Erich Spiegel

Erich Spiegel (born October 15, 1919 in Gollnow ( Pomerania ), † September 15, 1984 in Moscow ) was Mayor of Szczecin in May 1945 . He then worked as a district administrator in the vicinity of Stettin until August 1945 .

Life and accomplishments

Spiegel was born in Gollnow in 1919 and grew up in Stettin . After attending school, he learned the profession of surveying technician from 1936 . In 1941 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht as a soldier . In 1944 he was taken prisoner by the Soviets. As a prisoner of war he joined the National Committee for Free Germany .

The Soviet occupation forces brought him to Stettin, which had been conquered by the Red Army on April 26, 1945 , and installed him there on May 2, 1945 as mayor. The occupying power initially concentrated the population remaining in Szczecin in the Zabelsdorf district, the so-called German protection area . Spiegel's activity as mayor was therefore limited to Zabelsdorf, where he set up a new city administration. However, Spiegel was soon replaced by Erich Wiesner (1897–1968). On May 26, 1945, the Soviet occupying power replaced Spiegel with Wiesner as mayor of Stettin.

Spiegel received the official title of District Administrator of Greater Stettin and at the same time that of Deputy Mayor of Stettin. In the function of district administrator, he administered the area around Stettin west of the Oder. Spiegel's district office was initially located in Stettin. When the Soviet occupation forces handed over the city of Stettin to the Polish state on July 5, 1945 , Spiegel moved his district office to Hohenholz , north of Penkun . There it took over the administration for those parts of the Randow district that did not come to Poland. Spiegel remained district administrator until August 1945. He then worked as a resettlement officer in Western Pomerania until October 1945 .

From November 1945 to 1978 Spiegel held leading positions in the construction industry in the Soviet zone of occupation and later in the GDR . He died in 1984 while traveling in Moscow.

literature

• Willi Neuhoff: Erich Spiegel - 1945 first post-war mayor in Szczecin. In: Stettiner Bürgerbrief. No. 24, 1998, ISSN  1619-6201 , pp. 60-63.