Eduard Spoelgen

Eduard Spoelgen (born May 8, 1877 in Aachen , † September 29, 1975 in Bonn ) was a German architect , municipal building officer and local politician ( center / CDU ), from 1945 to 1948 he was Lord Mayor of Bonn.

Life

Eduard Spoelgen was the son of the classical philologist Johann Spoelgen, who taught as a senior teacher at the Realgymnasium in Aachen. After completing his studies and initial activities as part of his legal clerkship in Berlin , Cologne and Elberfeld and as a city planning inspector in Essen , Spoelgen came to Bonn in 1920, where he took over the management of the building construction and urban development department as an alderman .

Spoelgen had his first practical test when Mayor Johannes Falk and other high-ranking officials were expelled from the occupied territory by the French occupying forces in 1923. Commissioned with the provisional management of the city administration, he led the defense of the old town hall against the separatists .

After the NSDAP came to power in Bonn in March 1933 , the acting Lord Mayor Ludwig Rickert suspended almost all senior officials, including Spoelgen. A year later, the coercion took place retirement .

Spoelgen returned to his hometown and worked there as a conservator and building manager for the diocese of Aachen .

Twelve days after the occupation of Bonn in March 1945, the US occupiers reappointed him as head of the city administration. Spoelgen was chairman first of the council of five and later of the council of twelve. After the introduction of dual leadership in the municipalities by the British, he held the post of Lord Mayor and Head of Administration until Johannes Langendörfer became City Director in 1947 .

In 1948 Spoelgen retired.

In addition to his position as Lord Mayor, Spoelgen was chairman of the Beautification Association for the Siebengebirge (VVS) from 1945 to 1949 , which then made him an honorary member. In addition, he was on the board of the Rhenish Association for Monument Preservation and Landscape Protection . From 1957 to 1965 he was chairman of the board of trustees of the St. Johannes Hospital, of which he had been a member since 1945.

Awards

• The Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn made Eduard Spoelgen an honorary citizen and later an honorary senator because of his services to the university during the occupation in February 1926 .
• In 1949, one year after his resignation as Lord Mayor, he was given honorary citizenship of the city of Bonn .
• In 1983 a street in Bonn-Castell was named after him.

Fonts

• (as editor): Bonn and its near and far surroundings. Bonn 1926.
• Preservation of monuments and homeland protection in the planning of our cities. The city of Bonn as an example. In: The home is alive. Legacy and Commitment. (= Yearbook of the Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Heimatschutz , 1955/1956.) Neuss 1956, pp. 64–77.
• From Bonn's recent past. Memories of Eduard Spoelgen. In: Bonner Geschichtsblätter , 15th year 1961, pp. 417–469.
• From Bonn's recent past. Memories of the years 1923, 1924 and 1925. In: Bonner Geschichtsblätter , 18th year 1964, pp. 117–153.

literature

• Karl-Heinz Eschweiler: Eduard Spoelgen 90 years old. In: Rheinische Heimatpflege . 4th year, 1967, p. 185.
• 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. 306 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Eduard-Spoelgen-Strasse in the Bonn street cadastre