Heinrich Strangmeier

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Heinrich Strangmeier

Heinrich Strangmeier (born January 9, 1899 in Oppendorf , † June 30, 1986 in Hilden ) was a German librarian, municipal official, historian, editor and publisher in Hilden.

Life and professional activities

(Edited excerpt from the obituary by city archivist Gerd Müller in Hildener Jahrbuch 1987)

After visiting the Ev. Elementary school 1906–1913, Strangmeier completed a three-year apprenticeship with the administration in Levern . As an administrative employee in Hünxe (Dinslaken district) and finally in Bad Hönningen , he found no opportunity for professional training or even to take exams during the First World War . As a toddler he was handicapped by an illness. In order to at least satisfy his great thirst for knowledge, he rummaged through the bookstores and at the age of 19 for the first time embarked on the self-taught path for the fields of literature and history.

Because he was promised the opportunity to take the secretary's examination in Hilden, he came to Hilden on February 28, 1921, where he was initially assigned to the city education authority as an administrative assistant. To his great joy, this included the city ​​library . With a single interruption caused by the battle against the Ruhr in 1923, he was in charge of the Hilden city library from 1921 to 1930.

On a full-time basis, he had to take over the new secretariat of the civil engineering office in autumn 1922 and the Hilden branch of the newly formed “ Arbeitsrechte Düsseldorf-Land” (employment office) as head. The secretarial course he had been promised began at the end of 1922 in Düsseldorf, which was soon no longer accessible by public transport due to the collapse of the French Ruhre .

Without any further school attendance and only prepared on his own initiative, when Düsseldorf could be approached again, he registered for the secretary's examination and passed it on May 28, 1925. The success prompted him to take an advanced course at the municipal administration school in Düsseldorf and himself to register for the "inspector's examination", which he passed on July 13, 1927. Since 1925 he attended the administration academy in Düsseldorf, where his main interest, influenced by his work in the employment office, was local economic and social policy. With a brilliant work on economic democracy , he passed the diploma examination for municipal officials on November 6, 1930.

Hiden's mayor Erich Lerch, who did not miss the inclinations and interests of the now 31-year-old Heinrich Strangmeier, initially transferred him to the public education office, and on August 1, 1930, he was given full-time management of the city ​​library .

His shock was even greater when in 1933 Nazi party officials and citizens demanded the burning of books they had never read. All books of socialist or communist content, all books of ostracized German, foreign and Jewish writers suddenly disappeared. He had faked a sale and paid the "sales proceeds" out of his pocket. In the meantime, the endangered documents ended up in hiding in his East Westphalian homeland.

The transaction of the books, if discovered, could cost him head and neck. A few initiates, including his friend and later mayor Robert Gies and his Jewish landlord Jakob Schmitz, urgently advised him to join the NSDAP immediately so that he was above suspicion. So on May 1, 1933, he became a "party member". No one asked him about the books anymore.

Because it was far too dangerous to publish writings on social problems, as he actually intended, he turned to local history research based on primary sources . Needing his own publication organ for this, he hit upon the idea of ​​publishing a Hilden yearbook , which he first succeeded in doing in 1936. To publish the Hilden yearbooks , he had set up his own "office" in 1938, in which a man and a woman worked. Both were known anti-fascists. The labor office he reported their activities and kept them from the service obligation. Two further editions of the yearbook followed in 1938 and 1941.

The only ray of hope in those days was his participation in a course at the German library school in Leipzig. There he obtained the diploma for public librarians after a written and oral examination. After he received a letter of congratulations on his 25th anniversary in the service on March 31, 1938, he was finally appointed city inspector on July 1, 1939, with a permanent civil service.

At the end of the war, ten days after the Americans marched into Hilden, two American officers appeared at his apartment to offer him the office of mayor. With reference to his frailty he declined, but immediately declared himself ready to cooperate in the cultural field. The Americans then appointed him an alderman .

He took up his new post on May 2, 1945. The culture and welfare department were subordinate to him, but the military government also assigned him numerous “special tasks”. Some of these were quite uncomfortable for him because they consisted of compulsory conditions. After the Americans had been replaced by the English, he became the salary deputy city ​​director . The designation “councilor” has been abolished.

In numerous “memoranda” he now dealt with the situation at the schools and came to the conclusion that Hilden had been “hostile to school” so far, you can see it in the old school buildings. As for the cultural work, his result was even worse; because he wrote: “Culture is zero in Hilden.” He intended to put an end to both grievances as soon as the situation allowed it again.

As early as 1945 he got back the books that had been relocated in 1933. As a result, Hilden had the fully stocked city library far and wide shortly after the end of the war. In the same year, namely on October 1, 1945, he joined the SPD's newly founded local group Hilden, but emphasized that he would continue to reject attempts by the authorities or partisans to influence it.

It hit him very hard that in 1946 the military government decreed that all who became members of the NSDAP before May 1, 1937 should be released from the administration; for he also fell under it. The German denazification committee immediately found that it had already glorified National Socialism in its third Hilden yearbook . From Finchley / England, his former landlords, the spouses Jakob and Else Schmitz, wrote a notarized letter from which it emerged who Heinrich Strangmeier really was. The English acted immediately. They found him unreservedly worthy to continue his previous office. With that he was fully rehabilitated.

Even if the hunger was great and the need can hardly be described, he managed at least to satisfy the hunger for spiritual nourishment. The library and the local history museum flourished again, the community college got going, theater guest performances, concerts and poets evenings alternated. Finally, on September 1, 1947, he set up the city ​​archive , which he intended to continue his local history studies. He let himself be released from the duties of the welfare department. Instead, he now fully concentrated on schools and cultural work. He received a small appreciation by being promoted to city administrator on December 18, 1947.

In 1952 a new municipal code was passed, which enabled the municipal councils to elect "councilors". On October 1st, 1953 Heinrich Strangmeier was released from civil servant status for life and was appointed to the position of “councilor, general representative of the city director and department head for education and culture”. He strongly advocated the construction of new schools, especially in the new building area at Holterhöfchen , and the council followed his suggestions.

In addition to his official duties, he now devoted himself intensively to homeland research. Volume 4 of the Hilden Yearbook appeared in the summer of 1950 after a long break , and by 1971 he increased this series to 10 volumes. From 1951 he began to publish his collection of sources on the city's history in the series Niederbergische Posts . As a pensioner from January 30, 1964, he devoted himself entirely to his beloved local research. This was reflected in the series "Niederbergische Contributions", which he increased to 44 volumes as sole editor until 1980. He was just as pleased that the Hilden Yearbook was published again in a new series, as was the fact that in Ernst Huckenbeck he had found a worthy successor to the publication of the Niederberg contributions .

Strangmeier had been married to the pastor's daughter Maria Conradi from Halle-Trotha since May 14, 1941 .

Honors

Editing

  • Hilden yearbooks
  • Niederberg contributions

literature

  • Gerd Müller: Obituary for Heinrich Strangmeier. In: Hilden Yearbook. 1987.

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Strangmeier, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German librarian, historian, editor and publisher
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Oppendorf
DATE OF DEATH June 30, 1986
Place of death Hilden