brigade Committee , he was also with the founders of the CTIF , the international technical committee for preventive fire protection and fire extinguishing .

He was also an advocate of the unification of the tasks of fire protection and medical services, so that the various agreements with the Red Cross in his time meant that the fire brigade also carried out the medical services and the transport of injured persons throughout Austria. During the First World War he had the complete transport organization of war victims from the entire monarchy over. See also: History of the medical system in the Austrian fire services

He carried out all functions in the fire department and in the medical service on a voluntary basis. Sometimes he was able to fall back on resources in his own company. In 1915 he handed over his company to his sons and moved to Vienna himself to be able to carry out his work more easily. He was always very loyal to Emperor Franz Joseph . During the war he still used his fortune to subscribe to war bonds that were worthless at the end of the war and so he became impoverished.

After the First World War he returned to Teplitz from Vienna and retired to a villa in Graupen . Disappointed by the Czechoslovak state , which banned all old connections between the Austrian and Czech connections among the fire brigades, he adopted the double name of his father Alois Czermack-Warteck to underline his German ancestry. On the Austrian side, he was appointed honorary president of the newly founded Austrian Federal Fire Brigade Association.

In the magazine der Brandschutz in 1921, Czermack wrote in an article in which his own character is best described himself:

“The war is over! - In spite of the conclusion of peace, there are some doubts whether the former enemies can now easily become friends again, since there is too much pain in between. However, simply leaving it to time to heal struck wounds cannot be approved in all areas of human experience, least of all in the area of ​​humanity and mercy. ..Also at the time of the raging struggle, compassionate human love was commemorated and in this area certainly in an excellent way through Austria! No other state association of fire-fighting and rescue services has an organization of working philanthropy of the same kind as is the case in Austria. ... The success of my organization, which could only be crowned with success that all participants were dominated by a feeling of philanthropy and were united in helping where help is needed, regardless of whether it was for the friend or the enemy! This Samaritan thought should now be the predominant one after the end of the war and with this thought the fire brigades of the whole world can come closer together despite previous hostility, the old comradeship renewed and the thought that lay in the creation of the international fire brigade committee can be spun on. "

In addition to these activities, he also found time to found a section of the German Alpine Club in Teplitz in 1886. Its activity can be seen from the fact that the section already had 100 members after a year. At his suggestion was also on the Milešovka ( Donnersberg a meteorological observatory which) at an altitude of 835 meters in 1904 Thunder Mountain observatory , which is operated by employees of the "Oddělení meteorology" today.

On March 3, 1929, Czermack died in his little castle in Graupen . He is buried in the abandoned Evangelical Cemetery in Teplitz. The grave was only rediscovered in 1990 and renovated somewhat by the ÖBFV.

Works

• Ten years of fire brigade associations in Bohemia and the fire brigade state central association for Bohemia from 1885 to 1888 , 1888
• Lectures of the second fire department specialist course of the Fire Department Central Association for Bohemia in Teplitz 1896 , 1898
• Austria's fire and rescue services at the beginning of the XX. Century , 1903
• Austria's fire and rescue services at the beginning of the 20th century , 1904

Awards

• Gold Cross of Merit with the Crown , 1889
• Knight's Cross, Class II of the Order of Albrecht , 1889
• Golden Medal of the Royal Belgian Rescue Society, 1890
• Marian Cross of the Teutonic Order, 1894
• kk Kommerzialrat , 1894
• Officer of the Mecidiye Order , before 1896
• Knight IV Class of the Order of Merit of Saint Michael , before 1896
• Knight's Cross of the Franz Joseph Order , 1898
• French Médaille d'honneur pour acte de courage et de dévouement in gold, 1900
• Honorary President of the Reich Fire Brigade Association, 1902
• Honorary President of the German Fire Brigade Association for Bohemia, 1906
• Honorary member of the German Reich Fire Brigade Association, 1912
• numerous other honorary memberships (also of foreign fire service associations)
• 1900 already over 100 state and industrial company awards (prizes, trophies, medals at exhibitions etc.)

literature

• ÖBFV : 120 Years of the Austrian Federal Fire Brigade Association , special edition 2010 yearbook ISBN 978-3-9502364-8-4

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Christian Fastl: The highest functionaries of the Austrian fire brigade from 1889 to 1938 , in the conference proceedings of the CTIF 2018
2. ↑ Registration form of the City of Prague for Reginald Czermack
3. ^ Reginald Czermack. In: Landeszeitung: Newspaper of the Germans in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, edition 25/2002. December 7, 2002, archived from the original on September 30, 2015 ; Retrieved April 29, 2016 (retrieved December 7, 2009). 
4. ↑ The "Sudeten-Schutzhäuser" in Ridnaun ( Memento of the original from July 26, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 7, 2009 
5. ^ History of the observatory. January 30, 2012, archived from the original on October 15, 2008 ; accessed on April 26, 2016 (English). 
6. ↑ Veronika Kindlová: Reginald Czermack - Hasičský pionýr a alpinista z Teplic. March 3, 2017, accessed April 7, 2019 (Czech, German). 
7. ↑ In the footsteps of fire fighting equipment manufacturers, accessed on December 7, 2009