Franz von Voss

Franz von Voss , whose full name was Franz Friedrich Wilhelm Carl Conrad von Voss (born November 26, 1816 in Stendal , † March 14, 1907 in Halle (Saale) ), was a German administrative lawyer in the Kingdom of Prussia . He was Lord Mayor of Halle.

family

He came from a family of craftsmen from Stendal who had been raised to the Prussian nobility in 1786 with Franz's grandfather, the secret chief finance officer Friedrich Voss (1749-1806) . Franz was the son of the mayor of Stendal and royal Prussian captain Franz von Voss (1777–1867) and Wilhelmine Freiin von Gayl (1781–1870). Voss married on June 12, 1845 in Wilsnack ( Prignitz district , Brandenburg ) Mathilde Nernst (born May 14, 1820 in Wilsnack; † March 12, 1900 in Halle (Saale)), the daughter of the city ​​judge and royal Prussian judicial councilor Adolf Nernst and the Elisabeth Baath . From the marriage went Maximilian von Voss forth.

Life

After studying law, Franz von Voss decided to pursue an administrative career. He began as a councilor in Halle in 1852. In 1853 he was transferred to the General Commission in Merseburg . For a short time (1844, 1852) he also worked for the General Commission in his native Stendal. In 1856 he accepted the office of Lord Mayor of Halle, where he headed the city administration until 1880. From 1872 to 1880 he was a member of the Prussian mansion and from 1894 to 1903 a member of the Prussian House of Representatives . In 1899 Voss became its senior president . He was also a member of the provincial parliament of the province of Saxony .

Acting as Lord Mayor of the City of Halle

Franz von Voss was first mayor from 1856 to 1880 and from 1857 mayor of the city of Halle. Before King Friedrich Wilhelm IV confirmed his assumption of office, an audience with the king had become necessary, as the energetic and liberal official seemed suspicious to the Prussian Ministry of the Interior. The king was impressed by the appearance of von Voss, who recommended himself in his officer's uniform, and put an end to the dispute, which has become visible in various places in the city of Halle to this day.

The grandfather Friedrich Voss was raised to the Prussian nobility in 1786 because of his services as a secret finance councilor. After studying law in Berlin, the grandson also embarked on an administrative career, which was initially interrupted several times by military service. In 1852, Voss had meanwhile become a member of the government, his first contact with the city of Halle. After a short stopover at the General Commission in Merseburg , he was appointed to Halle and, after being elected in 1856, took over the responsibility of First Mayor.

Around the middle of the 19th century it was a time of enormous economic boom, which made great demands on those in charge of the city. Growing industry required investment in the developing railroad to accommodate increasing traffic. Within the cities, space was needed for wider streets. Wall systems and the city gates also had to give way in Halle to these changes. Industry needed workers, which in turn needed housing that could not be offered so quickly.

The growing industry and the large number of people needed more energy and, above all, water. Von Voss promoted the construction of the first municipal gas station on Holzplatz and, as a result, the installation of 523 gas lamps for street lighting. Apartments have also been better lit since then. A waterworks was built in Beesen and from there water pipes were laid in the ground into the city, which involved considerable civil engineering and road construction. Many streets were paved for the first time during this period. As a visible sign of this achievement, a new fountain with a fountain was built on the market for completion in 1868.

Before that, the fountain had to be removed, which was named Löwenbrunnen with two reclining lions created by the sculptor Gottfried Schadow in 1816. In order to give these sculptures a permanent place, von Voss gave the lions as a present to the university by order of the magistrate, combined with the proposal to put them on the two pedestals of the main building on the university square. They are here to this day and remain permanently associated with the name of Voss.

During his term of office, another monument was erected, namely the Handel monument to George Frideric Handel in 1859 on the market. This was created by the sculptor Hermann Heidel through a broad-based donation campaign with the considerable participation of the English royal family and then also set up. At the inauguration on July 1, 1859, the Lord Mayor of Voss gave the speech to the numerous guests. For another term of office, each of which lasted 12 years until World War II, von Voss did not want to make himself available because of differences of opinion with the magistrate. Nevertheless, after his departure in 1880, he was honored for his services, for example on his 80th birthday in 1896 with a supplement in the Saale-Zeitung and on his 90th birthday in 1906 by naming a street with his name while he was still alive!

Franz von Voss died on March 12, 1907.

literature

• Martin Wiehle : Altmark personalities. Biographical lexicon of the Altmark, the Elbe-Havel-Land and the Jerichower Land (= contributions to the cultural history of the Altmark and its peripheral areas. Vol. 5). Dr. ziethen verlag, Oschersleben 1999, ISBN 3-932090-61-6 .
• Genealogical manual of the nobility , noble houses B volume V, page 292, volume 26 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1961, ISSN  0435-2408

Individual evidence

1. ^ Mann, Bernhard (edit.): Biographical manual for the Prussian House of Representatives. 1867-1918 . Collaboration with Martin Doerry , Cornelia Rauh and Thomas Kühne . Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag, 1988, p. 397 (handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and political parties: vol. 3)