Erich vom Bruch

Memorial plaque on the Dr. vom Bruch bridge in Leer (East Frisia)

Erich vom Bruch (born October 29, 1885 in Solingen ; † May 7, 1933 in Leer ) was a German lawyer , mayor of the city of Leer and an early victim of National Socialism . He shot himself around two months after the National Socialists came to power in Leer. The Bruch, which had made itself unpopular with the Leeran National Socialists for several reasons, had been accused of irregularities in the municipal financial system. He committed suicide after his opponents filed a motion to open a preliminary judicial investigation into the allegations.

childhood and education

Erich vom Bruch, son of a businessman, graduated from high school in Solingen and graduated from high school there in 1904. From 1904 to 1907 he studied law and economics at the universities of Marburg , Bonn and Tübingen . In 1904 he became a member of the Germania Marburg fraternity . In 1907 he passed the state examination at the Higher Regional Court of Cologne and was in Tübingen with a dissertation on "pledge and lien in naturalis obligatio of Roman law" in 1908 his doctorate . During his preparatory service for the judiciary, he was employed in several parishes and passed the court assessor exam in Berlin in 1913 .

The first years as Mayor of Leer

After his successful assessor examination, he took up his first position as a salaried alderman of the city of Ohligs (today Solingen), which he held from October 1, 1917 to 1920. He then stood for election for the mayor of Leer . The senior citizens' college confirmed him on October 27th. His official business was characterized by discussions with representatives from trade and shipping. One of his priorities was the plan to put the city on a more solid economic footing, using tax and fee increases as an instrument.

During the difficult economic times of inflation and the following two years, unemployment and short-time work rose in Leer. Industrial companies such as the shell lime factory "Fresena" and the straw cardboard factory were shut down, the latter later continued with a reduced workforce. The iron foundries Boekhoff and Schreiber introduced short-time work several times in 1924/25. In order to revive the economic power, vom Bruch relied on state demand - on the one hand to curb unemployment, on the other hand because parts of the city's infrastructure were already outdated. Vom Bruch built on plans that had already been planned under his predecessors, but never implemented. This included the construction of the sea lock and the harbor basin and the Bedeichung the Ems . Von Bruch laid down his views in those years in his memorandum on the further expansion of the port of the city of Leer . The economic development measures and the improvement of living conditions included new bridges and dams, the expansion of the port, a better connection to the railway, the modernization or construction of a sewer system , a new water tower and that of the Leer district hospital. The investments also attracted private investors, so in 1926 a milk factory owned by Deutsche Libby GmbH opened its doors. These new buildings also included the cattle market , which began on December 1, 1925 and opened on March 2, 1927 , which at the time of its opening was considered the most modern and largest of its kind in the German Reich and to which Reich President Paul von Hindenburg made his own trip. The city of Leer had to borrow heavily for the construction work.

Von Bruch was a member of the district council. He ran for election as the top candidate on a civil unity list . The bourgeois unified list consisted primarily of dignitaries from the city; in addition to vom Bruch, the merchant Hermann Brouwer and the stone-carving owner Theodor Nanninga were also elected to the district council. Through the simultaneous activity as Mayor of Leer and a member of the district council, he hoped that the break would give him greater consideration. This was nothing unusual in the Leer district assembly: Almost two thirds of the members of parliament did not belong to any party, but to a list that cast their votes in a mostly clearly defined area. Vom Bruch is also elected to various supervisory boards, including the local tourist office and the Leer herring fishery. In 1929 he took part in the opening of the renovated synagogue in Leer. Politically, the break is attributed to the DVP , he works with the left-liberal DDP as well as with the Social Democrats .

Crisis and suicide

As everywhere in Germany, the economic situation worsened in Leer after the outbreak of the global economic crisis in 1929. The unemployment figures rose steadily, and with it the number of recipients of unemployment, crisis support and welfare benefits. The crisis did not immediately leave its mark in Leer, but it had had a very clear impact since 1931 at the latest. As in the mid-1920s, industrial companies responded with short-time work and layoffs. In particular, the increasing number of beneficiaries of welfare support put a strain on the municipal coffers, so that the municipalities in the district were forced to stretch other tasks.

In the summer and autumn of 1932, so-called tax protest meetings took place in Leer: the participants in the events criticized the level of taxes in Leer, which, according to the allegation, should be one of the highest taxing cities in the province of Hanover. The lowering of local taxes and the dismantling of the administration were demanded. Both the district president in Aurich and the Prussian interior minister then asked von vom Bruch to comment, which in the following months took up a large part of his workforce. The taxation justified vom Bruch by referring to the services provided for the city's infrastructure, which, however, was no longer expanded that year due to lack of money.

At the beginning of the 1930s, the city and district of Leer were not yet a distinct stronghold of the National Socialists. The National Socialist Erich Drescher from Leer , who later succeeded vom Bruch, felt compelled to join the NSDAP group in the Weener district , which was still an independent group at the time , as there was no party structure in Leer. It was not until December 1930 that Erich Drescher founded an NSDAP party branch in the district of Leer.

However, the rise of the National Socialists was also evident in the district town by 1932 at the latest. In the Reichstag election on November 6, 1932, the NSDAP was elected by 38.05% of the electorate, and in the Reichstag election on March 5, 1933 by more than 43%. The district town thus remained below the average for the surrounding area: In the November elections, its district-wide result was already 52.6%. But the NSDAP had now also become the strongest force in Leer. In the local elections on March 12, 1933, the majority of the residents of the district town also voted for the Nazis (51.53%). The unified list around Erich vom Bruch also ran for the simultaneous district council elections, but renamed itself to the “national unified list” in order to avoid any doubts about the “patriotic sentiment” among voters. Von Bruch sent the voters again to the district council, in which the NSDAP had 15 out of 29 seats.

The new rulers targeted the break, which they assumed to be close to the SPD. On the one hand, he refused to dismiss social democratic officials and, on the other hand, to open up the cattle shed built during his time in office for a mass rally by the Nazis. The reason from the break was that he wanted to show consideration for the cattle traders, who were 90% Jewish.

On March 28, 1933, a group of SA men occupied the town hall, placed von Bruch briefly under house arrest and took several officers into " protective custody ". On the same day von Bruch was taken on leave and replaced by the National Socialist Erich Drescher. In statements to the public, the NSDAP argued that by dismissing it, it wanted to prevent cover-ups in connection with financial management in Leer. After his house arrest was lifted, vom Bruch moved to live with relatives in Bremen for a short time . There he received a letter from a committee made up of National Socialists, which met for the first time on April 1 to examine the financial and administrative situation in Leer. The newspaper learned from the break that his salary had been frozen. By order of Dreschers, vom Bruch returned to Leer at the beginning of May, where he was supposed to justify the allegations. The “Leeraner Advertisement Gazette” reported on May 6th under the heading “Now comes the accounting!” That on the following day “the examining magistrate will make a detailed review of the possible detention decision.” On the morning of May 7th, he shot himself from the break in his official residence with a revolver.

Aftermath

In a trial against leading former employees of the Leer city administration before the corruption criminal chamber at the Aurich district court in 1934, the baselessness of the allegations against vom Bruch came to light. There was no posthumous rehabilitation at that time. Rehabilitation and appreciation of his work only took place after the Nazi era. The town hall bridge in the center of Leer was renamed "Dr.-vom-Bruch-Brücke" in spring 1949.

Work by Erich vom Bruch

• Guarantee and lien in the naturalis obligatio of Roman law , 1908 (doctoral thesis)
• Memorandum on the further expansion of the port of the city of Leer , Leer 1922
• New market facility for the city of Leer in East Frisia , in: Deutsche Landwirtschaftliche Tierzucht 32, 1928, pp. 697–701.

literature

• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Sub-Volume 1: A-E. Winter, Heidelberg 1996, ISBN 3-8253-0339-X , pp. 141-142.
• Enno Eimers : The conquest of power in the town halls of East Frisia by the National Socialists: The mayors between party and local interests , in: Herbert Reyer: Ostfriesland in the Third Reich. The beginnings of the National Socialist tyranny in the Aurich administrative region 1933–1938 . Ostfriesische Landschaftliche Verlags- und Vertriebsgesellschaft, Aurich 1992, ISBN 3-932206-14-2 , pp. 10-23.
• Enno Eimers: A short history of the city of Leer. Verlag Schuster, Leer 1993, ISBN 3-7963-0293-9 .
• Albert Janssen: The district of Leer 1930 to 1934 and the role of district administrator Dr. Conring in the transition from democracy to Nazi dictatorship , in: Herbert Reyer (Hrsg.): Ostfriesland between republic and dictatorship , Verlag Ostfriesische Landschaft, Aurich 1998, ISBN 3-932206-10-X , pp. 299–378.

Web links

Commons : Erich vom Bruch  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Günther Robra: Erich vom Bruch . In: Biographical Lexicon for East Frisia

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The early biographical information up to vom Bruch's activity in Leer is based on Robra: Erich vom Bruch, p. 1 (see web links)
2. ^ Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Sub-Volume 1: A-E. Winter, Heidelberg 1996, ISBN 3-8253-0339-X , p. 141.
3. ↑ Eimers 1993, p. 86.
4. ↑ Janssen 1998, pp. 299 and 301.
5. ↑ Janssen 1998, p. 300.
6. ↑ Janssen 1998, p. 302.
7. ↑ Robra: Erich vom Bruch, p. 2 (see web links).
8. ↑ Herbert Obenaus , David Bankier , u. a .: Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony and Bremen , Wallstein Verlag 2005, p. 949. ( ISBN 3892447535 ) Partly available online at Google Books
9. ↑ Janssen 1998, p. 316.
10. ↑ Robra: Erich vom Bruch, p. 3 (see web links).
11. ↑ Janssen 1998, p. 337.
12. ↑ Janssen 1998, p. 343.
13. ↑ Janssen 1998, p. 249.
14. ↑ Leeraner advertising paper of May 6, 1933, quoted in Janssen 1998, p. 350.
15. ↑ Robra: Erich vom Bruch, p. 3 (see web links).