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Individual Report




Isidor Leinz

Isidor Leinz (1877-1945) was the son of Gottlieb Leinz, who led his community of Krasna for four terms of office as Oberschulz.

Gottlieb Leinz left the work in the steam mill, which he built together with Hieronymus Ternes in 1895, to his sons Maximilian, Isidor and Korbinian. Maximilian died at an early age. Korbinian had suffered a serious accident at the mill and was unable to work. As a result, Isidor had to familiarize himself with the physical and mental mill work as a young man. In 1924/25, the mill was to be brought up to modern standards. The conversion from a steam mill to a motorized mill ended in a financial fiasco for all those involved, descendants of the mill's founders, due to adverse circumstances. The mill was sold.

In the 1920s, Isidor, together with close relatives, became the owner of one of the two brickworks in Krasna. How long this brickworks lasted is unknown.

Isidor was actually a farmer through and through. He is described as open-minded and exemplary for the times, whose opinion was sought after. The frequently used expression "Karl Leinze Isidor said..." shows the esteem in which he was held. For example, he was considered an expert on horses and was commissioned by the community to procure the community breeding stallion. To do this, he traveled to the Don Cossacks in the Cherson region. During the Romanian period, when Krasna had given up keeping a community stallion, he kept a breeding stallion privately.

Isidor Leinz was involved in the public life of his community of Krasna. He was elected to the municipal council in 1928 and remained in this position until the resettlement. In 1928/29 he was named as cashier in the administration of the Krasna cooperative bank. He was on the church council for a long time. In 1938, he spoke at the inauguration ceremony of the "Unser Heim" cultural center as president of the building committee.

Isidor Leinz had to spend many years in Russian military service. From 1899 to 1903, he served as a soldier, mainly in Warsaw. He used this time as a recruit to further his personal education, in particular by taking German lessons. He was called up again in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904/1905, as well as in the First World War. He was involved in the battles at Tannenberg/East Prussia from 26 to 30 August 1914 under Samsonov; a large part of the Russian troops were taken prisoner after the battle was lost. He barely escaped the winter battle in Masuria between February 7 and 22, 1915, when tens of thousands of Russian soldiers fell and almost a hundred thousand were taken prisoner by the Germans.

The education of his children was close to his heart. He encouraged them to work hard at school. His children were "front benchers", not through authoritarian strictness, but through praise and personal help. (There was a clear performance grading system in school lessons: the best pupils sat at the front, the poorer ones at the back). In addition to schoolwork, he encouraged his children to learn poetry. When Father Schumacher brought cultural life to Krasna, he taught his daughter Rosa to play the guitar and his son Alois to play the cello. Both children took part in the theater. At his insistence, his son Josef and his grandson Isidor attended the agricultural school in Strasburg/West Prussia.

Isidor Leinz was a family man. It was he who gathered his children around him in Krasna on winter evenings and told them fairy tales and stories from his colorful life. Despite his many tasks as a large farmer, the "Hinnervatter" took the time to briefly greet each of his grandchildren who came to his farm, stroking them on the head and giving them a friendly smile. In the Bad Schandau resettlement camp, he gathered his unmarried children and the families of his married children around him and enjoyed the "intimate get-togethers", as he calls the socializing with his large family in his report.

A great treasure is his account "Some things about the conditions in Bessarabia in recent times and our emigration to Germany".


Gisela Schaal, granddaughter of Isidor Leinz

Stuttgart, den 07.Juli 2020


Sketchy snapshots provide a few glimpses of the person of Isidor Leinz. They emerge:

  • im "Heimatbuch, 25 Jahre nach der Umsiedlung", 1965, herausgegeben von Alois Leinz, Sohn von Isidor Leinz
  • in den nicht-öffentlichen Beschreibungen "Hinnervatter" und "Die zwölf Kinder des Ehepaares Irena und Isidor Leinz" von Otto Gedack, der seinen Großvater Isidor Leinz in Krasna und während der gemeinsamen Wohnzeit in Zielen/in Westpreußen erlebte
  • im Buch " Krasna, Ein deutsches Dorf in Bessarabien", 2008 von Eduard Volk

Further individual ancestor lists and reports

The text was translated by Otto Riehl using the translation tool from DeepL, Cologne, Germany .

This report and all informations therein contained
may not be used or transmitted elsewhere without prior approval of the authors
Ted J. Becker & Otto Riehl, Kirchlinteln

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