Gustav Leissner

Theodor Albert Gustav Leißner (born May 16, 1890 in Leipzig ; † October 29, 1982 in Wiesbaden ) was a lawyer and Lord Mayor of Dresden from February to October 1946 .

Life

Gustav Leißner was the son of the post office clerk Martin Richard Gustav Leißner and his wife Minna Anna, geb. Lead. After attending high schools in Stettin , Berlin and Oldenburg , he mainly studied law and political science in Jena and Leipzig . He passed the first state examination in law in 1911 and then obtained a doctorate in law. The title of his dissertation was " The legal position of the illegitimate child according to the German B. G. B. , and the Swiss Civil Code "

Leißner was drafted into the military in 1914 and, after being seriously injured, was unable to do military service in Flanders in 1915 . In November 1916 he was released as a private . In the same year, Leißner passed the second state examination and became a judge at the Torgau Regional Court .

In 1918 Leißner married the doctor Anna Gertrud, b. John (1890-1964). In 1919 the daughter Gertrud was born.

Professional career until 1945

In 1917 Leißner switched to local politics, first as a magistrate assessor in Greifswald , then from April 1918 to March 1921 in Stettin . Immediately afterwards, Leißner took up a position as a paid city councilor in Meerane and was appointed mayor there on April 1, 1924. Two years later he moved to a position as a salaried city councilor in Wroclaw . In the same year he also joined the SPD . Because of the party membership Leißner was dismissed on March 25, 1933 according to the law for the restoration of the civil service . He was also withdrawn from the bar.

In 1934 Leißner moved with his family to Lichtenwalde (today a district of Niederwiesa ) near Chemnitz , his wife's hometown. There he worked between 1940 and 1944 as a commercial clerk in a silk twisting mill in Markersdorf (today a district of Chemnitz). Subsequently, Leißner was a legal assistant in a Chemnitz law firm. In 1944 he was arrested, sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp and released after several weeks in prison. Leißner was able to resume his work in the law firm and continued to do so after the end of the war. In 1945 Leißner was appointed lawyer and notary in quick succession. He also rejoined the SPD and became a member of the SED in April 1946 through the union of the SPD and KPD .

Lord Mayor of Dresden

In October 1945, the then Lord Mayor of Dresden , Johannes Müller , was dismissed with immediate effect after criticizing the occupation authorities of the Red Army . The KPD and SPD proposed Leißner as his successor. After approval by the Soviet Military Administration in Saxony (SMAS), Leißner was appointed Lord Mayor with effect from February 1, 1946. Leißner was ceremoniously introduced at a special meeting of the city council on February 9, 1946 by the president of the state administration of Saxony, Rudolf Friedrich . Leißner stated in his inaugural speech:

"I am fully aware of the difficulty of the task [...] I will voluntarily stay in this office at most as long as I can trust myself to have the strength and see the possibility of remaining an advocate of the law in this position too, after careful self-examination [...]" We'll make it because we have to! "

- Leißner's speech on February 9, 1946

The main focus of the city council meetings led by Leißner were the problems of the post-war period (food and housing supply, rubble removal, reconstruction and reorganization of trade, education and culture). In March 1946, based on Leißner's proposal, the city council decided to resume the designation of the state capital of Dresden in right-hand traffic and on special occasions. One of Leißner's representative tasks was the opening of the rebuilt Albertbrücke on July 20, 1946 . Leißner also gave a speech at the opening of the First General German Art Exhibition .

The CDU and LDPD valued Leißner's non-partisan objectivity in the conduct of his office. He was under critical observation by the SED and the KPD. His deputy and 1st mayor Walter Weidauer collected "incriminating" material about Leißner and passed it on to the SED state leadership and the occupying power. The main focus of the arguments were questions of personnel policy and the expropriation of industrial companies after the referendum in Saxony on June 30, 1946 . Like other party members, Leißner raised concerns about the accuracy of the expropriation lists. Leißner, a well-known lawyer in Chemnitz, was entrusted by some companies with the protection of their interests. Weidauer was also charged with defending the claims of Jewish emigrants.

Leißner's house in 1945/46

In the local elections held in Dresden on September 1st, the bourgeois parties jointly achieved a majority. However, through an agreement in the anti-fascist party bloc, the SED should propose the mayor. Surprisingly, Leißner renounced his candidacy in the election in the city council on October 10 (after an objection by SMAS). On November 30, 1946, he left the Dresden city administration.

During his time in Dresden, Leißner lived in the Bühlau district .

After the mayor's office

On the day after he left the Dresden city administration, Leißner was appointed President of the Bautzen Regional Court . At the end of 1948 he was expelled from the SED, and two years later he was dismissed from the Saxon judicial service without notice for political reasons. Leißner moved to the FRG in June 1950 . From the Gießen emergency reception center , Leißner was assigned to the Wiesbaden district . He worked there initially as an assistant department head at the regional council and from February 1951 in the Hessian Ministry of the Interior .

After his retirement, Leißner worked in West Berlin for three years . There he collected, also inspired by personal experience, material on the administrative reality and the position of state employees in the Soviet Zone and in the GDR. The book Administration and Public Service in the Soviet Zone of Occupation in Germany was created in 1961 from the results of his investigations ; a critical appraisal from a pan-German perspective .

Works

• Gustav Leißner: Administration and public service in the Soviet zone of occupation in Germany . A critical appraisal from a pan-German perspective. W. Kohlhammer GmbH , Stuttgart and Cologne 1961, DNB  452790166 .

literature

• Christel Hermann: Lord Mayor of the City of Dresden . Rudolf Friedrichs, Johannes Müller, Gustav Leißner. In: Stadtmuseum Dresden (Ed.): Dresdner Geschichtsbuch . tape 8 . DZA Druckerei zu Altenburg, Altenburg 2002, ISBN 978-3-936300-03-1 , p. 207-227 .
• Thomas Widera: Dresden 1945-1948 . Politics and Society under Soviet Occupation. 1st edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht , Göttingen 2004, ISBN 978-3-525-36901-2 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dr. Jur. Leisner, Dresden's new mayor . In: Sächsische Volkszeitung . February 12, 1946, p. 4 .
2. ↑ Christel Hermann: Lord Mayor of the City of Dresden . Rudolf Friedrichs, Johannes Müller, Gustav Leißner. In: Stadtmuseum Dresden (Ed.): Dresdner Geschichtsbuch . tape 8 . DZA Druckerei zu Altenburg, Altenburg 2002, ISBN 978-3-936300-03-1 , p. 217 .
3. ↑ ^{a b} Thomas Widera: Dresden 1945–1948 . Politics and Society under Soviet Occupation. 1st edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht , Göttingen 2004, ISBN 978-3-525-36901-2 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Johannes Müller (politician, 1892)	Lord Mayor of Dresden in 1946	Walter Weidauer