Carl Wilhelm Otto Koch
Carl Wilhelm Otto Koch (born May 3, 1810 in Graßdorf ; † August 14, 1876 in Connewitz near Leipzig ) was a German lawyer and politician . From 1849 to 1876 he was mayor of Leipzig.
Life
Koch was the son of a council chief forester and attended the Leipzig Nikolaischule from 1823 to 1829 . He then studied law at the University of Leipzig from 1829 to 1832 . He graduated with doctorate to Dr. jur. from. In 1832 he worked as an actuary at the Leipzig tax office. From 1833 he was a royal Saxon notary and from 1836 assessor at the Royal Main Tax Office in Leipzig. In 1841 he settled as a lawyer in Leipzig - with a law firm in the house at Reichsstrasse 1.
Services
From 1844 to 1847 Koch was a national liberal city councilor in Leipzig and was a member of the committee for churches, schools and charitable foundations and the deputation for market affairs and local statuary matters . On May 11, 1848, he was elected to the Frankfurt National Assembly as a member of the 7th Saxon constituency ( Borna ) , of which he was a member from May 18, 1848 to May 30, 1849. He joined the parliamentary groups Württemberger Hof and Augsburger Hof . He was often absent due to illness. At the same time, he held the office of Vice Mayor of Leipzig in 1848/1849 and was then mayor of Leipzig from June 30, 1849 until his death. In 1849/1850 he represented the 22nd constituency in the second chamber of the Saxon state parliament . After the electoral law of 1833 was reintroduced in the spring of 1850, he took up the mandate associated with his office as mayor of Leipzig in the first chamber of the state parliament. During his term of office, the Leipzig council decided that his official title should in future be called Lord Mayor . Koch did not accept the decision. Only his successor Otto Georgi carried this title from 1877.
During his tenure, the large cultural buildings on Augustusplatz , the picture museum and the new theater , were built and the park was designed between Schillerstrasse and Roßplatz. Koch was extremely committed and interested in these prestigious construction projects. For the New Theater he corresponded with the already old, but most well-known theater architect of the time, Carl Ferdinand Langhans , and was able to win him over for the building project. The buildings of the St. Jakob Hospital , the New Nikolaischule on Königstrasse and the Georgenhalle also fell during his term of office. By 1858 he also succeeded in paying off all the city treasury's debts. Thus, he is considered to be the pioneer of the economic and cultural development of Leipzig into one of the most important cities in the Kingdom of Saxony .
Honors
In 1859 Koch was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Leipzig. On the occasion of his 25th anniversary as mayor and in recognition of his successful administration, he became an honorary citizen of the city of Leipzig on May 13, 1873 - while he was still in office .
In 1873 a street in the community of Connewitz was named after him. Five days after Koch's death, it was decided to extend Kochstrasse to Leipzig by renaming Connewitzer Strasse. Today's Kochstrasse was part of the Via Imperii for centuries and led through meadows and fields to the village of Connewitz. Many wealthy families built country houses there, including Otto Koch; his house was on the corner of Gustav-Freytag-Strasse.
The Leipzig merchant Ferdinand Rhode suggested a memorial for Otto Koch in Leipzig in his will in 1867. After several drafts and discussions about the location, it was only made 31 years later by the Leipzig sculptor Carl Seffner . On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Koch's inauguration, the memorial was inaugurated on May 16, 1899 by his successor Georgi.
literature
- Hans Blum: Mayor and citizens. Karl Wilhelm Otto Koch, Mayor of Leipzig. In: Die Gartenlaube , year 1876, p. 38, p. 631.
- Emil Wörner: The Mayor of Leipzig Dr. Otto Koch . In: Writings of the Association for the History of Leipzig , Volume 11 (1917), pp. 101 ff.
- Karin Kühling, Doris Mundus: Leipzig's ruling mayors from the 13th century to the present. An overview with biographical sketches. Sax-Verlag, Beucha 2000, ISBN 3-934544-02-9 , p. 60 f.
- Doris Mundus: On the way to the big city. Dr. Karl Wilhelm Otto Koch. Mayor of Leipzig 1849 to 1876. In: Leipziger Blätter , No. 36 (2000), pp. 75–77.
Web links
- Otto Koch in the Leipzig Lexicon
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thorsten Tonndorf: The Saxon Members of the Frankfurt Pre- and National Assembly. Dissertation, Dresden 1993, p. 211 ff.
- ^ Josef Matzerath : Aspects of Saxon State Parliament History. Presidents and members of parliament from 1833 to 1952. Dresden 2001, p. 110.
- ^ Josef Matzerath: Aspects of Saxon State Parliament History. Presidents and members of parliament from 1833 to 1952. Dresden 2001, p. 44.
- ↑ Horst Riedel: Stadtlexikon Leipzig from A to Z . Ed .: PRO LEIPZIG. 2nd Edition. Leipzig 2012, ISBN 978-3-936508-03-1 , pp. 306 .
- ↑ leipzig.de: Leipzig honorary citizen.
- ↑ a b Gina Klank; Gernot Griebsch: Lexicon of Leipzig street names. Verlag im Wissenschaftszentrum Leipzig, Leipzig 1995, ISBN 3-930433-09-5 , p. 124.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Koch, Carl Wilhelm Otto |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Koch, Otto |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German lawyer and politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 3, 1810 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Graßdorf |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 14, 1876 |
| Place of death | Connewitz |