Heinrich Gotthold Dietel

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Heinrich Gotthold Dietel (March 15, 1839 – June 24, 1911) was a German textile entrepreneur who helped develop Sosnowiec. He was born in Greiz, the son of Heinrich Gottlob Dietl, who owned spinning mills at Wilkau, and Johann Wilhelmina Merbold. He traveled to the United States to study wool production and to do business. With his father and brothers, he ran a factory in Wilkau near Zwickau in Saxony, and he also worked in Bohemia and Württemberg. In 1877 he began studying at the Technical University of Dresden. On June 11, 1878, he married Julia Jacob in Leipzig, and that year he moved to Sosnowiec after a customs reform. He bought land from Gustav von Kramsty (Pogoń) and built the first Polish spinning mill in Russian-ruled Poland.

He had several sons, including Heinrich Georg, Henryk, Borys, Alfred, Roman and Boguslav. As the family grew, they built the Dietel Palace between 1890 and 1900. He died in Sosnowiec and was buried in a mausoleum at the Evangelical Cemetery.