Friedel Neuber

Friedel Neuber (born July 10, 1935 in Rheinhausen ; † October 23, 2004 in Duisburg ) was a German bank manager and politician .

Life

The son of a railroad worker trained as an industrial clerk at Krupp from 1950 to 1953 , where he was employed until 1961, most recently as an auditor. He then headed the Bertha Hospital, which belongs to the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation . At the same time he rose within the North Rhine-Westphalian SPD and was a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament from 1962 to 1975 - at the beginning as the youngest member.

Banking career

Due to the political contacts, Neuber became president of the Rhenish Savings Banks and Giro Association in 1969 . From 1970 to 2001 he was also a member of the board of the German Savings Banks and Giro Association (DSGV) and from 1987 to 2001 also held the office of President of the Federal Association of Public Banks in Germany .

From 1981 to 2001 Neuber was Chairman of the Board of Management of Westdeutsche Landesbank (WestLB) . In this position he carried out location and economic policy for the SPD government of North Rhine-Westphalia under Johannes Rau, with the attempt to create a transition from the declining heavy industry to sustainable structures. So he operated the merger of the historical adversaries RWE and VEW , the merger of Hoesch and Krupp, the takeover of Horten by Metro and the development of LTU .

Neuber held a large number of supervisory board mandates, including at RWE, LTU, TUI, Deutsche Bahn , RAG and ThyssenKrupp . He was considered a sponsor of Michael Frenzel .

In the banking scene, he was considered an outsider due to his atypical résumé. By linking cross-party political contacts and economic influence, Neuber was criticized by some as a “red godfather” or, more posh, as a “power on the Rhine”. However, his influence diminished when Wolfgang Clement's successor was Raus and the SPD received fewer votes in local elections in the major cities in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Criticism of the person

Global bearer share over 500,000 common shares of Babcock Borsig AG from September 2000 signed by Friedel Neuber as member of the supervisory board

Neuber was attacked in the course of various scandals. The criticism of him sparked in particular on projects that ended in economic disaster. He was a key force in the transformation of Preussag into TUI AG , was involved in the restructuring of Babcock Borsig AG, which ended in insolvency , and was behind the ultimately expensive and unsuccessful expansion of WestLB into a global bank. Neuber was involved in the " Düsseldorf flight affair " in 1999 and was charged several times in connection with companies that had become insolvent, most recently in connection with the collapse of the construction company Philipp Holzmann AG . There were also investigations against Neuber on charges of aiding and abetting tax evasion . At that time he had to pay a fine of 300,000 DM .

family

Neuber was married and had two sons. He died of heart failure .

Honors

Neuber was awarded the Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia on May 24, 1987 . On 26 June 1997 he received from the University of Comprehensive University of Duisburg , the honorary doctorate of science awarded.

Web links

• Friedel Neuber at the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament
• Literature by and about Friedel Neuber in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Merit holders since 1986. State Chancellery of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, accessed on March 11, 2017 . 
2. ^ Beate Kostka (Press and Information Office, Duisburg location): Honorary doctorate for F. Neuber. idw - Informationsdienst Wissenschaft, June 23, 1997, accessed on May 10, 2017 .