Dielmann, Leo Maria Joseph (1881–1969)

Leo Maria Joseph Dielmann, architect and civic leader, the son of John Charles and Maria (Gros) Dielmann, was born on August 14, 1881, in San Antonio. He graduated from St. Mary's College in 1898 and later studied architecture and engineering in Germany. He was appointed city building inspector of San Antonio in 1909 by Mayor Bryan V. Callaghan, Jr., and held this position for three years. Dielmann served as an alderman in San Antonio for two years. Early in his career he was active in the building-materials firm of J. C. Dielmann. For the first five decades of the twentieth century he devoted himself entirely to architecture; he was especially noted as a church architect. Among the structures he designed are the Fort Sam Houston Post Chapel; the Conventual Chapel, the Science Hall, and other buildings at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio; St. Mary's Catholic Church in Fredericksburg; and numerous churches, schools, civic buildings, and residences throughout Texas. Dielmann was a member of the Texas Society of Architects and of the board of trustees of the San Antonio Public Library, president of Harmonia Lodge of the Sons of Hermann in Texas, and committeeman for the Home for the Aged of the Sons of Hermann at Comfort. He belonged to the San Antonio Liederkranz, the Beethoven Männerchor, the Order of the Alhambra, and St. Joseph's Society. He was a member of the Democratic party and St. Joseph Catholic Church in San Antonio. Dielmann married Ella Marie Wagner on April 25, 1911. They had three children. He died on December 21, 1969, in San Antonio.