Gustav incense

Gustav Heinrich Weihrauch (* December 23, 1862 in Hamburg ; † May 20, 1940 there ) was a German educator and conservationist .

Life and work as a teacher

Gustav Weihrauch was a son of Robert Weihrauch and his wife Sophie, nee Steffens. The father was a carpenter and was born in Jakobswalde . Weihrauch attended the school in Hamburg's Nikolaikirche and then the teachers' seminar, which he left in 1884 with the first and in 1887 with the second teacher examination. In 1891 he married the teacher Emma Hüvermann (* 1858). The couple had sons Heinrich (1895–1916), Wilhelm (1896–1917) and Herbert (1898–1918), all three of whom died during the First World War . Weihrauch then wrote the obituary In memory: Our three boys Heinrich Wilhelm Herbert.

Weihrauch taught as a primary school teacher at the girls' school at Angerstrasse 31 until 1906. Early on, he was involved in the Society of Friends of the Fatherland Schools and Education , whose committees for geography, art education, school buildings and youth literature he belonged to. He also helped develop lesson plans and teaching materials. As a member of the Social Science Association , he was close to the SPD at the time of the German Empire . In 1906 Weihrauch moved to the school at Humboldtstrasse 89. From 1899 to 1914 he also taught at the trade school. In November 1918 he joined the SPD, of which he was a member until March 1933. In 1919 he became a member of the Socialist Teachers' Association. In 1928 he retired.

Act as a conservationist

Gustav Weihrauch campaigned for several green spaces in Hamburg that are still important today. When the population growth made new workers' settlements necessary in Hamburg-Hamm , a facility similar to the Hamburg city park was to be built. The descendants of Karl Sieveking donated 7.5 hectares of green space to the city, which Weihrauch found too small. He also wanted to create a cultural center for the local residents.

View of the roundabout in Hammer Park

With the support of the community associations from Hamm, Horn and Borgfelde, Weihrauch called for changes to the plans and new negotiations with the Sieveking family. For this he wrote the memorandum for the acquisition of a larger urban park for the eastern part of the city , which reached all authorities and people involved in the planning. The subsequent lengthy negotiations with the Sieveking family were led by Weihrauch himself. The city eventually bought a green area twice as large and a mansion on top. Today's Hammer Park was built here .

In the mid-1920s, Weihrauch was a member of the board of the Hamburg nature conservation association. In this position, he played a key role in the creation of the Elbufer- and Elbhöhenweg, which today runs from Neumühlen to Wedel as part of the Elbuferwanderweg . Discussions about the design of the banks of the Elbe arose at the beginning of the Weimar Republic . Since Baurs Park and Wried'sche Park had been sold, large parts of the population saw the danger that popular excursion destinations could be privatized and built on. Weihrauch united the affected residents in the Elbufer working group . In 1925 he summarized the importance of the local recreation area for Greater Hamburg in his book On the design of the Elbe bank of Neumühlen , which reached the Hamburg Senate. In it, Weihrauch presented alternatives to the development and use of the areas near the Elbe. The Mayor of Altona, Max Brauer , then sought extensive financial resources in Berlin, with which the city bought the Jenischpark , the Hirschpark , the Hessepark and Goßlers Park at low cost. The Elbuferweg was completed in 1930 and the entire route in 1947.

Alster hiking trail in front of the Poppenbüttler lock

In addition, Weihrauch campaigned publicly for the design of the course of the Alster . Discussions about this have been going on since 1903. Wilhelm Wolgast had campaigned in 1913 to open the old towpaths on the banks of the Alster and to create a continuous hiking trail on them. The Hamburg citizenship had declared the areas to be a recreational area close to the city in 1929 and negotiated their design with the Stormarn district . Gustav Weihrauch thereupon demanded in 1930 in the publication Das Tal der Oberalster as a recreation area , to create a continuous park, which should consist of rest areas of different sizes. This resulted in the Alster hiking trail , which was only completed after Frankincense died.

Honors

The Gustav-Weihrauch-Weg in Hamburg-Volksdorf has been named after Gustav Weihrauch, whose funeral speech was given by Richard Ballerstädt . A room in a youth home in Lemsahl-Mellingstedt has also been named after him since 1955.

literature

• Anne-Kathrin Beer: incense, Gustav . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 5 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8353-0640-0 , p. 376-377 .