Ferdinand Friedensburg (politician, 1824)

Ferdinand Friedensburg

Ferdinand Julius Ernst Friedensburg (born October 27, 1824 in Beeskow an der Spree , † March 5, 1891 in Sanremo ) was a German lawyer and Lord Mayor of Breslau .

Life

When he was four years old, he came to Breslau, where his father, who had participated in the Wars of Liberation as an officer, had been transferred as a tax inspector in 1828. From 1831 he attended the Elisabet-Gymnasium there ; At Easter 1843 he received the Matura. He enrolled at the University of Wroclaw to study law. In 1843 he became active in the Breslau fraternity and received the vulgo name "Kuffe" to protect against the " demagogue persecution " at the time . During his studies from 1843 to 1846, Friedensburg was elected spokesman for the fraternities several times because of his excellent leadership qualities . He brought about large student assemblies and caused a general court of honor for the entire student body (not just for the student corps) to be passed.

After Friedensburg had passed the first state examination in 1846 and obtained his doctorate , he worked at the Wroclaw City Court as an "auscultator" (trainee lawyer) and then as a trainee lawyer at the "Court of Appeal" in Wroclaw. With his military service he also got the qualification as an officer. After the second state examination (1851) he became a district judge in Freystadt (probably in today's Kożuchów ), later in Liegnitz (today's Legnica ). In 1861 he was transferred to the Wroclaw City Court as a city judge; in 1865 he left the judge's career and became a lawyer. During this time - until his mayor election - he was one of the city court's busiest lawyers. In 1865 he received the title of judicial councilor.

Lord Mayor of Wroclaw

When the then Lord Mayor of Wrocław, Max von Forckenbeck, resigned in 1879 to hold the same position in Berlin, Friedensburg was elected to the free office.

Wroclaw, a rapidly growing city, has a lot to thank this man for. The following are emphasized: replacement of the patronage right, introduction of electric lighting, the solution of the then important slaughterhouse and slaughter cattle market issue, extensive new school buildings and planting of a botanical school garden, redesign of teachers' salaries and "relict care" (pensions) for teachers and civil servants, redesign of the municipal sanitary system and public health care, new construction of the registry office, the city savings bank and city library, the formation of a retirement savings bank (in order to encourage every fellow citizen to provide for their old age in a liberal sense, in contrast to today's welfare state), also the entire beautification of the city etc.

The electrification of the tram was initiated, steel bridges were built, a new, state-of-the-art station was set up for “care for the insane”, and the planning for shipping and flood control was completed.

The city was covered with a network of lavatories, popularly known as "peace castles".

Friedensburg represented the city of Wroclaw, at that time the second city of Prussia, in the Prussian manor house . For many years he sat in the provincial parliament and was a member of the Provincial Committee of Silesia. He followed the ideals of the fraternity, his student union, all his life.

He was politically active in the Progressive Party in Wroclaw and as chairman of the progressive electoral association, and as Lord Mayor he remained true to his liberal beliefs. Bismarck judged him: "This castle of peace is indeed an annoying liberal, but you have to give him that, he is a good fellow!"

To recover from serious illness, he traveled to Sanremo on the Italian Riviera at the end of 1890 . He died there on March 5, 1891, five days before the end of his twelve-year term , making Friedensburg the first Lord Mayor of Wroclaw to have died “on duty”.

In his honor, the city named a Friedensburg Street north of the cathedral island, which is now called "ulica Mieszka I".

family

Friedensburg was married to Clara Franz and had three children. His unmarried youngest daughter Gertrud accompanied him on his last trip to the Ligurian Mediterranean coast . His son Ferdinand (1858–1930) was a lawyer and numismatist, he wrote about medieval and modern coin studies.

His grandson Ferdinand Friedensburg (1886–1972) was Deputy Mayor of Greater Berlin from December 1946 to February 1951 . During the Berlin blockade , he represented Mayor Louise Schroeder, who was sick, for three and a half months .

His great-grandson Ferdinand Friedensburg (1917–2009) was a diplomat and u. a. German ambassador to Madagascar .

portrait

The official painting by Ferdinand Friedensburg, which shows him with the chain of mayors, hung in the Wroclaw City Hall, but has been missing since the Second World War.

As a replacement, the Friedensburg family donated a portrait, made in 1890 by the Silesian painter Max Krusemark (1852–1905), to the city of Wroclaw. During a ceremony in Wrocław on September 18, 2010, Theodor-Alexander Friedensburg, a descendant of Ferdinand Julius Ernst Friedensburg, presented the oil painting, which has been in the family's possession, to the former mayor and then Polish Minister for Culture and National Heritage Bogdan Zdrojewski . The picture is now on display in a room in the Wroclaw Castle, where other memorabilia from the former mayor are being presented to the public. Among other things, a leather-bound certificate of thanks from the members of the magistrate's office, which was lavishly decorated by Karl Klimm, was made available by the Wroclaw Collections in Cologne for their collaboration during Friedensburg's tenure.

swell

• Schlesische Zeitung of March 13, 1891
• gazeta from September 19, 2010

literature

• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Sub-Volume 2: F-H. Winter, Heidelberg 1999, ISBN 3-8253-0809-X , pp. 75-76.