Eldor Pohl

Eldor Pohl

Eldor Pohl (born January 9, 1857 in Grünthal ; † April 22, 1935 in Tilsit ) was a German administrative lawyer and mayor of Tilsit from 1900 to 1924 .

Life

After graduating from high school in Bartenstein , Pohl studied law at the Albertus University in Königsberg . In the winter semester of 1878/79 he became active in the Corps Masovia , although the Corps had left the Königsberg Seniors' Convent and thus the Kösener SC Association in 1876 and remained in isolation for four years. Pohl proved to be a good fencer and was consenior twice . In the autumn of 1880 his nose was chopped off on a scale length . She was found in a kimono . After several operations in the Königsberg surgery, Pohl was recognized throughout his life by his "perfectly bold" nose. After the exams, Pohl was already employed as a court assessor for the city administration of Königsberg i. Pr. On leave and elected to the city ​​council in 1895 .

Tilsit

Market and town hall in Tilsit, 1930

Five years later, Tilsit elected him for twelve years as the successor to Lord Mayor Robert Thesing. East Prussia's second largest city, due to its favorable location on the Memel, flourished rapidly in the 19th century and was considered a city of trade and traffic. The epithet "City without equal" has been on her for many decades because of the structure of the school system. The humanistic Royal Liechtenstein Provincial School had existed since 1586 . Soon after Pohl moved into the town hall, you could feel his energetic personality in all community questions. When he took up the job, the city had around 30,000 inhabitants, and when he left 24 years later it had almost 50,000 inhabitants. The city got a tram as early as 1900 . The road network and the sewer system were expanded and a new water tower was built. In 1908 the new villa district on the Schloßmühlenteich with its facilities, the new secondary school and a botanical garden was opened up and connected with a road bridge. Playgrounds, old people's homes, schools, a horse racing field and promenades after the city forest were created. One of the first German crematoria stood in the new forest cemetery . The urban area expanded through the purchase of properties. The theater was given special care. New quays were built on the Memel. The 416 m long Königin-Luise-Brücke, completed in 1907 with its sweeping arch, became the city's landmark. The parks in Jakobsruhe got a new look. On December 2, 1912, Pohl was elected Lord Mayor of the city for a further twelve years.

1914

Honorary Citizen's Letter

Pohl became widely known in August / September 1914, when troops of the Russian Empire occupied the city at the beginning of the First World War . Pohl remained at his post with the magistrate's college and still had to take over the business of two district administrators . His prudent behavior helped save the city, which suffered little damage. It was thanks to him that the Königin-Luise-Bridge and the railway bridge over the Memel were preserved. German pioneers demolished them on the night of 24/25. August 1914. The decisive moment was when the Russian city commandant, Lieutenant Colonel Bogdanow, put the foreign flag in Pohl's hand to hoist in front of the town hall. Pohl passed it on to a firefighter who had to do the inevitable. He proved this calm and prudent behavior as an example for the citizens during the entire occupation period from 24/25. August to September 12th. Every day he had to drive to the dragoon barracks. His appearance and actions determined the tsarist troops to be equally reluctant. Pohl ensured peace and order and maintained the changed economic life. The schools were opened and plainclothes police were deployed. The contribution could be absorbed by municipal emergency money . When the Russian troops had to give way after the fighting on September 12th and 13th, the population made enthusiastic demonstrations for their mayor on a tour through the town. The town council made Pohl an honorary citizen on September 14th, 1914 . A promenade at the castle pond was named after him.

Head of administration in Vilnius

On September 19, 1915, Pohl, who had received the Iron Cross on a white ribbon and had become Captain of the Reserve in the Grenadier Regiment "Kronprinz" (1st East Prussian) No. 1 , was moved from Ober Ost as First Mayor to head the German City administration of Vilnius appointed. Colonel-General Hermann von Eichhorn praised Pohl's restless work in a letter dated September 20, 1916. In early 1916, Pohl appointed his corps brother Kurt Pilz as second mayor and permanent representative of the city governor, as Pohl has been called in Vilna since 1916. In 1917 he was already working more at his old post and in July 1918 he took over his business in Tilsit again.

Weimar Republic

The so-called Peace Treaty of Versailles hit Prussian Lithuania hard because the Lithuanian hinterland was cut off. Economic ties to the north and east dissolved, the flourishing timber trade and the cutting mill industry stagnated. Before 1914, up to 4,000 wood drifts with around two million solid cubic meters of wood came down the Memel every year . The pulp mill was considered the second largest in Europe. The German inflation 1914 to 1923 and unemployment did theirs. The construction of the industrial and wooden docks, the housing construction, the modernization of the professional fire brigade and, last but not least, the incorporation of the outlying communities of Tilsit testified to Pohl's enormous and steadfast drive in those years. As a member of the German Democratic Party , he sat in the provincial parliament of the East Prussia province from 1919 to 1923 . Re-elected for the constituency of Gumbinnen 13 (Tilsit) in 1921, he resigned as parliamentary group leader on September 12, 1923. In the spring of 1924, at the age of 67, he retired.

literature

• Hans Lippold: The head of the "city without equal". Altmärker-Masuren newspaper 30, Kiel 1962, p. 407f.
• Rüdiger Döhler : Corps Masovia. The 175-year history of Königsberg's oldest and Potsdam's first corporation in the 21st century. Munich 2005, ISBN 3-00-016108-2 , pp. 461-464.
• 24. Tilsit circular letter. (1994/95), pp. 21-24.

Web links

• Lord Mayor of Tilsit

References and comments

1. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 87/734
2. ↑ Tilsits town hall was built in 1755 and 1857 under the mayor Heinrich Kleffel rebuilt
3. ^ Kurt Pilz Masoviae, Guestphaliae Jena; Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 87/884; 70/343.
4. ^ Norbert Korfmacher: Provisional list of members of the East Prussian Provincial Parliament 1919 to 1933. (PDF; 363 kB)