Dietz, Rudolf

Teacher, dialect poet

born: 22.02.1863 in Naurod

died: 14.12.1942 in Wiesbaden

After the death of his father in 1868, the family lived in modest circumstances in Naurod. Dietz received additional instruction from the pastor. His desire to become a theologian like his father was thwarted by financial constraints.

In 1878, he entered the preparatory school in Herborn and later attended the Usingen teacher training college. He got his first job as a teacher's assistant in Freiendiez in 1883. Due to his modest salary, he began to write poetry. In 1890 and 1894, he continued his education at the Teacher Training Institute for Boys' Work in Leipzig. In 1898, Dietz was transferred to Wiesbaden to the Schule am Schulberg, where he worked until his retirement in 1925, the last two years as vice-principal.

Dietz had been a member of the National Liberal Party since 1883. During the Weimar Republic, Dietz was a member of the German People's Party (DVP). In 1928, he founded the Nassau Family History Association and was also a member of the People's Education Association. Dietz joined the party on May 1, 1933. In addition, Dietz joined the Nazi Teachers' Association on April 1, 1937 and applied for membership in the Reichsschrifttumskammer on June 15, 1938.

By 1930, Dietz had published ten volumes of poetry with over 1,000 dialect poems, as well as books on local history, short stories and plays. Most of these were works of everyday poetry for current needs. A text-critical analysis of the works revealed that over 40 poems had an anti-Semitic focus. This is particularly evident in the illustrated volume of poetry "Du liebe Heimat", which first contained the author's complete poetic oeuvre in 1924 and was reprinted several times up to 1938. The illustrations were authorized by Dietz and were deliberately used to disparage him. The images used in the poems played on common anti-Semitic clichés.

Dietz's extreme nationalism was already expressed in his collection of poems published in 1916 for the "Nassauer im Felde" as a "Liebesgabe". Towards the end of the war, he is said to have been in close contact with the Deutschbund, an elitist, sectarian and ethnic-racist group that is regarded as one of the pioneers of National Socialism. According to his friend Walter Minor, Dietz joined this organization in 1917/18. There is no clear proof of this.

Due to his work as a local poet, Dietz became particularly well known in Nassau. In the 1930s, he recited his poems in radio broadcasts and at Nazi propaganda events, such as the "Colorful Evening" of SA-Sturm 8/80 Wiesbaden. In 1934, the NSDAP also commissioned him to design a short slogan for the Winter Relief Organization.

In 2003, his poems, which were imbued with anti-Jewish resentment, led to a heated debate about whether the elementary school in Wiesbaden-Naurod, which had been named after him since the late 1950s, should be renamed. In 2023, the Historical Expert Commission appointed by resolution of the City Council in 2020 to review traffic areas, buildings and facilities named after people in the state capital of Wiesbaden recommended renaming Rudolf-Dietz-Straße and the Rudolf-Dietz-Brunnen due to the active support of the Nazi movement and the contribution to the discrimination, exclusion and persecution of the Jewish population through anti-Semitic agitation. Dietz died in Wiesbaden on December 14, 1942 and was buried in the North Cemetery.

[This text was written by Dr. Brigitte Streich for the 2017 printed version of the Wiesbaden City Dictionary and revised and supplemented by Dr. Katherine Lukat in 2024]