Otto Ostrowski

Ostrowski when he was sworn in as a Berlin city councilor (1946)

Otto Ostrowski (born January 28, 1883 in Spremberg , † June 16, 1963 in Knokke , Belgium ) was a German politician.

Berlin memorial plaque on the house at Westfälische Strasse 64, in Berlin-Halensee

Life

Ostrowski was the son of a draper. After studying Romance studies and a doctorate at Berlin University, he was a private teacher in Luckenwalde , Lyon and Sheffield for a few years , as his political stance prevented him from being accepted into the Prussian school service. After the First World War he joined the SPD and became mayor of the municipality of Lankwitz , which was incorporated into Berlin in 1920, and later he was mayor of Finsterwalde in Lusatia . In 1926 Ostrowski was elected mayor of Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg for twelve years , but was dismissed by the Nazis in 1933 because of his Jewish wife. Ostrowski was a member of the left-wing socialist resistance group Red Shock Troop . Within the group, he is said to have headed a sabotage group and was Kurt Megelin's deputy when he was in custody. Ostrowski and other members of the resistance group were involved in helping Martin Deutschkron, Inge Deutschkron's father , to emigrate in 1938 and in 1943/44 to hide and care for his wife and daughter in Berlin. After the Second World War, Ostrowski was mayor of Berlin-Wilmersdorf for a short time .

After the elections in Berlin on October 20, 1946 , he was elected Lord Mayor of Greater Berlin a few weeks later on December 5 . Ostrowski turned against the compulsory unification of the Eastern SPD with the KPD to form the SED , but was still ready to cooperate with the SED. Through his good contacts with the Soviet city commandant Kotikow , he achieved additional logging from the forests of the Soviet occupation zone in the hungry winter of 1946/47 . When Ostrowski refused to dismiss the SED functionaries from his magistrate , his own parliamentary group put a motion of no confidence against him on April 11, 1947 , which was also accepted with a majority.

Ostrowski resigned on April 17, 1947, and Ernst Reuter was elected as his successor on June 24, 1947 , but he was unable to take up his post at the Allied headquarters due to the Soviet veto . In the Reuter I magistrate , Louise Schroeder was the incumbent mayor until the election for the city council in December 1948 . Ostrowski was President of the newly created Berlin Main Examination Office from 1948 to 1951 . From 1950 to 1953 he was chairman of the Freethinkers Association.

Ostrowski died in June 1963 and was buried in the Wilmersdorf cemetery.

literature

• Norbert Podewin : Dr. Otto Ostrowski, Mayor of Finsterwalde. In: Der Speicher (issue 11). Annual publication of the Finsterwalde District Museum and the Association of Friends and Supporters of the Finsterwalde District Museum e. V., Finsterwalde 2008.
• Norbert Podewin: Otto Ostrowski - the deleted mayor. A fate in Berlin during the Cold War. Edition Luisenstadt, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89542-143-X .
• Dennis Egginger-Gonzalez: The Red Assault Troop. An early left-wing socialist resistance group against National Socialism. Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3867322744 [numerous references to the resistance by Otto Ostrowski and short biography on p. 477f.].
• Werner Breunig, Siegfried Heimann , Andreas Herbst : Biographical Handbook of Berlin City Councilors and Members of Parliament 1946–1963 (=  series of publications by the Berlin State Archives . Volume 14 ). Landesarchiv Berlin , Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-9803303-4-3 , p. 206 (331 pages).
• Ditmar Staffelt : The reconstruction of the Berlin social democracy in 1945/46 and the question of unity - a contribution to the post-war history of the lower and middle organizational structures of the SPD. Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main / Bern / New York 1986, ISBN 978-3-8204-9176-0 , p. 433.
• Willy Albrecht:  Ostrowski, Otto. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-00200-8 , p. 629 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Short biography for:  Ostrowski, Otto . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

Commons : Otto Ostrowski  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Otto Ostrowski in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Otto Ostrowski in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ There are different statements about the date of death. In addition to June 16, 1963, June 18 and 19, 1963 are given. B. the Berlin memorial plaque (see picture) on June 19, 1963.