Hans Neikes

Hans Neikes (born January 20, 1881 in Cologne , † February 12, 1954 in Saarbrücken ) was a German politician . From 1921 to 1935 he was the mayor of Saarbrücken.

Life

Neikes studied law. During his studies in Bonn in 1900 he became a member of the Medical and Natural Science Association , which later became Landsmannschaft Marksburgia . After receiving his doctorate, he worked in administration in Oberhausen and Dortmund from 1908 to 1921 . After he unsuccessfully for the post of 1919 First Assistant had advertised the city Saarbrücken, he succeeded in March 1921 election to Saarbrücken mayor .

In that time the League of Nations assumed Saar came Neikes because of his pro-German attitude - Dortmund's Mayor Ernst Eichoff spoke to him before his election a "loyal German, patriotic attitudes," too - in conflict with the Government Commission of the Saar . In November 1922, for example, he criticized the Commission's tax policy, which led to a formal warning from Commission President Victor Rault . After two articles in the Saarbrücker Zeitung from 1924, in which the mayor attacked the Saar government's educational policy, the government commission initiated disciplinary proceedings with the aim of being dismissed. Neikes, who enjoyed the support of all parties in the city ​​council and was also very popular with the population, was initially acquitted by the Disciplinary Council in July 1925, but was subject to the revision in 1927 and received a reprimand without an entry in the personnel file.

Neikes that in 1928 the official title of mayor wore, held even after the seizure of power on the demand for the return of the Saar to the German Reich established and known to Adolf Hitler , whom he already on 1 May 1934 even before the Saar plebiscite , the Honorary citizenship of the city of Saarbrücken . A bust of Hitler was placed on the balcony of the St. Johann town hall . On March 1, 1935, Hitler officially announced the annexation of the Saarland to the German Reich from the balcony of the town hall.

Despite his commitment, after the Saar referendum, Gauleiter Josef Bürckel urged Neikes to apply for leave of absence and retirement. He gave in to this demand in April 1935 after he had been promised a generous pension.

Until the end of the Third Reich , Neikes worked in Berlin for state and municipal agencies. After the war he saw himself as a victim of the National Socialists and in 1951 made financial demands on the city of Saarbrücken for his pension. In 1952 he returned to Saarbrücken, where he died two years later.

Honors

• Neikesstrasse in Saarbrücken
• Neikeshalle (sports hall) in Saarbrücken

Individual evidence

1. ^ Berthold Ohm and Alfred Philipp (eds.): Directory of addresses of the old men of the German Landsmannschaft. Part 1. Hamburg 1932, p. 300.
2. ^ Karl August Schleiden : Illustrated history of the city of Saarbrücken. Dillingen an der Saar 2009, p. 481 u. 491-492.

literature

• Fritz Jakoby: Lord Mayor Hans Neikes, in: Journal for the history of the Saar region 19 (1971), pp. 497–508.
• Hanns Klein: Short biographies of the mayors of (old) Saarbrücken, St. Johanns, Malstatt-Burbachs and the city of Saarbrücken . In: Journal for the history of the Saar region, XIX, Saarbrücken 1971, pp. 510-538. To Neikes p. 527f.
• Hans Neikes: Local politics in a national mission. In: Ludwig Linsmayer (Ed.): January 13th. The Saar at the focus of history. Saarbrücken Landesarchiv, Saarbrücken 2005. pp. 262–275. ISBN 3-938415-00-2
• Robert Volz: Reich manual of the German society . The handbook of personalities in words and pictures. Volume 2: L-Z. Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1931, DNB 453960294 (with illustration).

Web links

• Hans Neikes in the Saarland biographies
• Delivery of honorary citizenship. In: Google Arts & Culture . October 9, 1934, accessed on March 25, 2019 (photo with Hans Neikes (third from right), taken on the occasion of the transfer of the honorary citizenship rights of Saarbrücken and Neunkirchen to Adolf Hitler on October 9, 1934).