Gangolf Stocker

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Gangolf Stocker (2010)

Gangolf Stocker (born June 7, 1944 in Offenburg ; † March 26, 2021 in Stuttgart ) was a German artist and politician . The painter was a member of the municipal council of the city of Stuttgart and became known as the spokesman for the action alliance against the Stuttgart 21 project .

Life

Gangolf Stocker was one of three children of an Offenburg working-class family. After completing eight years of elementary school, he attended the commercial high school and completed an apprenticeship as a surveying technician. He then worked for two years as a surveying technician at the Offenburg 2 land consolidation office.

He gave up this job to work as a freelance artist. In 1964 he took part in a group exhibition in the Offenburg youth center, and in 1965 the Offenburg Cultural Office presented his works in a solo exhibition.

In 1967, as a total objector , he opposed both military and alternative service . Since this refusal was subject to criminal penalties, he fled to France in 1967, lived in Strasbourg , Antibes and Toulouse , among others , worked for the French conscientious objector organization Objecteurs de conscience in the Pyrenees and for the CGT in a holiday camp near Nice . At the end of 1967 he returned to Offenburg. After 15 days of pre-trial detention, he was sentenced to a suspended sentence in 1968 for his total refusal. In the same year he became chairman of the Mittelbaden district of the Association of Conscientious Objectors .

Also in 1969 he was accepted as a sculpture student under Rudolf Hoflehner at the Stuttgart Art Academy .

In 1969 he accepted a job as a clerk at Georg Thieme Verlag in Stuttgart. In 1970 he co-founded the works council at Georg Thieme Verlag and was its first chairman for 13 years. Stocker was a member of the SPD from 1969 to 1974 and of the DKP from 1975 to 1990 . He worked at Thieme until 1994.

Then he worked as a painter. His oil paintings , watercolors and pastel chalk pictures tell stories, sometimes with a mythical background, with the landscape always playing a major role. The method of representation ranges from realistic in his portraits of people to extensive abstract reduction, for example in landscape watercolors.

In 1995 Stocker began to campaign against Stuttgart 21 and founded the initiative Leben in Stuttgart - not Stuttgart 21 . The initiative printed leaflets and distributed them to Stuttgart citizens, initially with poor response. The movement was strengthened by the cooperation with the BUND and the VCD , with which the initiative formed an action alliance. Stocker was the spokesman for this alliance until 2011.

In 1999 he founded the list of non-party happy ; with her he ran for the first time for the Stuttgart municipal council. He joined the PDS , whose regional office he headed from 2000 to 2006. In 2004 he was a co-founder of the Stuttgart Ecological Social Voting Group (SÖS). The list won a seat straight away. At the next municipal council election, in 2009, Stocker, together with Hannes Rockenbauch and Maria Lina Kotelmann , was also able to win a seat on the municipal council for the SÖS. Since then, a parliamentary group has been formed together with two city councilors from Die Linke . Stocker was a member of the Environment and Technology Committee.

A concern for Stocker was the cultural program with musicians, cabaret artists and actors, both at the demonstrations and at events in the area. The poet Timo Brunke , the violinist Christine Busch with a professional classical string quartet, the cabaret artist Nils Heinrich and the singer Susanne Schempp supported the protest with their contributions. Due to his political commitment, Stocker reduced his artistic output.

Due to health problems, he resigned from the Stuttgart City Council in April 2016 and withdrew from all political activities.

Stocker lived in the Gaisburg district of Stuttgart . He was divorced and had two children, born in 1982 and 1984.

Protest against Stuttgart 21

In 2007, together with Werner Wölfle and the BUND , he initiated a referendum against Stuttgart 21; it received over 61,000 votes that were officially recognized as valid, making it the most successful citizens' initiative in the history of the city. On the basis of a legal opinion, it was rejected by the local council. As a private citizen, Stocker initially filed a complaint with the Stuttgart regional council. When this was rejected, he brought an action at the Stuttgart Administrative Court. The court ruled against Stocker in 2008 and dismissed the lawsuit.

In November 2009, an initially small group of citizens spontaneously gathered every Monday for a demonstration at Stuttgart Central Station. The number of demonstrators grew to several hundred in the weeks that followed. At this stage Stocker took on the organization of these rallies with the Initiative Leben in Stuttgart , was personally responsible for the registration and coordinated the organization and communication with the police and authorities. Since July 2010, the action alliance against Stuttgart 21 has also organized regular demonstrations on Fridays. The number of participants increased particularly with the start of the demolition work at the main train station. According to the police, 63,000 people took part in the demonstration on October 9, 2010 and over 150,000 according to the organizers.

On January 20, 2011, the Stuttgart District Court sentenced Stocker to a fine of 1,500 euros for violating his duties as chairman of the meeting on August 21, 2010. In the appeal hearing before the regional court in December 2012, Stocker was acquitted. The prosecution then appealed revision before the Court of Appeal one; this granted the appeal on April 9, 2013 and referred the case back to the regional court. This sentenced him to a suspended fine in January 2014. A revision by Stocker was unsuccessful.

On March 27, 2011 - after the state elections in Baden-Württemberg - Stocker announced his resignation as chairman of the action alliance against Stuttgart 21 due to disputes. He initially continued to chair the Life in Stuttgart - No Stuttgart 21 initiative .

literature

Web links

Commons : Gangolf Stocker  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Josef Schunder & Jörg Nauke: Died in Stuttgart at the age of 76: Stuttgart-21 opponent Gangolf Stocker is dead. In: stuttgarter-zeitung.de. March 27, 2021, accessed March 27, 2021 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Hermann G. Abmayr: The thin-skinned pioneer . In: Stuttgarter Zeitung (online edition), May 3, 2011.
  3. ↑ Elena Wolf: Ticking in the head . In: Context: weekly newspaper . May 4, 2016 ( kontextwochenzeitung.de [accessed on February 3, 2018]).
  4. ↑ Court: Stocker failed as chairman of the meeting ( memento from January 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Gangolf Stocker has to go to court again , Stuttgarter Zeitung online, accessed on April 9, 2013.
  6. ↑ Former activist Stocker goes to the highest court. In: stuttgarter-nachrichte.de , July 2, 2014.
  7. ↑ Project opponents storm construction fence . Stuttgarter Zeitung (online edition), March 2011.
personal data
SURNAME Stocker, Gangolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and local politician, spokesman for the action alliance against the Stuttgart 21 project
DATE OF BIRTH June 7, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Offenburg
DATE OF DEATH March 26, 2021
PLACE OF DEATH Stuttgart