August fat

The name of the August-Dicke-Schule has been a reminder of the former mayor of the city since 1929.

August Dicke (born July 17, 1859 in Schwelm ; † March 22, 1929 in Solingen ) was a German local politician and long-time Lord Mayor of Solingen.

Youth and education

August Dicke was born as the son of the pensioner David Dicke and Louise Dicke, nee. Bum, born. After attending grammar school in Bielefeld , which he left when he passed the school leaving examination in 1880, he studied law at the universities of Heidelberg , Leipzig and Berlin until 1883 . In Heidelberg he became a member of the Corps Vandalia Heidelberg in 1881 . The first legal test laid thickness from February 8, 1884 with subsequent sworn in as court clerk on 15 March. On December 1, 1888, he was appointed court assessor , with simultaneous assignment to the Schwelm district court . On April 9, 1892, Dicke was referred to the city administration for "informational" employment in preparation for his future tasks. Four months later, on August 12, 1892, he was elected councilor for the city of Elberfeld . Confirmation from the highest authority was issued on October 17, 1892. After four years of activity, Dicke was elected Mayor of Solingen on June 24, 1896, succeeding Friedrich Haumann , who was leaving on July 1 .

Lord Mayor of Solingen

The Sengbach dam to supply Solingen households with drinking water was built on the initiative of Dicke.

After confirmation of July 26, 1896, Dicke was introduced to office on August 31. Like his predecessor, he was awarded the title of Lord Mayor on November 10, 1897. He stayed in this position for more than 30 years until 1928 and thus became the longest-serving mayor of the Rhine Province . This was preceded by the re-elections of July 12, 1907 (confirmation May 18, 1908) and March 23, 1920, with the latter being connected with an extension of the term of office to September 30, 1927. Afterwards he was responsible for the administration of the city until March 31, 1928. The fact that Dicke remained Lord Mayor of Solingen for such a long period and through the difficult times of the First World War and the Weimar Republic is evidence of a special personality as well as persuasiveness, innovation and intellectual independence. An example of Dicke's determination was the establishment of the Volksküche in 1920 against political opposition from all sides. Thanks to his persuasiveness, they were nevertheless set up and the kitchens served up to 12,000 meals a day.

August Dicke was not just a crisis manager; he also had long-term ideas that could only be realized over the years. The most important of these visions, the merging of Solingen with the surrounding communities of Gräfrath , Höhscheid , Ohligs and Wald to form the city of Solingen, he himself did not live to see, because it only became official four months after his death. Other, no less important projects were already implemented during his service time; this included new road and railway lines, the construction of the Sengbach dam and the municipal water supply, the creation of parks and forests, a slaughterhouse, the establishment of the city library, the new hospital and finally the municipal administration taking over the garbage collection - the latter one in This was an extremely innovative step at this time, with which the city of Solingen broke completely new territory in 1909. He also successfully supported the construction activities of the city's savings and construction association . It is thanks to Dicke that the city was comparatively politically stable in the turbulent years of the Weimar Republic due to its balancing nature across party lines, known as the “System Dicke”.

Despite all these services to the city, his resignation from office was inglorious: Dicke gave his alderman Matthias Rudolf Vollmar a free hand in lobbying for his city ​​association project . The Bergische Arbeiterstimme revealed in October 1927 that Vollmar had spent the money with full hands to win over journalists and to finance events; a film was even made and a book published. One expert alone received 20,000 Reichsmarks , the entire campaign only cost around 160,000 Marks in Alt-Solingen. When Vollmar tried to forge the minutes of the committee of inquiry responsible, Dicke covered him up. When the forgery became public, Dicke sought his immediate retirement.

One year after his retirement from office he died in 1929. The August-Dicke-Schule high school in Solingen and a street named after him remember him. When, after the death of Konrad Adenauer in 1967, the CDU sought to rename the school after the former Federal Chancellor, there was considerable resistance in the city and from the school’s students, and the project was finally abandoned.

According to Romeyk, the Protestant August Dicke was politically “moderately liberal or nationally liberal ”.

family

August Dicke had born Helene on May 2, 1893 in Schwelm. Falkenroth married († February 14, 1907), a daughter of the pensioner Wilhelm Falkenroth and Cornelia Falkenroth, geb. Schulte.

Honors

• 1899 Awarded the Order of the Red Eagle, 4th class
• 1908 Awarded the Royal Prussian Order of the Crown, 3rd class
• April 1, 1928 Awarded honorary citizenship by the city of Solingen

Web links

• Homepage of the August-Dicke-School

literature

• The members of Vandalia zu Heidelberg as of September 29, 1935 . Berlin 1936
• Michael Kiekenap: "August Dicke - Over 30 years as Lord Mayor of Solingen". In: ... and yet it moves! 125 years of high school August-Dicke-Schule . Festschrift, Solingen 1998. Online: gymnasium-august-dicke.de (PDF; 99 kB)
• Horst Romeyk : The leading state and municipal administrative officials of the Rhine Province 1816–1945 (=  publications of the Society for Rhenish History . Volume 69 ). Droste, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-7700-7585-4 , p. 411 f .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Kösener corps lists 1910, 122 , 547.
2. ↑ Volker Wünderich: Workers' Movement and Self- Administration . KPD and local politics in the Weimar Republic. With the example of Solingen . Wuppertal 1980. p. 30 f
3. ^ Horst Romeyk : The leading state and municipal administrative officials of the Rhine Province 1816–1945 (=  publications of the Society for Rhenish History . Volume 69 ). Droste, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-7700-7585-4 , p. 412 .