Georg von Rheinbaben

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Georg von Rheinbaben

Georg Kreuzwendedich Freiherr von Rheinbaben (born August 21, 1855 in Frankfurt (Oder) , † March 25, 1921 in Düsseldorf ) was a Prussian interior and finance minister.

origin

His parents were the Prussian major Gustav von Rheinbaben (1817–1866) and his wife Klara, née von Gerlach (1825–1895). She was a daughter of the Berlin police chief Karl von Gerlach . His father died as a battalion commander in the Leib-Grenadier-Regiment (1st Brandenburgisches) No. 8 during the German War .

Live and act

After studying economics at the universities of Heidelberg and Berlin (1873–1876) and serving in a Uhlan regiment, he began a career as a Prussian administrative officer. This led him to the Ministry of Finance in 1885, where he was promoted to the Secret Finance Council and Lecturing Council in 1889, to the Secret Upper Finance Council in 1892 and finally rose to become an important employee of Finance Minister Johannes von Miquel .

In 1896, von Rheinbaben moved to the head of the Düsseldorf Regional Council , where he stood out in particular through the creation of the state housing inspection, an institution that was finally introduced throughout Prussia following his example.

In 1899, von Rheinbaben was appointed Prussian Minister of the Interior and systematically built up as his successor by his friend and patron von Miquel. After Miquel resigned from the office of finance minister in 1901, Rheinbaben succeeded him practically unchallenged in this post, which he headed for ten years until 1910. His administration was overall successful and gave him growing political influence. Among Rheinbaben's actions as finance minister, the reorganization of civil servants' salaries should be emphasized. In addition, he was in high recognition due to his knowledgeable handling of the economic difficulties, with their z. Sometimes serious consequences for the state finances, as well as the domestic and foreign political crises of the Bülow era .

Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg finally took advantage of the failure of the reform of the Prussian three-class suffrage , which Rheinbaben helped to fight, as well as a sharp controversy between Rheinbaben in the Prussian manor with the head of the Deutsche Bank, Arthur von Gwinner (1856-1931), about the Prussian-German loan policy and the Principles of public finance to remove his rival from cabinet in 1910.

Instead, Rheinbaben took over the high presidency of the Rhine Province . In 1911 he was appointed to the Prussian mansion before he retired in 1918.

From 1912 Rheinbaben was founding chairman of the Rhein-Museum Koblenz association and from 1913 to 1920 president of the Goethe Society . After his death in 1921 he was buried in the Düsseldorf North Cemetery.

family

In 1885 von Rheinbaben married Hedwig von Liliencron (1854–1938), a daughter of the Germanist and music historian Rochus Freiherr von Liliencron (1820–1912), in St. Johannis before Schleswig . From the marriage, among other things, the writer Rochus von Rheinbaben (1893-1937), as well as the daughters Gustava Hanna von Rheinbaben (1887-1980) and Gertrud (Gerda) von Rheinbaben (1888-1949) emerged. His sons-in-law included Alexander von Lettow-Vorbeck (1881-1914), the lawyer Trabart Freiherr von and zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen (1894-1979) and Mathew Elting Hanna (1873-1936), the US ambassador to Guatemala as the husbands of his first and SS officers Anton von Hohberg and Buchwald (1885–1934) and Horst von Blumenthal (1882–1963) as the husbands of his second daughter. His son Rochus von Rheinbaben married Erika von Seydewitz, with whom he had a son (Georg-Kreuzwendedich Max Richard Kuno, 1926–1985) and a daughter (Uta Coraly, * 1930). Georg-Kreuzwendedich married Genoveva Abdala and had four children with her (Richard Kreuzwendedich 1960, Rolf Rochus 1961, Marieluise Erika Isabel 1965 and Constanze Hedwig 1966).

One of Rheinbaben's maternal cousins ​​was the pacifist politician and writer Hellmut von Gerlach (1866–1935), a nephew of the DVP politician Werner von Rheinbaben .

Awards and honors

Rheinbaben had an honorary medical doctorate from the University of Berlin, an honorary doctorate in engineering from the Aachen University and was an honorary citizen of Düsseldorf . He also received the Black Eagle Order (1907), with a chain (1908), the Red Eagle Order 3rd class with ribbon (1894), the Iron Cross 2nd class (1915), the Red Cross Medal 3. Class and the Landwehr service award . In addition, he was 1st honorary member of the Rhenish Association for Small Housing and cathedral dean of Merseburg.

In 1905, a Rheinbabenallee was laid out in Berlin in a residential area that was created through the development of a state estate formerly administered by the Ministry of Finance; the streets were named after Prussian ministers of the time, and Miquelstrasse is also nearby.

The city of Krefeld owes Freiherr von Rheinbaben the expansion of the Linner port and support with the city expansion. Baron von Rheinbaben was made an honorary citizen of the city of Krefeld on March 27, 1918 . Today the Rheinbabenstraße in Linn , an extension of the Hafenstraße leading to the Rheinhafen, is reminiscent of Rheinbaben.

In Bottrop and Gladbeck , the Professor 3/4 shaft was renamed to Rheinbabenschächte in honor of the Baron . Today only the Rheinbabenstraße in Bottrop , which leads directly to the former factory premises, reminds of this mine.

In Wesel, the first fixed road bridge built during the First World War was called Rheinbabenbrücke .

In Bad Salzig (in the Loreley valley) in 1912 one of the streets running along the Rhine was named after von Rheinbaben Rheinbabenallee .

On the occasion of his resignation from this office, he was made an honorary citizen of Duisburg on March 4, 1918 in order to give a "lasting sign of deep gratitude for the unforgettable services" that he had earned in high state offices for the fatherland and his home province.

Works (selection)

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Grave site field 26, No. 1 in the Düsseldorf North Cemetery
  2. ↑ Rheinbabenallee. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
personal data
SURNAME Rheinbaben, Georg von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rheinbaben, Georg Freiherr von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian politician
DATE OF BIRTH August 21, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt (Oder)
DATE OF DEATH March 25, 1921
Place of death Dusseldorf