Erich Bockler

2nd page of the handover protocol from the city of Braunschweig dated April 12, 1945 with Bockler's signature (right).

Erich Bockler's grave in the main cemetery in Braunschweig (2014).

Erich Bockler (born September 30, 1899 in Hanover , † December 15, 1969 in Wiesbaden ) was a German lawyer and politician. In his function as the acting Lord Mayor of the city of Braunschweig , he handed the city over to the US Army on April 12, 1945 without a fight .

Life

Bockler studied law and received his doctorate at the University of Göttingen in 1922 . He then settled down as a lawyer . In the last days of the Second World War , shortly before the city of Braunschweig was occupied by units of the 30th US Infantry Division , after the suicide of the incumbent NSDAP Mayor Hans-Joachim Mertens on April 11, 1945 , Bockler was still by the National Socialist Prime Minister of Braunschweig Dietrich Klagges , appointed provisional Lord Mayor of the city.

In order to avoid further victims and destruction, Bockler handed over the city of Braunschweig in the early morning hours of April 12, 1945 without a fight to the Americans, who confirmed him in office on the same day. He held office for six weeks from April 11 to June 1, 1945. On May 1, 1945, Bockler initially took on the part-time post of Minister for Justice and National Education of the State of Braunschweig in the Schlebusch cabinet . After resigning from the office of mayor, he took over the ministerial post full-time on June 1st and kept it until the state of Braunschweig was merged into the newly created state of Lower Saxony in November 1946 .

Bockler's successor in the office of Lord Mayor of Brunswick was Ernst Böhme , who had already held this position from 1929 to 1933.

literature

• Claudia Böhler: Dr. Erich Bockler (1945). In: Henning Steinführer , Claudia Böhler (Hrsg.): The Braunschweiger Mayors. From the establishment of the office in the late Middle Ages to the 20th century. oeding print GmbH, Braunschweig 2013, ISBN 978-3-941737-68-6 , pp. 413-418.
• Braunschweiger Zeitung (ed.): End of the war. Special issue No. 2, Braunschweig 2005.
• Karl-Joachim Krause: Braunschweig between war and peace. The events before and after the surrender of the city on April 12, 1945 , Braunschweig 1994, ISBN 3-926701-22-6 .
• Norman-Mathias Pingel: Bockler, Erich. In: Manfred Garzmann , Wolf-Dieter Schuegraf (Hrsg.): Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon . Supplementary volume. Joh. Heinr. Meyer Verlag, Braunschweig 1996, ISBN 3-926701-30-7 , p. 23 f .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Gerhard Schildt (Ed.): Braunschweigische Landesgeschichte. Millennial review of a region , Braunschweig 2000, p. 1121
2. ↑ City Chronicle of Braunschweig 1945
3. ↑ City Chronicle of Braunschweig 1945