A department store fire in Tiegenhof

A department store fire in Tiegenhof

• Sep 04, 2020
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It seems the Pächter family was more prominent than I imagined. Here is an excerpt from a retrospective about old Tiegenhof by Otto Stobbe that was originally published in the historical magazine Unser Danzig in 1963, and was reposted to a Danzig discussion forum in 2012. 

On the right side, already on the market square, was the Pächter'sche department store, Isaak Pächter, after his brother and co-owner Meier Pächter had died. It was a large half-timbered building with yellow bricks. A few years later, in the fall of 1898, the terrible fire began here, which then left half of Bahnhofstrasse in ruins. It was on a Wednesday evening, and exactly two (or three?) Weeks before it had already burned there, but was extinguished in good time, even with the help of bottled beer, because water was not quickly enough to hand. And after this big fire it should burn regularly every other Wednesday for months. Apparently there was an arsonist who was never caught. On the other hand, an anti-Semitic wave now arose: it was claimed that Pächter might have set fire to the house himself. It was so absurd that the judges in Tiegenhof didn't think of doing anything. But then the district court in Elbing, which took up the matter, issued an arrest warrant, but Pächter had to be released after a few weeks. Tiegenhof spoiled him and he didn't rebuild, but moved away. Otherwise I did not remember anti-Semitism in Tiegenhof.

This is exciting because it definitiely places the Pächter family in Tiegenhof, and it gives them a reason to be leaving town in 1898. However, the Isaak Pächter who owned the store was not the ancestor of Heinz Pächter who became the historian. Also, Isaak's wife was Friederike Meyer, and so her married name was Friederike Pächter, but it is not yet clear how our Friederike Wohlgemuth, geb. Pächter is related.

But now we know much more about the presence of the Pächter family in Tiegenhof, and how a supposed rare anti-Semitic action drove them out.