Franz Stein (politician)

Franz Stein (born April 24, 1900 in Mainz ; † September 14, 1967 in South Tyrol ) was a German economist , politician ( SPD ) and Lord Mayor of Mainz from March 11, 1949 to January 21, 1965.

Activity before the mayor's office

Stein was born the son of the businessman Wilhelm Stein and went to the Leibniz School in Mainz Neustadt. In 1914 he began an apprenticeship at the Hof-Bierbrauerei Schöfferhof AG in his hometown. From 1917 he worked in the financial administration of the Schöfferhof-Binding-Bürgerbräu on the Mainzer Kästrich and rose to the position of brewery director. Stein joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1925. To alleviate the housing shortage in Mainz, he founded the non-profit building and settlement company with Fritz Ohlhof , which built the Friedrich-Ebert-Siedlung from 1928 to 1930. Stein was active in the social democracy and in the trade union and built up the Mainz employment office in 1945 on behalf of Mayor Rudolph Walther and headed it for a short time. From the beginning of 1946 he worked in the Hessian Ministry of Labor in Wiesbaden . The victory of the SPD in the local elections of 1948 brought him the office of Mayor of Mainz.

Departure in Mainz

Stein worked with his employees on a targeted departure to put an end to the lethargy in war-torn Mainz. The Electoral Palace was rebuilt in 1949 and the road bridge over the Rhine , named after Federal President Theodor Heuss , was rebuilt in 1950 . In 1951, the Mainz City Theater began operations in the rebuilt Moller Building. Stein also promoted housing and hospital construction.

A first major economic success was the establishment of the Jenaer Glaswerk on part of the site of the former slaughterhouse in Mainz, whose company boss Erich Schott emigrated from Jena with part of the workforce. Further industrial settlements were added.

In 1952, Stein drew attention to the division of Mainz . In the magazine “Die neue Stadt. Zeitschrift für Architektur und Städtebau ”he carried out this under the title“ Mainz, the amputated city in the west, calls for help ”. On January 6, 1956, he opened the new “urban retirement home” on the site of the former Jesuit novice (Mainz) “Invalidenhaus”.

In 1958, Stein founded the town twinning between Mainz and Dijon together with the mayor of Dijon , Felix-Adrien Kir ("Canon Kir") ; this is one of the oldest German-French city partnerships. At the beginning of the 1960s, he was committed to the settlement of the ZDF in the then newly created Mainz district of Lerchenberg .

The 2000 year celebration (based on a historically no longer tenable foundation date) heralded a rapid cultural and economic upswing in the city of Mainz, which under Jockel Fuchs in 1975 with the 1000 year cathedral anniversary (also based on a dubious tradition) kind of crowned it Concluded.

Many construction holes, rubble and ruins caused by the war were finally cleared up - typical of the time, however, the " car-friendly city " was also sought and a number of high-rise settlements were built around Mainz. The basis for this was the general development plan adopted in 1960, which had been developed by Ernst May , the city's planning officer since 1958.

Franz Stein was replaced on April 8, 1965 on the initiative of the Mainz Social Democrats by the SPD parliamentary group chairman Jockel Fuchs. Stein then became a member of the German Bundestag .

Franz Stein died while on vacation in South Tyrol. His grave is in the main cemetery in Mainz .

Private

At an event of the Mainz Kleppergarde in 1965, he said that the Mainz children could no longer really stick around . The mayor at the time, Karl Delorme, took this up as a suggestion and initiated the first Mainz Klepper competition.

On his daily way from his apartment in the upper town to the Mainz town hall , he passed the city ​​park and thus always had the most important park in Mainz in view.

Until Michael Ebling's inauguration in April 2012, Franz Stein was the last Lord Mayor of Mainz who was also born in Mainz.

When Franz Stein saw such a building from the inside for the first time in his life on the occasion of the inauguration of the Mainz University Library , he is said to have exclaimed in amazement: "What books, what books!"

literature

• Franz Stein , Internationales Biographisches Archiv 48/1967 of November 20, 1967, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
• Franz Dumont (ed.), Ferdinand Scherf , Friedrich Schütz : Mainz - The history of the city. 2nd edition, Verlag Philipp von Zabern , Mainz 1999, ISBN 3-8053-2000-0

Individual evidence

1. ^ Mainz - quarterly books for culture, politics, economy, history ; Verlag Bonewitz, Volume 30, May 2010, ISSN  0720-5945
2. ↑ Tradition of social responsibility preserved - Mainz retirement home 50 years. From the handicapped house to the modern retirement and nursing home. Mainze city press office, archived from the original on April 2, 2015 ; Retrieved April 7, 2012 .