Harry Mergel

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Harry Mergel (2015)

Harry Mergel (born February 11, 1956 in Heilbronn ) is a German local politician ( SPD ). Since May 1, 2014 he has been Lord Mayor of Heilbronn.

Life and work

Mergel comes from a family of craftsmen, his father was a master painter , his mother a housewife. He grew up in the Heilbronn Südviertel, where he attended the Wilhelm Hauff School and then completed an apprenticeship as a wholesale and foreign trade merchant at Intersport Germany . As a schoolboy he played soccer at VfR Heilbronn , then from 1974 to the mid-1980s for the Union Böckingen soccer club . After the merger of the two clubs to form FC Union Heilbronn, he is now particularly connected to it. In addition, Mergel was particularly committed to the children's leisure center on the Heilbronn Gaffenberg. Here he was not only active as a child and supervisor, but also in the so-called "staff" and in 1986, together with Rudi Faul, initiated the Gaffenberg Festival, which he directed for 19 years.

After acquiring the university entrance qualification on the second educational path in 1978, he first began a dual course of study for higher-level administrative services, which he completed with a degree in administrative management (FH) . He then studied economics and history to become a teacher. After the second state examination in 1986, he worked as a trainee lawyer at the Heilbronn vocational school Andreas-Schneider-Schule before returning to the Andreas-Schneider-Schule as a commercial school councilor after a short stop at the Walter-Eucken-Gymnasium in Freiburg im Breisgau .

Harry Mergel has been married to Beate Bindereif-Mergel since 1989. They live with their two children in the Sontheim district .

Party and politics

In 1974 Harry Mergel, who came from a social democratic family, joined the SPD. According to him, Willy Brandt and the Heilbronn member of the Bundestag Erhard Eppler brought him into the party. From 1989 to 2005 he sat for the SPD in the municipal council of the city of Heilbronn and was also chairman of the SPD parliamentary group there from 1996 to 2005. In 1999 he took part in the mayor elections in Heilbronn, but was defeated by the non-party Heidenheim mayor Helmut Himmelsbach , who was supported by the bourgeois camp . In 2007 the SPD supported the re-election of Himmelsbach.

In 2005 Harry Mergel was elected mayor by the Heilbronn municipal council for the areas of youth, family, senior citizens, integration, school, culture, sport, public safety and order, citizen services and health. In May 2013 the re-election took place with 37 votes in favor against 2 votes against. As the second alderman in the Heilbronn administration, Mergel was, according to the Heilbronn main statute , one of the deputies of the mayor.

In September 2013, the SPD proposed Mergel again as a candidate for the Heilbronn mayor election on March 16, 2014. The SPD, the Greens and the Free Voters stood behind Mergel's candidacy . The most important opponent of Mergel was his mayoral colleague Martin Diepgen, proposed by the CDU and FDP . The fact that Mergel was able to win over the otherwise public-shy Lidl founder Dieter Schwarz and his wife as campaign supporters caused a national sensation . Mergel won the election for mayor in the first ballot with 55.9%.

Mergel is also chairman of the supervisory board of Stadtsiedlung Heilbronn GmbH, Bundesgartenschau Heilbronn 2019 GmbH, SLK-Kliniken Heilbronn GmbH, Regionalen Gesundheitsholding Heilbronn-Franken GmbH and Südwestdeutsche Salzwerke AG, among others .

Web links

Commons : Harry Mergel  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Small mountain, BIG: Heilbronner Gaffenberg: Festival & largest children's leisure time in Europe In: TOP magazine. 2/2013.
  2. ^ Heilbronn: Struggle for the "last bastion of the conservatives". In: Südwest-Presse. from September 28, 2013.
  3. ↑ Harry Mergel wants to become mayor of Heilbronn ( Memento from October 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung.
  4. ↑ Harry Mergel re-elected as mayor. Retrieved October 8, 2013 .
  5. ↑ Heilbronn main statute. (PDF; 158 kB) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 29, 2013 ; Retrieved October 8, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.heilbronn.de
  6. ↑ Iris Baars-Werner: Mergel critics row back . In: Heilbronn voice . October 2, 2013 ( from Stimme.de [accessed on March 17, 2014]).
  7. ↑ Diepgen presented as an OB candidate . Stimme.de, October 24, 2013.
  8. ^ Lidl founder Schwarz caused a stir in the Heilbronn mayor election campaign , Schwäbisches Tagblatt, January 29, 2014.
  9. ↑ Lidl billionaire Schwarz supports SPD candidate , Stuttgarter Zeitung, January 29, 2014.
  10. ↑ Heilbronn has elected a new mayor - the winner is Harry Mergel . swr.de, March 16, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Mergel, Harry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German local politician (SPD)
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Heilbronn