#341135 Дітріх Тіссен

DIETRICH KORNELIUS THIESSEN (1870-1937)

Dietrich Komelius Thiessen was bom 27 December 1870 in Chortitza, Chortitza Colony. His father, Komelius Otto Thiessen, was bom in Stolzenburg near Danzig, migrating to Chortitza in 1818. He was first a tailor, then bred sheep, and in 1844 built a treadmill in Chortitza. That same year he married Katharina Rempel of Neuhorst, Chortitza Colony.

The couple had 14 children (some sources say 15). In 1849 Komelius bought a second treadmill, then in 1866 sold both treadmills, and went into the iron business. In this business he became wealthy. Dietrich was bom in 1870, the second last of the Thiessen children. He likely attended the local Chortitza village school, then the Zentralschule. In 1886 Dietrich served as an apprentice in a machine shop in Chortitza, and in 1889 was on the staff of a New York factory. His father was wealthy enough to send him to Germany for further studies, where he completed the Technical University in Hildburghausen in 1894, after which he also completed the Technical University in Dresden. He returned to Russia and was examined by the Technical Building Committee of the Ministry of the Interior to determine his right to practice. He received his certification on 23 December 1897, Certificate No 505.

Dietrich was employed by a construction firm, G A List of Moscow from April 1897 until March 1898. Thereafter he seems to have moved to Ekaterinoslav, where, beginning in April 1902, he was employed as an architect for the Ekaterinoslav Railway Administration until March 1905. He was a member of the local branch of the Railway Association. In May 1910 he was assistant to the architect for the Ekaterinoslav Administration. He returned to the railway in 1925, when he was an instructor in the Ekaterinoslav Railway College of Technology. Beginning in 1927, and continuing until 1930 he held various administrative positions, mostly with the Dnepropetrovsk Technical College. Probably during his time of employment, but likely also in the periods when he held no position, he set up a successful architectural practice and accepted private commissions. Apparently his office was located at Prospekt Dom Vebera. He designed the house of Johann Heinrich Toews, built on the comer of Ekaterininsky Prospekt and Shirokaya Street. Designed in a neoclassical style, this three story building suits its urban site very well. Daughter Elsa recalls at least two other projects in which he was involved. A large house was built for a wealthy couple in Chortitza, but never completed. He also built something for Baron Falz-Fein, but the exact nature of the project is not known. The proposed new expansion of the Mennonite church in House of Culture in Schoenwiese Ekaterinoslav was designed by Dietrich, but was never built because of the onset of World War I in 1914. Dietrich was the architect for the “House of Culture” built in Schoenwiese in 1924-1925. Dietrich married Julie Johann Martens on 15 August 1903 in Ekaterinoslav. Julie was born in 1881, and was the fourth of five children of estate owner Johann Johann Martens (who was the grandson of the very wealthy estate owner Wilhelm Aron Martens) and Katharina Esau, sister of Mayor Johann Esau.

The couple had five children: 1. Konstantin - born 12 July 1904 in Chortitza, he married and lived out his life in Uzbekestan as a farmer, died 4 March 1983 in Peszchanni, Uzbekestan 2. Victor - bom 8 April 1906 in Chortitza, executed 1941 in Leningrad, where he was studying art 3. Paul - born 10 December 1907 in Chortitza, died about 1922 at the Thiessen dacha of a gun accident 4. Elsa - bom 9 February 1912 in Ekaterinoslav, married Emile Schulein about 1937, had 2 children who died as infants, married Ivan Bereznoi 1947, daughter Olga bom 2 October 1948, went to Germany in 1996, still alive 9 February 2007 5. Hermann - bom 28 August 1914 in Ekaterinoslav, executed about 1939, likely in Baku While the eldest three children are listed as being bom in Chortitza, the family actually seems to have had their residence in Ekaterinoslav from 1904 onward. About 1904 Dietrich started to build his own house in Ekaterinoslav, “near the Lutheran Church, on the right side....” When the house was nearing completion in 1907 Dietrich’s elder brother went bankrupt in Germany, and for some peculiar reason Dietrich was left to pay the bills. Basically that made it impossible to finish the house. With Julie’s small inheritance, a small dacha in the village of Ivanovka and Dietrich’s architectural practice, however, the family was able to survive the financial set-back. Peter Heinrich Heese, in his description of the church in Ekaterinoslav, mentions one of the members being an architect. This was undoubtedly Dietrich Thiessen.

With the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917 the family was forced to move into two rooms in a nearby house owned by the Lutheran Church. They were able to survive the severe famine of 1921-1922 by moving out to their dacha in Ivanovka. While in Ivanovka son Paul was killed in a gun accident. Makhno bandits overran the area, brutally beating Julie in the process. Apparently Dietrich never fully recovered from the emotional trauma of these episodes. Towards the end of 1922 the family moved back to Ekaterinoslav. From April 1923 onward Dietrich was again employed as an architect in various capacities, in 1925 returning to what appears to have been his specialty, the railway. He continued his architectural work at least into May 1930. Until this time the family lived comparatively well in Ekaterinoslav. In 1932 the family moved to Batum, Georgia, but left, still in 1932, because they could find no living quarters.

Being near the Turkish border, they attempted to cross to freedom. Despite having two pieces of identification verifying their non-German background (including some documentation of membership in the Verband der Buerger Hollandischer Herkunft) they were unable to leave, since the neighbouring countries, under pressure from the Soviets, were not willing to accept Russian refugees. Julie sewed the documents into a pillow slip for safe-keeping, but in their subsequent travels the pillow slip was inadvertently sold, and the documents therefore lost.

The family moved to Baku in Azerbaijan to live with Dietrich’s nephew, Alexander Thiessen. Here Dietrich was accused of being a fascist spy, was arrested on 1 September 1937, then shot on 16 September 1937. It should be noted that the case was re-examined on 23 August 1960, and Dietrich was declared “rehabilitated.” This usually meant that he had been convicted on false evidence and had actually been innocent.

Sometime in 1939 or 1940 son Hermann was arrested and shot. On 9 October 1941 the remaining family members, Julie, Konstantin, Elsa and families received deportation orders for Siberia, and were given 48 hours to pack. In the meantime Victor, art student in Leningrad, was arrested and executed. Julie and daughter Elsa were sent to a labour camp in the Novosibirsk region, from 1941 to 1944 or 1945 being shuttled back and forth from camp to camp. After an extended illness Julie died in a labour camp near Novosibirsk, exact date not known, but about 1945. Finally, on 6 April 1996, Elsa, her daughter Olga and granddaughter Milla were able to migrate to Germany, where they currently reside (as of February 2007). It should be noted that about 1989 the remaining three members of Dietrich Thiessen’s family resumed the surname Tissen, using the Russian spelling. Elsa’s full name therefore is now Elsa Schulein Bereznoi Tissen.

• Sources: Friesen, Rudy P with Friesen, Edith Elisabeth, Building on the Past, Raduga Publications, Winnipeg, Canada, 2004, pp 223, 695 Heese, Peter Heinrich, Yekaterinoslav, page 5 of the translated version Thiessen, Elsa, Olga and Milla, personal information Ziesmann, Hedy, personal information
• Helmut T. Huebert. Mennonites in the Cities of Imperial Russia: Volume Two (Kindle Locations 2899-2902).