Ellen Wiederhold

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Ellen Wiederhold (born November 21, 1921 in Hilden ; † September 4, 1995 ) was a German entrepreneur, politician and mayor ( CDU ).

Ellen Wiederhold, early 1960

School and study

After visiting the elementary school and the Helmholtz-Gymnasium she studied from 1940 at the Universities of Heidelberg and Bonn chemistry and science and a doctorate in 1949 with the theme " ester hexavalent sugar alcohols " to Dr. rer. nat.

Entrepreneur

After the death of her father Walter Wiederhold in 1959 she took over the management of Hermann Wiederhold Lackfabriken , which with 2500 employees and a turnover of 155 million D-Marks (1966) was one of the leading companies in this branch. The Hilden company had branches in Nuremberg and Etzen-Gesäß near Bad König . The "Ducolux" brand was known worldwide among the wide range of products. The company's customers included construction companies, automobile factories and the German Federal Railroad . Under Ellen Wiederhold, the first fluorescent daylight colors were developed in the company's laboratories between 1958 and 1969. Daylight red according to RAL 3024 increased the early recognizability of fire engines from 1969 and significantly reduced the number of accidents during emergency trips. The annual turnover of the paint factory Wiederhold rose to 280 million marks by the beginning of the 1970s.

Due to declining sales due to the first oil price crisis in the autumn of 1973 and the slack in the construction sector and in the automotive industry, she had to cede the company in 1975 to the British chemical group Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), which received a 70 percent share in the family company . She herself remained a member of the management for a few years. The British ICI was later taken over by the Dutch AkzoNobel group .

Mayoress

Mayor Ellen Wiederhold with chain of office

Ellen Wiederhold was Mayor of Hilden from 1969 to 1994, i.e. 25 years , she was the first woman in this office. She enjoyed great popularity because of her caring and social commitment to the citizens of the city and was therefore re-elected several times by large majorities.

She was the patron of the Association of Expellees from Silesia - the Hilden - Wohlau sponsorship . It promoted the city partnerships with the British city of Warrington and the Czech city of Nové Město . She maintained friendly contacts with the British military, which had been stationed in the city since the war, and then with the Bundeswehr, which moved into the Hildern Waldkaserne after the British withdrew . She supported the city's numerous social institutions and popular sports. Like her father, she was a board member and from 1968 to 1979 chairwoman of the Hilden Industrial Association. The city's excellent relationship with the former member of the Bundestag, Federal Minister and top politician Gerhard Schröder (CDU) (not to be confused with the later SPD Chancellor of the same name) was beneficial. Even when she was old, Ellen Wiederhold lived where she grew up, in the Red House at Düsseldorfer Strasse 101 in Hilden. In 1909, her father Walter Wiederhold acquired the country house of the building contractor Otto Nebel (* 1870), built in 1903 directly opposite the paint factory.

Honors

'Red House' - the birthplace and home of Ellen Wiederhold.

Ellen Wiederhold was revered by the citizens of the city and the employees of her company as a “maternal patroness”, who in politics and work - as a woman - “stood her husband”. The people of Hilden affectionately called them “Us Ellen” in their South Lower Franconian Platt (dialect)! Not least because of her commitment to the city and the company she ran, she remained unmarried, but became the mother of four adopted children.

For her services to the city of Hilden, she received the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class in September 1984 and the Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in September 1986 . The German Bundeswehr awarded her the Bundeswehr Cross of Honor in Gold in March 1984 . In November 1994 she was also made an honorary citizen of the city of Hilden. A square, a sports hall and a daycare center now bear her name.

literature

  • The rich in Germany . In: Der Spiegel . No. 37 , 1966 ( online ).
  • Friedhelm Gröteke: Cracks in the paint . In: Die Zeit , No. 34/1975.
  • Karl-Detlev Göbel: laudation on the occasion of the commemoration of the city of Hilden on the 80th birthday - Hilden 2001

Web links

Commons : Ellen Wiederhold  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hermann Wiederhold Lackfabriken (Ed.): 100 Years of Hermann Wiederhold Lackfabriken 1897 to 1997 , Hilden 1967, p. 114.
  2. ↑ Hans Jörg Wittsack: The phenomenon of 'cold light' in: Color + Design, Mitteilungsblatt des Deutsches Farbenzentrum eV, issue 47, 1989, p. 7ff.
  3. ↑ Christoph Schmidt: Hilden: Villa in Sleeping Beauty. In: Rheinische Post. August 9, 2011, accessed August 15, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Again, Ellen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (CDU)
DATE OF BIRTH November 21, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Hilden
DATE OF DEATH 4th September 1995