Friedrich Schrecker

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Martin Gebhard Friedrich Schrecker (born November 10, 1863 in Freyburg , † July 15, 1937 in Remagen ) was a German politician and mayor of Hamborn .

Life

Martin Gebhard Friedrich Schrecker was the son of the tax council Friedrich Schrecker and his wife Louise Fiedler. After attending the grammar schools in Torgau and Münster, he went to Münster city administration as a student on May 4, 1881, and in October 1883 was taken on as an unskilled worker by the Münster government . From May 1884 to November 1887 he was employed in Laer as an administrative assistant, and in the same position he moved to the Ahlen administration . After he was appointed administrative secretary at the local administration in Schlüsselburg from March 1888, he successfully applied for the vacant position of mayor's secretary and office manager in Beeck . The Düsseldorf governmentcommissioned him on April 25, 1899 with the provisional management of the business of the mayor's office in Beeck after the mayor Emil Hagedorn had died. Because of the greatly changed population figures, the mayoral districts were to be redefined. The government gave Schrecker the choice of either staying in Beeck or moving to Hamborn. He chose Hamborn.

On April 1, 1900, the administration of the Hamborn mayor's office under the direction of Schreckers began its work in rented rooms. A town hall was only built between 1902 and 1904. Hamborn was at that time the fastest growing rural community in the whole of the German Empire. Its population increased from 34,000 to 100,000 between the end of 1900 and the end of 1910. This was due mainly the growth of coal - mine union German Kaiser . Only in the last few years before the First World War did the pace of population growth slow down somewhat. The massive immigration of mostly young people from several ethnic groups created a restless social climate, which, like the high fluctuation among immigrants, posed major problems for the local administration. In 1910 only 17 percent of the population in Hamborn were born. The rural community order, according to which Hamborn was administered until 1911, laid the freedom of action of the mayor Fesseln, which made a planned development of the city, for example a targeted land acquisition strategy and investments in larger communal facilities, impossible. In the first five years after the mayor's office was founded, Schrecker was solely responsible for all administrative activities in Hamborn, supported by unpaid aldermen. In 1905, the first salaried councilors were hired, thus creating the transition to fully professional administration.

After the population of 100,000 had been reached in 1910, Hamborn was granted town charter on November 4, 1911 - long demanded by the top administration and the local council. Schrecker thus received royal permission in March 1912 to hold the title of Lord Mayor . The fact that Schrecker, a non-academic, was in charge of the administration of a large city with almost 120,000 inhabitants (1914) was a rare exception in Germany. He was Protestant and non-party, but was close to the National Liberal Party .

Hamborn became the center of the revolutionary activities of the radical miners after the beginning of the November Revolution in 1918. On Christmas Eve, for example, armed workers stormed the town hall to get weapons and ammunition. The Hamborner police chief was seriously injured and Schrecker was threatened with death. He behaved responsibly and prudently when dealing with the workers' leaders, who exercised the greatest power in Hamborn until February 26, 1919. Later, after the occupation and liberation of Hamborn by government troops, his opponents called him a sympathizer of the Spartacists . At his own request, he took leave of absence and carried out an official investigation into these allegations. Result: The allegations were baseless. Finally, Schrecker asked for early retirement, as he saw no basis for constructive cooperation with several city councilors. He was retired on July 1, 1919. He moved to Remagen, where he died after a long illness. On July 19, 1937, he was buried in the Evangelical Cemetery in Hamborn at the side of his wife Emmy, who had died in 1910.

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  • Michael A. Kanther: Friedrich Schrecker digitized content in the Internet portal Rheinische Geschichte, accessed on January 7, 2020