Ferdinand Friedensburg (politician, 1886)

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Ferdinand Friedensburg, 1946

Friedrich Wilhelm Ferdinand Friedensburg (born November 17, 1886 in Schweidnitz , Province of Silesia , † March 11, 1972 in West Berlin ) was a German politician ( DDP , later CDU ). From December 1946 to February 1951 he was Deputy Lord Mayor of Greater Berlin and then West Berlin. During the Berlin blockade , he represented Mayor Louise Schroeder, who was sick, for three and a half months .

Youth and job

He was born on November 17, 1886 in Schweidnitz in Silesia as the son of the numismatist Ferdinand Friedensburg and came into contact with politics at an early age. The family was liberal-conservative. His grandfather was the politician Ferdinand Friedensburg , his brother the General Walter Friedensburg . In 1889 the family moved to Berlin. He attended the Steglitz grammar school and, after graduating from high school and one year of practical training, began studying at the Prussian Bergakademie Berlin . There he received a comprehensive academic education, both in the natural sciences and in the humanities and law .

He was initially a mountain trainee; further studies led him to Marburg and to his Silesian homeland in Breslau . After receiving his doctorate in geology , he passed his exams as a mountain assessor in 1914 . During his studies Friedensburg joined the Association of German Students in Marburg. In the meantime Friedensburg did his military service as a one-year volunteer with the 2nd Silesian Field Artillery Regiment No. 42 in Schweidnitz.

First World War

On the return trip from a stay in America in 1914, Friedensburg (who had meanwhile reached the rank of lieutenant in the reserve) was interned by the British near Gibraltar . He tried to escape and broke both of his legs. This meant that any career prospects in the mining sector were shattered. In 1916 he was released as no longer fit for use in the war and brought to Switzerland for medical treatment . He stayed there until the end of the war and worked for the German embassy in Bern .

Weimar Republic and National Socialism

After the end of the war, Friedensburg returned to Berlin and initially devoted himself to journalism . Friedensburg became a member of the liberal DDP . In 1920 he began a career in general administration and became district administrator of the Rosenberg district in West Prussia . With great care he solved his tasks against the massive resistance of the large agrarians living there. In Berlin they noticed him and entrusted him with the office of Police Vice President of the Reich capital . The tenacity with which he stood up for the rule of law of the Weimar Republic and against extremism from the right and left in his office soon made his name a household name throughout Germany.

Due to pressure German national forces Ferdinand Friedensburg was "weggelobt" from Berlin and in March 1927 the provincial government of Kassel transported. The Kyffhäuser Association , the Association of German Students, excluded Friedensburg as early as 1926 because of its liberal republican stance. Friedensburg was involved in the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold , which was loyal to the republic .

The National Socialists initially gave him leave and released him from civil service in September 1933. During the time of National Socialist rule, he ensured his survival with scientific research work in his old subject, mining . In 1935 he was briefly imprisoned by the Gestapo .

Post-war Germany

Mayor in Berlin

Due to its strict political abstinence during the time of the Nazi dictatorship, Friedensburg was considered unencumbered after the war. He took over the management of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin . Marshal Zhukov appointed him President of the German Central Administration for the Fuel Industry in the Soviet occupation zone on August 1, 1945.

Friedensburg was a co-founder of the CDU in Berlin in 1945 . Due to arguments with his two communist vice-presidents Gustav Sobottka and Bergholz, whom he accused of technical incompetence, he was dismissed a year later on charges of “tolerating fascist activities”. In October 1946, elections to the Berlin city council took place for the first time since the end of Nazi rule . The city parliament elected him on December 5, 1946 as the first mayor of Greater Berlin and thus deputy to the SPD mayor Otto Ostrowski .

When the incumbent Lord Mayor Louise Schroeder was flown to Hamburg for medical treatment on August 14, 1948 after a significant deterioration in her health , Friedensburg took over the mayor's office in the eighth week of the Berlin blockade . On November 30, 1948, a rally called by the SED took place in the Admiralspalast , which proclaimed a “provisional democratic magistrate ”. As mayor was Friedrich Ebert ( SED ) used. The Soviet headquarters recognized the new magistrate as the only legitimate one. When Friedensburg wanted to enter his office in the eastern sector, he was prevented from doing so by the people's police . On December 1, the split was final.

Announcement of an election campaign event for the 1949 federal election in Herne with Friedensburg as speaker

On this date, Friedensburg's time as provisional lord mayor came to an end. Louise Schroeder formally resumed her official duties until December 7th. The polls for the city council were only allowed to take place in the western sectors. The Soviet city commander, General Kotikow , issued a ban on the eastern sector . Although the elections for the SPD were a huge victory (64.5 percent), the coalition with the CDU and the LDP was continued. Ferdinand Friedensburg belonged to the new city government as mayor again. After renewed elections on December 3, 1950, Friedensburg was no longer available to work in the new Senate and left office on February 1, 1951.

MP

Friedensburg moved into the German Bundestag on February 1, 1952 when the number of Berlin deputies increased and was also elected to the Bonn parliament by the Berlin House of Representatives in the following three legislative periods , to which he was a member until 1965. 1953 to 1957 he was deputy chairman of the Bundestag committee for the protection of the constitution and from 1957 to 1961 chairman of the "electoral committee according to § 6 of the law on the Federal Constitutional Court of March 12, 1951".

He was also a member of the European Parliament from February 27, 1958 to December 21, 1965.

Scientific work

At the same time he devoted himself to his work as a scientist. From 1945 to 1968 he was president of the German Institute for Economic Research , which he expanded into a distinguished institute for basic economic research. He also worked hard to promote the Society for Geography in Berlin, which he chaired from 1964 until his death. As a geoscientist and economist in one person, the interdisciplinary orientation of both sciences was very important to him. He achieved that from 1963-65 the Alexander von Humboldt House in Berlin-Steglitz was built for the society . In the field of mining, he took on teaching positions and wrote scientific papers on mining and smelting topics. Friedensburg rejoined the Kyffhäuser Association after it was re-established in 1953. In the tradition of student connections, in 1969 he co-founded the Ferdinand Friedensburg Foundation named after him. In the spirit of the initiator, it is still the task of the recognized non-profit association to support students and young academics and to promote their scientific work on state-political issues. Also in 1969 Friedensburg wrote down his memoirs (Athenaeum). In 1946 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

Social Commitment

From 1949 to 1954 Ferdinand Friedensburg was a member of the board of trustees of the Fürst Donnersmarck Foundation .

Awards

Berlin memorial plaque on the house at Hoiruper Strasse 14a, Berlin-Zehlendorf

In 1956 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit with a star. In 1961 he received the Federal Cross of Merit with a star and shoulder ribbon. On October 20, 1971, Ferdinand Friedensburg was made an honorary citizen of West Berlin. The Wayne State University , the University of Detroit and the Columbia University , New York City appointed him an honorary doctorate .

In the Haselhorst district of the Berlin district of Spandau , the green space designed after the construction of the underground ( U7 ) at the meeting of Gartenfelder Straße, Straße am Juliusturm , Nonnendammallee and Daumstraße was named Ferdinand-Friedensburg-Platz on September 16, 1987 .

tomb

He is buried in the Nikolassee cemetery in field A No. 10/11. There his grave is dedicated as an honor grave of the city of Berlin .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Ferdinand Friedensburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Member entry of Ferdinand Friedensburg at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on November 13, 2015.
  2. ^ Sebastian Weinert: 100 Years of the Fürst Donnersmarck Foundation 1916–2016. Berlin 2016. p. 71.
  3. ^ Ferdinand-Friedensburg-Platz. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
personal data
SURNAME Friedensburg, Ferdinand
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Friedensburg, Friedrich Wilhelm Ferdinand (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (DDP, CDU), MdB, MdEP
DATE OF BIRTH November 17, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Schweidnitz , Province of Silesia
DATE OF DEATH March 11, 1972
Place of death West Berlin