Fritz Arnold (politician)

Fritz Arnold (born November 14, 1883 in Konstanz ; † June 17, 1950 in Steinegg-Nußbrunnen ) was a German engineer , local politician ( SPD ), socialist and mayor of Konstanz.

Life

Arnold attended the Konstanz elementary school and completed his education in 1902 at the Konstanz secondary school with the Abitur. In the following year he began to study engineering in Constance, at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and at the Technical University of Karlsruhe , which he completed in 1908 with the academic degree of Diplom-Ingenieur . Until 1909 he did his military service as a one-year volunteer in Munich. He then worked as an engineer in Munich and Karlsruhe. In 1911 he married Emilie Weishaar; The marriage had four children, one son died early and another died in World War II. At the First World War, Arnold took from 1914 to 1918 as an officer of the Bavarian pioneer Troops part.

After the war Arnold became a politician in the Social Democratic Party of Germany and a city ​​councilor in Konstanz. From August 1919 he was second mayor and thus responsible for technology, energy and traffic in the city. As head of the technical works in Konstanz , he succeeded in a comprehensive expansion of the energy supply and the transport companies. During his tenure, the gasworks was expanded with a 10,000 m³ telescopic gas tank (1924) and a new furnace system (1929) so that not only Constance but also the Swiss submarine communities as far as Stein am Rhein could be supplied with gas. Also in 1929 the imposing water tower with built-in youth hostel, the Otto Moericke Tower , was built in Konstanz-Allmannsdorf , which finally secured the city's water supply. From 1924 to 1928 a ferry connection across Lake Constance was planned and the urban bus network expanded, which extended beyond the city limits to Kreuzlingen and the island of Mainau - the red buses were soon popularly known as "Red Arnold". The first ferry, christened “ Konstanz ”, started scheduled traffic to Meersburg in autumn 1928 ; In 1930 the second ferry went into operation.

After the transfer of power to the National Socialists, Arnold was dismissed from all offices in March 1933 and was forcibly dismissed out of political conviction; Carl Gruner (1876–1967) took over the management of the technical works . He also had to hand over the 11-year presidency of the “Bodan Citizens' Association” to the primary school principal Anton Dietrich . After six weeks of “ protective custody ” in 1933, he secured his income with a private engineering office in Constance. His wife also died that year. During the Second World War , Arnold was drafted into military service as an officer of the pioneers from January 1940, which ended with a prisoner of war from April 26, 1945 until the end of the year. During the war he rose to major , became a colonel and head of his engineer unit.

After the end of the war, Arnold was unanimously elected mayor of Konstanz temporarily by the city council in January 1946; In 1946 and 1947 he was also represented on the committee of the Baden State Advisory Assembly . Since October 1, 1946, he took over the office of Second Mayor again; from 1948 until his death he was first mayor. During this term of office, an elevated water tank was built on the Friedrichshöhe to renovate the city's water supply. The gas works was also expanded further. Since the founding of the Südwestfunk in 1946, he was a member of the radio advisory board .

Arnold died of cardiac paralysis on June 17, 1950 in Steinegg-Nußbrunnen. Constance is often incorrectly given as the place of death. For many years he was chairman of the SPD Konstanz and a member of the SPD state executive committee , as well as a member of the Konstanz Architects and Engineers Association .

Commemoration

Memorial stone for Fritz Arnold (politician) at the ferry port in Konstanz-Staad, Germany

A memorial stone at the Konstanz-Staad ferry terminal reminds of his efforts to start the ferry connection. The car ferry " Fritz Arnold ", which went into service on Lake Constance on June 1, 1963, was named in his honor . The nickname for the red Konstanz city buses, "Red Arnold", also pays tribute to him. The members' magazine of the Konstanz local association of the Social Democratic Party of Germany also bears the name "Roter Arnold". Fritz Arnold was buried in the main cemetery in Konstanz .

Fonts

• The development of conditions in Konstanz over the past fifty years. In: Paul Motz: Konstanz, its development in terms of building history and traffic management. Reuss & Itta, Constance 1925.

literature

• Frank R. Pfetsch (Eds.), Werner Breunig et al .: Constitutional Policy 2: Data Handbook for Land Parliamentarians 1945–1953. Lang, Frankfurt am Main / Bern / New York 1985, ISBN 3820483438 , ISSN  0178-2444 .
• Lothar Burchardt et al .: History of the City of Constance. Constance in the 20th century. Stadler, Konstanz 1990, ISBN 3797702426 .
• Agnes Dietrich: That happened in Constance 1945–1966. Südkurier, Konstanz no year
• Tobias Engelsing: Cross-border commuters on Lake Constance. From elites, opportunists and laid-offs in Constance from 1933. ed. Andreas Grießinger, Constance 2000, ISBN 3879407177 .
• Tobias Engelsing: The Red Arnold. A life story 1883–1950 , UVK Universitätsverlag Konstanz 1996, ISBN 978-3-89669-871-1
• Paul Feuchte: Sources on the creation of the constitution of the state of Baden from 1947. (= publications on the constitutional history of Baden-Württemberg since 1945 , volume January 15 ) 1999, ISBN 3170150596 .
• Wolfgang Neinhaus: Bodensee Hefte. 14 (3), Merk, Konstanz 1963, ISSN  0006-548X .
• Helmut Maurer: Fritz Arnold . In: Bernd Ottnad (Ed.) Badische Biographien , New Series 1. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3170071181 .
• Josef Weik: Member of the Bundestag and Landtag history of Baden-Württemberg 1945–1984. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3608913370 .
• Mayor Fritz Arnold †. In: Südkurier, Südwestdeutsche Nachrichten of June 20, 1950.

Web links

Commons : Fritz Arnold  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Fritz Arnold in the catalog of the German National Library

predecessor	Office	successor
---	Lord Mayor of Konstanz 1946–1946	Franz Knapp