Herbert Krämer

Herbert Krämer (born August 26, 1931 in Freudenberg ; † February 9, 2015 in Tenerife , Spain ) was a German local politician in North Rhine-Westphalia , who held the mayor's office in Freudenberg and the post of city ​​director in Bielefeld and Duisburg .

Live and act

Herbert Krämer was born on August 26, 1931 as the eldest son of the building contractor Paul Krämer and his wife Margarete, who came from Duisburg, in Freudenstadt. After attending the local elementary school from 1938 to 1942, in April 1942 he went to the high school for boys in Betzdorf / Sieg . He passed his Abitur in March 1952 at the Löhrtor-Gymnasium in Siegen , where he had moved in January 1946. From the summer semester of 1952 he studied law and political science at the University of Bonn . He was primarily interested in the legal areas of state , administrative and criminal law . He took economics as a minor.

Student jobs and internships allowed him to gain various experiences in a workshop , a factory administration, a tax office and at the district court of Siegen . He passed the first state legal examination on December 5, 1955 at the Judicial Examination Office in Hamm . He then began his legal preparatory service on March 1, 1956 and worked successively at the local court in Olpe , the public prosecutor's office and regional court in Siegen , the district administration in Siegen, the local court in Siegen and the higher regional court in Hamm . He completed his legal post with a Siegen lawyer and notary. As part of his training at the district administration in Siegen, he had independently led administrative court proceedings and had been brought in to negotiate with the interior ministry in Düsseldorf and the superior district government in Arnsberg . In 1956 he did his doctorate in Bonn under Kurt Ballerstedt with his dissertation The liability of works council members from legal transactions and breach of duty . During his legal traineeship , he wrote reports and comments on mainly local political issues as a freelancer for various Siegerland newspapers . At the beginning of 1960 he passed the second state examination in law at the State Judicial Examination Office in Düsseldorf, albeit only with the grade sufficient .

In a law firm in Olpe , he worked from April to September 1960 on cases in the areas of property transactions and contract law . From October 1960 to November 1962 he worked first as an employee, then as a state assessor at the road administration of the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association. It was at this time that he was elected Freudenberg's mayor. At that time he was considered Germany's youngest mayor. Between 1962 and 1969 he worked as a district assessor, as a district councilor and most recently, from 1964, as a district director of the Siegen district . He was initially charged with social content tasks, most recently he was responsible for the traffic department in charge. From 1964 to 1978 he represented the district of Siegen in the landscape assembly of the regional association Westphalia-Lippe . He belonged to the SPD - faction on.

The Krämer, who moved to Bielefeld as city treasurer in February 1969 , was promoted to the office of city director on July 2, 1969. At the beginning of 1974 he was promoted to senior city director. In addition, Krämer was a member, often chairman, of various supervisory and administrative boards , for example of banks, insurance companies, housing associations and energy supply companies . He was also a member of the press committee and the personnel committee of the German Association of Cities , a member of the landscape assembly and the landscape committee, chairman of the traffic committee for roads and a member of the administrative and planning committee of the state planning community at the municipal and national administrative level .

In view of his tireless commitment, the Duisburg SPD asked in mid-1978 whether he wanted to join them as senior city director in the fifth largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia. After consulting with party friends such as the then Prime Minister Johannes Rau and his Finance Minister Diether Posser , he moved to the Rhineland for the next eight years as City Director .

Most recently, at the end of the 1990s, Krämer was chairman of the board of RWE Disposal AG in Essen, member of the supervisory board of Nukem GmbH and Preussag AG , member of the supervisory board of Vereinigte Elektrizitätswerke Westfalen AG (VEW), RWE Energie AG and Rheinelektra AG (today: Elektrizitäts- AG formerly W. Lahmeyer & Co. ). After sitting on the supervisory board of Mannesmannröhren-Werke for a considerable time in the 1980s, he was a member of the Hochtief AG advisory board in the 1990s .

In retirement, his activities shifted to volunteering . For many years he was chairman or honorary chairman of the Pro Ruhrgebiet association . For more than a decade he was chairman of the Friends of the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg. He acted as deputy chairman of the board of directors of the Köhler-Osbahr Foundation for the Promotion of Art and Science. For the last 19 years of his life , as chairman of the Hanns Bisegger Foundation , he protected musical life in Bielefeld by initiating projects, organizing concerts and chairing the jury for a young talent award. He was also a member of the Rotary Club Duisburg Rhein Ruhr.

His first marriage had two children, a boy and a girl. Herbert Krämer died in Tenerife on the night of February 9, 2015.

Merits

Herbert Krämer was instrumental in ensuring that contacts and encounters between Germans and Israelis took place from 1966 onwards . The delegation he led was the first to visit Israel and forged a partnership between the Siegen-Wittgenstein and Emek Hefer districts from this encounter .

The Mayor of Duisburg, Josef Krings , emphasized the following achievements when he said goodbye to Krämer: a profile gain for the city, the creation of a business-friendly climate in the city administration, the redesign of the city center, the city partnership with the central Chinese city of seven million Wuhan and the further development of the University of Duisburg-Essen . Above all, the fight against the breakdown of the city's finances - also in supra-regional bodies - earned him the reputation of a top SPD official in local politics. For his services to the city he was awarded the Duisburg Ring of Honor. On July 4, 1991, the University of Duisburg awarded him an honorary doctorate (Dr. sc. Pol.).

"As head of administration, he headed the Bielefeld city administration with initiative, energy and foresight", acknowledged Bielefeld's mayor Pit Clausen in an obituary for the deceased's commitment and emphasized that the council and administration "owe him great thanks for his tireless work for the good of the city" be. Since music was particularly close to his heart, the Hanns Bisegger Foundation posthumously thanked the “committed supporter of music culture [...] and the highly esteemed, open and imaginative chairman”.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n} archivar: Herbert Krämer (1931–2015). Siegen district director in "stormy times" (1964–1969). In: siwiarchiv.de. District of Siegen-Wittgenstein, Kulturreferat / Kreisarchiv, February 17, 2015, accessed on June 25, 2018 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Redaktionsbüro Harenberg: Knaurs Prominentenlexikon 1980. The personal data of celebrities from politics, economy, culture and society . With over 400 photos. Droemer Knaur, Munich / Zurich 1979, ISBN 3-426-07604-7 , Krämer, Herbert, p. 243 .
3. ↑ ^{a b c} (uj): His heart belonged to music. Former City Director Dr. Herbert Krämer died at the age of 83. In: muku-bielefeld.de. Association of Friends and Supporters of the Music and Art School eV, February 24, 2015, accessed on June 25, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Emek Hefer (Israel). In: siegen-wittgenstein.de. District of Siegen-Wittgenstein, accessed on June 25, 2018 .