Christian Koch (politician)

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Christian Koch

Christian Koch (born May 10, 1878 in Hamburg ; † October 30, 1955 there ) was a Hamburg politician. He was head of the Hahnöfersand juvenile prison and second mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg for the Free Democratic Party (FDP).

Life until 1945

Koch completed administrative training and worked in the middle class. He was initially a bailiff and after some time was appointed director of the Hamburg bailiff's office.

From 1908 to 1933 Koch was a member of the Hamburg parliament . He was initially a member of the United Liberals Group . After the end of the First World War he participated in the founding of the German Democratic Party . In 1919/20 he was a member of the Weimar National Assembly .

In 1920 he became head of the Hamburg prisons and immediately began lifting corporal punishments or banning speech. Later he was also the director of the joint penitentiary office for the states of Braunschweig , Bremen , Lübeck and Oldenburg .

During the Kapp Putsch he supported - like the entire Hamburg Senate - the democratic government . For the DDP and the two social democratic parties ( Social Democratic Party of Germany and Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany ) he spoke to the citizens on this occasion: “We do not want fratricidal war; but if those unscrupulous people want him, then go ahead. We are ready to give our lives so that what we have achieved is preserved for the German people. "

As the first head of the Hahnöfersand juvenile prison, he tried to make everyday prison life more humane. He campaigned for the rehabilitation of prisoners after their release from prison.

As a result of the Nazi takeover of power , Koch was dismissed from his post in 1933 as a representative of the “soft wave” in the context of the Gleichschaltung .

Politics after 1945

On September 20, 1945, Christian Koch became the founding chairman of the Free Democrats Party (PFD), which was founded on the basis of the Weimar DDP and as the continuation of a resistance and post-war association Free Hamburg. The FDP was formed six months later from the PFD in the British zone .

In 1946 he was elected second  mayor in the Senate Max Brauer . His term of office lasted from November 15, 1946 to February 28, 1950. At the same time, he was a member of the Hamburg parliament . The FDP excluded him on October 11, 1949, so that he continued his work as a non-party senator for four and a half months.

Head of the prison authority

He headed the prison authorities of the city of Hamburg and once again successfully campaigned for a humane prison system . On September 6, 1948, Christian Koch, as a senator, gave a short address to employees of his department. The occasion was the handover of the site of the former Neuengamme concentration camp to the city of Hamburg. The event closed with the hoisting of the Hamburg flag on the tower of the former SS headquarters. From then on, the city of Hamburg used the buildings and grounds for prison purposes until 2003 and 2006 respectively.

Honors

The former youth detention center Christian-Koch-Haus was named after him because of his performance in the prison system. Until 2005, the Christian Koch House housed an open youth detention center on Schloßstraße (Hamburg).

In 1950 he was awarded the “ Mayor Stolten Medal ” - Hamburg's highest honor.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gabrielsson: Mayor, p. 29.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Möller: Of visions and experiments
  3. ^ Obituary by Adolph Schönfelder based on the plenary minutes of the Hamburg Parliament, 19th meeting in 1955.
  4. ↑ a b Jochmann: Hamburg, p. 273.
  5. ^ Jochmann: Hamburg, p. 185.
  6. ↑ Festschrift 60 Years of Political Liberalism in Hamburg ( Memento of May 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (pdf), p. 5/6, p. 26, p. 29.
  7. ^ List of Hamburg mayors since 1293
  8. ↑ Publication of the Neuengamme Memorial ( Memento from December 15, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Prison Online
  10. ^ List of Mayor Stolten medal holders

literature

  • Werner Jochmann : Hamburg - history of the city and its inhabitants. From the empire to the present. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1986.
  • Peter Gabrielsson : Mayor, Senators, Councilors of State of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. (Association for Hamburg History, Volume 50). Hamburg 1996.
  • Michael Möller : About visions and experiments. The organization of youth arrest in Hamburg and its experience from the perspective of the arrested. Diploma thesis at the University of Hamburg, Hamburg 2002.
  • Uwe Schmidt , Helmut Stubbe da Luz : The officials and trade unionists: Karl Raue, Carl Grevsmühl, Christian Koch. (Hamburgische Lebensbilder, Volume 14). Bremen 2007.
  • Martin Schumacher (Hrsg.): MdR The Reichstag members of the Weimar Republic in the time of National Socialism. Political persecution, emigration and expatriation, 1933–1945. A biographical documentation . 3rd, considerably expanded and revised edition. Droste, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-7700-5183-1 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Koch, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (DDP, FDP), MdHB
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH October 30, 1955
Place of death Hamburg