Günter Samtlebe

Günter Samtlebe (born February 25, 1926 in Schüren , today Dortmund-Schüren, † July 7, 2011 in Dortmund ) was a German politician and Lord Mayor ( SPD ) of the city of Dortmund from 1973 to 1999 . He carried the honorary title of former mayor .

life and work

Samtlebe was the son of a miner. He was married and had two daughters. After leaving school, he completed an administrative education. From the age of 17 he took part in the Second World War as a soldier . In 1983 it became known that from 1943 Samtlebe was a member of the Waffen SS , namely the 9th SS Panzer Division "Hohenstaufen" on the Eastern Front.

After the war he worked as a miner in the Hoesch ironworks and attended the Dortmund Social Academy . In 1946 he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In 1956 he became a member of the City Council of Dortmund and was finance spokesman from 1964 to 1969 and chairman of the SPD parliamentary group from 1969 to 1973 until his election as mayor. In this role he played a key role in the negotiations with the demonstrators during the Dortmund tram riots "Red Point" in March / April 1971.

Events such as the opening of the subway , the inner city renovation program with the redesign of Kleppingstrasse, the inauguration of the Hohensyburg casino and the construction of the town hall on Friedensplatz took place during his tenure as Lord Mayor from February 12, 1973 to September 1999 . During his tenure, Dortmund also began to transform from a steel city to a service location and began twinning with Rostov-on-Don and Buffalo (both 1977), Netanja (1980), Novi Sad (1981), Zwickau (1988) and Xi'an (1991) ).

In 1972 Günter Samtlebe founded the Social Democratic Community for Local Politics (SGK) in North Rhine-Westphalia e. V. and was its chairman until 1982. From 1983 to 1985 he was also president of the German Association of Cities and from 1985 to 1992 chairman of the board of trustees of the Pro Ruhrgebiet association .

In addition, Samtlebe worked for one year in the economic and social science institute of the German Trade Union Federation (DGB) and until February 28, 1991 as director of the general administration of Hoesch Stahl AG . His sideline activities also included the office of chairman of the supervisory board of Vereinigte Elektrizitätswerke Westfalen (VEW) from 1982 to 1999 and of Ruhrkohle AG from 1987 to 1999. From 1986 to 1999 he was a member of the ZDF television council and from 1983 to 1999 a member of the sponsoring association of the German Institute for Urban Studies (Difu) in Berlin.

Samtlebe was also known for its simple and clear language. He described the triad of Dortmund's economy as follows, for example: "To mine seven million tons of coal and produce seven million tons of steel, you needed seven million hectoliters of beer". Because of its miserable condition, he described Dortmund's main train station as a “chip shop with a siding”. His most famous quote comes from the Dortmund Wine Festival: "The best thing about wine is the beer afterwards".

Awards

• Honory Commander of the Order of the Civil Division of the British Empire (awarded by Queen Elizabeth II for services to German-British friendship on April 2, 1980)
• Janusz Korczak Medal (awarded by Minister Jerzy Kuberski for services in the context of the aid campaign "Dortmund help children in Poland")
• Commander's Cross of the Spanish Civil Order (awarded by King Juan Carlos I on June 24, 1985)
• Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (awarded by Prime Minister Johannes Rau on September 22, 1988)
• City-Ring (awarded by the advertising and business community of Dortmund city center merchants on January 10, 1990)
• Large Federal Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (awarded on January 15, 1992)
• Iron Reinoldus (awarded by the Ruhr Press Association on September 3, 1993)
• Honorary citizenship of the University of Dortmund (awarded on January 20, 1994)
• Marie Juchacz plaque (awarded in 2000)
• Honorary citizenship of the city of Dortmund (awarded on February 3, 2002)
• In honor of the former mayor, the square between the main administration of DEW21 and the Adlerturm was renamed Günter-Samtlebe-Platz on January 13, 2015 by a council resolution. On February 25, 2015, Samtlebe's 89th birthday, Mayor Ullrich Sierau unveiled the street sign in the presence of the Samtlebes family.

reception

Gabriella Wollenhaupt has set Günter Samtlebe in her “Grappa” novels a - not very flattering - literary monument in the supporting role of the Lord Mayor of Bierstadt.

Web links

• Günter Samtlebe in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
• Vita Günter Samtlebes on dortmund.de
• Ruhr Nachrichten: The life of Günter Samtlebe in pictures

Individual evidence

1. ↑ THE WEST: Dortmund's former mayor Günter Samtlebe is dead. Accessed July 7, 2011
2. ↑ PREUSSISCHE Allgemeine Zeitung: The beam in its own eye. The scandal is less Günter Grass' “youthful sin” than his long silence (August 19, 2006)
3. ^ Hans-Heinrich Bass: Transport policy under the pressure of the street. The Dortmund fare unrest of 1971, in: Werkstatt Geschichte , ed. from the Association for Critical Historiography eV, No. 61: "geschichte und kritik", 2013, pp. 49–64.
4. ↑ The former Dortmund mayor was 85 years old. Günter Samtlebe is dead. Wdr.de, July 7, 2011, archived from the original on July 11, 2011 ; accessed on October 20, 2015 . 
5. ↑ Merit holders since 1986. State Chancellery of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, accessed on March 11, 2017 . 
6. ↑ SatdtDortmund: Link to StadtDortmund. Retrieved March 5, 2015