Harry Blum

Harry Blum (born October 18, 1944 in Lennestadt ; † March 17, 2000 in Cologne ; actually Johannes Jacob Blum ) was a German politician ( CDU ) and the first directly elected full-time mayor of the city of Cologne .

biography

Blum was born shortly before the end of the Second World War in the Elspe district of Lennestadt . His family, who came from Cologne , had been evacuated to the Sauerland after the outbreak of war . After the war ended, she returned to her hometown and Blum completed his Abitur at the Dreikönigsgymnasium in Cologne. He then studied law at the University of Cologne . After the death of his father, he finally took over his real estate company in the Cologne district of Sürth from 1965 to 1994 .

politics

In 1964, Blum joined the CDU . After his political career in the local association of the CDU in the Rodenkirchen district of Cologne and as parliamentary group leader of the CDU in the Rodenkirchen district council from 1975 to 1984, Blum has been a member of the Cologne city council since 1984. In 1991 he was elected First Mayor of Cologne. He was also active in the finance committee, in the main committee and as chairman of the urban development committee of the Cologne city council. Shortly before his candidacy for the office of Lord Mayor, he had his long-standing nickname "Harry" entered as his first name and was now officially called Harry Johannes Jacob Blum .

After 43 years as SPD mayor in Cologne, he was the first CDU politician in this office after his opponent Klaus Heugel ( SPD ) had to refrain from running because of insider trading in share trading. However, after six months in office, Blum died unexpectedly of heart disease. His term of office as directly elected Lord Mayor lasted from September 1999 until his death in March 2000. His successor in the office of Lord Mayor was Fritz Schramma (CDU).

He was still able to implement some of his projects himself, such as the lighting of important Cologne sights. The reactivation of numerous Cologne fountains is also one of his successes. He was only able to initiate a few other projects - but they continued after his death; For example, the first professionally operated call center of a city administration, in which other municipalities - such as the city of Bonn - have also participated since 2005.

In October 2005, a square in the newly designed Rheinauhafen in Cologne was named after Blum.

family

Blum was married to Carola Blum (born October 16, 1948). They lived together on a farm in the Sürth district of Cologne, which had belonged to his family for over 700 years. Carola Blum is a student councilor by profession, from 2004 to 2009 she was a member of the Cologne City Council for the CDU and from 2006 to 2008 she was deputy district party chairwoman of the CDU Cologne.

literature

• Gerd Huppertz, Axel Pollheim (ed.): 100 Cologne Heads. Cologne 1995.

Web links

• taz on the death of Harry Blum
• On the election of Harry Blum