Francis Kruse

Francis Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Kruse (born May 28, 1854 in Cologne , † April 13, 1930 in Bad Godesberg ) was a Prussian district president in Bromberg , Minden and Düsseldorf .

Life

Putti relief (according to oral tradition the Kruse couple and the architects studying the building plans) on the back of the district government building, Kurt-Baurichter-Straße 2, Düsseldorf-Pempelfort

Kruse's father was the classical philologist and historian and editor-in-chief of the Cologne newspaper Heinrich Kruse from Stralsund in Western Pomerania . His mother Luise Menckhoff, however, came from Westphalia .

In August 1872 he received the certificate of maturity at the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Cologne . He studied on seven semesters law at the universities of Berlin , Heidelberg , Leipzig and Göttingen . In Göttingen he received his doctorate. iur. with a magna cum laude assessment . In 1876 he passed his examination as a trainee lawyer at the Kassel Court of Appeal with the assessment “sufficient”. In 1881 he passed the court assessor examination with the same assessment . From 1876 to 1877 he served as a one-year volunteer with the 2nd Guard Uhlan Regiment in Moabit , and later as a Rittmeister in the 10th Uhlan Regiment in Züllichau .

After his military service, he became a court clerk at the 1876 Superior Court appointed Berlin. In 1881 he was appointed court assessor there . In 1882 he was appointed government assessor for the administration of direct taxes in Berlin. In 1883 he took over temporarily the management of the district office in Altena and was finally appointed district administrator there in 1884. In 1891 he was appointed to the Ministry of the Interior for municipal employment . There he rose in 1892 appointment to the secret government council and lecturing council in the Ministry of the Interior. In 1886 he was promoted to the Secret Upper Government Council . In September 1901 he becomes the district president in Bromberg . In 1903 he became regional president in Minden . On October 27, 1909, he became President of the government in Düsseldorf . During Kruse's time, the representative seat of the Royal Prussian Government was established in Düsseldorf and he and his wife were the first residents of the presidential palace . Since the beginning of the war in 1914 he had to organize utilities there. After the end of the war in 1918, after the November Revolution, he succeeded in largely safeguarding public order. He - actually a staunch monarchist - called for cooperation with the revolutionary councils . For the Belgian occupied territories on the left bank of the Rhine , he ensured a minimum of communication by setting up an exchange. The founding of the state financial administration for the administrative districts of the Rhine Province with its seat in Cologne was largely due to him. According to official reports, he reached the general age limit in 1918 and was soon dismissed from civil service. However, disputes about the future management of various regional councils in the Rhine Province are said to have arisen, whereupon Kruse submitted a resignation in June 1919, which was granted on September 20. After leaving the Prussian civil service, Kruse lived in Bad Godesberg , where he also died.

Private

Kruse had been married to Margarete (died in Düsseldorf on March 10, 1917), the daughter of Carl Richard Zanders ' paper manufacturer, since 1881 . His son Werner Kruse (1886–1968) was the museum director in Mülheim an der Ruhr. Francis Kruse was a Protestant .

Aftermath

On January 20, 2003, an exhibition was opened in honor of Kruse. The opening was made by his successor in office, Jürgen Büssow, from Düsseldorf .

Memberships

In the course of his life, Kruse was a member of the following groups (with details of the function):

• Member of the Westphalian Provincial Parliament
• Director of the agricultural district association Altena
• Member of the Provincial Committee for the Preservation of Natural Monuments in the Province of Westphalia
• Board member of the Westphalian Provincial Association for Science and Art
• Founder of the Minden-Ravensberg Main Association for Art and Homeland Care
• Member of the German Colonial Society
• Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Coal Research Institute of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in Mülheim-Ruhr
• Curator of the Düsseldorf Art Academy
• Chairman of the Rhenish Transport Association
• Member of the Stahlhelm (political direction: monarchist )
• Member of the DNVP

Awards

Kruse received the following awards:

• Landwehr service award, 1st class
• Real Secret Upper Government Councilor, First Class
• Order of the Red Eagle II class with oak leaves, star and crown
• Order of the crown, 2nd class with star
• Iron Cross 2nd class on a white and black ribbon.

literature

• Erich Hoffmann : Dr. Francis Kruse, royal Prussian government president: A picture of life . Düsseldorf 1937.
• Gisbert Knopp :  Kruse, Francis. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , p. 148 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Francis Kruse in the catalog of the German National Library
• Short biography in the project Westphalian history.
• District government Düsseldorf: District President Kruse

Individual evidence

1. ^ Francis Kruse ⚭ November 3, 1881, in Bergisch-Gladbach: Zanders, Margarete (d. Düsseldorf March 10, 1917), parents: Karl Wilhelm Richard Zanders, paper manufacturer, and Maria Johanny-Abhoé lwl.org