Emil Kraus

Emil Kraus' grave in the main cemetery in Mainz

Emil Kraus (born May 29, 1893 in Konstanz , † September 7, 1972 in Mainz ) was Lord Mayor of Mainz from August 17, 1945 to February 21, 1949.

Life

Emil Kraus passed his Abitur in 1912. He studied law and economics, as well as literature and philosophy at the universities of Munich , Berlin, Freiburg and Marburg . He received his doctorate on the subject of "The System Thought in Kant and Fichte" in 1915 at the University of Marburg.

From November 1915 he served as a soldier in the First World War on the Western Front. From 1919 to 1921 he was the chief political editor of the “Heidelberger Volkszeitung” and for the SPD a member of the Baden state parliament . From 1922 Kraus was managing director of the Central Association of Employees (ZdA) . In 1925 he became mayor of the city of Kehl . When the city of Mainz was looking for a new alderman after Bernhard Adelung left in 1928, Kraus applied and received the post because of his good cooperation with the French military government, which he demonstrated in Kehl.

On July 15, 1929 he became a salaried alderman of the city of Mainz, where he initially worked for personnel and welfare and was appointed mayor in 1931. After a failed candidacy for the office of Lord Mayor and internal party disputes, Kraus left the SPD in 1932. A little later he was ousted from the office of mayor by the National Socialists. He then worked as a tax advisor for Jewish families, among others, and was drafted as a soldier from 1941 to 1945.

Lord Mayor of Mainz

Emil Kraus was appointed Lord Mayor on August 17, 1945 by the French occupying forces. He worked closely and cooperatively with Louis Théodore Kleinmann , the French city commandant and district delegate. On September 22, 1946 he was democratically elected (30 votes in favor, no against, six abstentions).

Events during his tenure

• Origin of the AKK conflict
• Construction of temporary bridges:
  • Alexander M. Patch Bridge
  • George C. Marshall Bridge
• Re-establishment of the university under the name Johannes Gutenberg University (1946)
• Elevation of Mainz to the capital of the newly founded federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate (1946)
• Re-establishment of the city council (1946)
• Restoration of destroyed cultural monuments in Mainz begins
• State Parliament (1947)
• Currency Reform (1948)
• First post-war Catholic Day "The Christ in the Need of Time" (1948)

Lord Mayor in Frankenthal (Palatinate)

After he was not re-elected in Mainz in 1949 (election victory of the SPD ), he was Lord Mayor of Frankenthal (Palatinate) from 1949 to 1959 .

The Emil-Kraus-Weg on the Römerwall in Mainz is named after him.

literature

• Susanne Asche, Ernst Otto Bräunche: Street of Democracy - Revolution, Constitution and Law. Info Verlag, Karlsruhe, 2007. 300 pages with overview map. ISBN 978-3-88190-483-4
• Franz Dumont (ed.), Ferdinand Scherf , Friedrich Schütz : Mainz - The history of the city. Verlag Philipp von Zabern , Mainz 1999 (2nd edition), ISBN 3-8053-2000-0
• Bruno Funk, Wilhelm Jung : The Mainz town hall self-published by the Mainz municipal administration, the Mainz publishing house and Will & Rothe printing company 1974
• Wilhelm Huber: The Mainz Lexicon. Verlag Hermann Schmidt, Mainz 2002, ISBN 3-87439-600-2

Web links

• Speeches by Emil Kraus in the Baden state parliament in the digital collections of the Badische Landesbibliothek