Gustav Hasselbach

This article deals with the Lord Mayor of Magdeburg; for the tax officer of the same name (1818–1898) see: Gustav Hasselbach (tax officer) .

Gustav Hasselbach

Carl Gustav Friedrich Hasselbach (born March 21, 1809 in Stettin , † April 21, 1882 in Magdeburg ) was a secret government councilor, local politician and mayor of Magdeburg for over 30 years.

Life

He was the son of the Prussian judiciary Gustav Hasselbach (1778-1818) and Charlotte born. Cober († 1823). Hasselbach first attended school in Stettin and then studied law and camera studies in Göttingen and Berlin . In 1830 he entered the Prussian civil service. In 1836 he came to Magdeburg as the Deputy Departmental Domain Councilor. In 1839 he became the Executive Council and appointed by Gumbinnen added. After a brief renewed activity in Magdeburg in 1842, he was transferred to the royal house ministry. After his appointment to the Upper Government Council , he became department head in Minden .

In 1850 he was a member of the Volkshaus of the Erfurt Union Parliament . On August 20, 1851, he was elected first mayor in Magdeburg. This election was preceded by the most violent political disputes. In 1848 the last Lord Mayor , August Wilhelm Francke, resigned because of the conflicts in the 1848 Revolution . Magdeburg had not had a mayor for three years. There was a strong liberal majority in the city council. A possible liberal candidate was Victor von Unruh . However, since a lord mayor had to be confirmed by the crown, as a result of the failed revolution of 1848/1849, there was no prospect of enforcing a liberal lord mayor. All the more so because there was a strong free religious community in the city under Leberecht Uhlich , which the government saw as a political danger. The conservative and loyal to the king Hasselbach was therefore given up to fight this community.

Hasselbach, however, showed that he was capable of compromising with the city council and thus ensured a clear calming of the political situation in Magdeburg. On the occasion of laying the foundation stone for a renovation of the Augustinian monastery in October 1853, Hasselbach succeeded in winning the King of Prussia Friedrich Wilhelm IV to visit the city. The king had avoided the city since the Free Congregation gained strength in 1848. After this visit, the extremely conservative Hasselbach was appointed Lord Mayor.

During Hasselbach's term of office, the city developed into a modern industrial and large city. Various important modernizations have been initiated. The construction of the Buckau waterworks, the regulation of the sewage issue, gas lighting and street paving took place. In 1862 a new bridge over the river Elbe was inaugurated. The most important project, however, was the city expansion. Magdeburg was a fortress city and therefore narrowly bounded in its extension by the fortress belt. However, the development to a modern city made an expansion necessary. Settlement of industrial companies was practically impossible within the city and therefore took place in the suburbs, especially in Buckau . In 1867, Sudenburg was first incorporated. In 1871 Magdeburg succeeded in acquiring large parts of the fortress grounds in the west and south of the city, a total of 54 hectares, for which loans were taken out. The areas obtained in this way (in the west to Bahnhofstrasse, in the south to today's Hasselbachplatz) were built on until 1885. Private buildings but also municipal facilities such as schools, the municipal theater and the guard of the professional fire brigade were built, some of which have been preserved to this day. In 1874 a new central train station was built on this site, which again made Magdeburg very important for rail traffic. With the expansion, the constriction of the city was broken. Magdeburg developed into an industrial city. The large Rudolf Wolf machine works came into being ; Hermann Gruson and Schäffer & Budenberg .

Hasselbach was a member of the provincial parliament of the province of Saxony and became deputy chairman there in 1875.

Politically, Hasselbach remained conservative and belonged to various organizations with a conservative and clerical orientation. For example, he refused to provide the town hall hall for a funeral service for the honorary citizen Leberecht Uhlich. He fought the emerging social democracy with state resources .

In 1881 Hasselbach became an honorary citizen of the city on his 30th anniversary in service and left office. A short time later he passed away.

Oskar von Hasselbach was a son.

Honors

In November 1890 the city of Magdeburg erected a monument to him with the Hasselbach fountain at the southernmost point of the city expansion he had achieved, today's Hasselbachplatz . A street ( Hasselbachstraße ) and a square (Hasselbachplatz) were named after Hasselbach in the expansion area.

literature

• Jochen Lengemann : The German Parliament (Erfurt Union Parliament) from 1850. A manual: Members, officials, life data, parliamentary groups (= publications of the Historical Commission for Thuringia. Large series, Vol. 6). Urban & Fischer, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-437-31128-X , pp. 156–157.
• Mathias Tullner : Hasselbach, Carl Gustav Friedrich. In: Guido Heinrich, Gunter Schandera (ed.): Magdeburg Biographical Lexicon 19th and 20th centuries. Biographical lexicon for the state capital Magdeburg and the districts of Bördekreis, Jerichower Land, Ohrekreis and Schönebeck. Scriptum, Magdeburg 2002, ISBN 3-933046-49-1 ( article online ).
• Martin Wiehle : Magdeburg personalities. Published by the Magistrate of the City of Magdeburg, Department of Culture. imPuls Verlag, Magdeburg 1993, ISBN 3-910146-06-6 .
• Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of the noble houses . Gotha, Justus Perthes, 1907.
• Magdeburg mayor . Magdeburg, Magdeburg City Archives, 1993.
• Magdeburg Weekly Show . 3 Apr 1877.
• Magdeburg newspaper . Obituary. 21 Apr 1882.