Hermann Gerken

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Hermann Gerken 2011

Hermann Albert Gerken (born April 28, 1931 in Otterndorf ) is a German local politician ( FDP ). He was mayor of the Lower Saxony city ​​of Otterndorf from 1972 to 2011 and was appointed honorary mayor there in 2011.

Life

Hermann Gerken was born in Otterndorf as the son of a PhD student. In addition to his two older sisters, he had a younger twin brother with whom he grew up in close association.

After attending the high school in Cuxhaven and completing secondary school (1949), Hermann Gerken attended the higher commercial school in Cuxhaven (until 1950). This was followed by training as a retail salesman and later as a master photographer. His professional life was characterized by various entrepreneurial activities. Among other things, he was a partner in a window factory, managing director of a construction company, importer of Canadian wooden and Polish holiday homes, owner of a photo and sports shop and real estate agent. At the center of his professional activity, however, was his political work.

He married in 1966. His daughter was born in 1968 and his son a year later. Hermann Gerken lives to this day in his birthplace Otterndorf.

politics

According to his own statements, Hermann Gerken came to politics because he was frustrated with the development of the city of Otterndorf. He was first elected to the Otterndorf City Council in 1964. In 1968 he joined the FDP and became deputy mayor in the same year. When the joint municipality of Hadeln was re-established, he was elected the first joint municipality mayor in 1970. He gave up this office in 1972 to become mayor of the city of Otterndorf.

In the local elections in November 1972 he was first mayor of the city of Otterndorf, which until 1977 was the district town of the Land Hadeln district . He succeeded as a member of the FDP with the CDU as a coalition partner. This constellation with Hermann Gerken as mayor lasted until November 2011. The 2011 local elections were decided by the SPD in Otterndorf with an absolute majority (50.9%) and the CDU (28.7%) and FDP (20.3%) for the first time in a long time in the opposition. Hermann Gerken was therefore voted out of office as mayor of the city of Otterndorf at the age of 80 after 39 uninterrupted years of service. His successor was the SPD politician Claus Johannßen .

Hermann Gerken was a member of the district council of the Land Hadeln from 1972 and, after the district reform (merging of the districts of Hadeln and Wesermünde with the independent city of Cuxhaven to form the district of Cuxhaven ), has been a member of the district of Cuxhaven since 1977. From 1977 until the local elections in 2011 he was parliamentary group leader of the FDP. From 1994 to 1996 he was the first deputy district administrator in the Cuxhaven district.

At the state political level, he tried to move into the Lower Saxony state parliament on March 12, 1994. This project failed because the FDP at the 5% barrier failed and the direct mandate in constituency Hadeln by Birgit Meyn-Horeis (SPD) was obtained.

Act

The primary goal of Hermann Gerken's political activity was to develop the town of Otterndorf economically. In order to achieve this, he relied on the development of tourism in the city early on and became a member of several committees and associations (e.g. chairman of the Otterndorf tourist office, chairman of the Otterndorfer advertising association), which also pursued this goal.

During his time as mayor a. a. the lake landscape in Otterndorf, which was primarily responsible for the city's tourist success. Many other institutions can be traced back to the work of Hermann Gerken, e.g. B. the construction of the Seelandhallen, the development of a play and fun barn, the Otterndorf Old Town Festival, which is known nationwide with over 50,000 visitors annually, and the Germanic pentathlon. The number of overnight stays in Otterndorf has risen to over 500,000 per year since he took office as mayor. In 1998 Otterndorf was awarded the title North Sea Bath by the Lower Saxony state parliament , which was confirmed in 2010 and will last until at least 2020 thanks to the rating process.

As a result of the tourist developments in the city of Otterndorf, Hermann Gerken, together with the respective city councils and administrative directors, managed to maintain a balanced budget until 2010.

Honors (selection)

  • 1991: Golden Ring of Honor of the City of Otterndorf (for his lifetime achievement for the City of Otterndorf)
  • 1997: Heuss Medal of the Federal FDP (for his liberal-political lifetime achievement)
  • 1998: Golden district badge of honor (for 25 years of membership in the district council)
  • 1999: Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany (for 30 years mayor's office)
  • 2006: Badge of Honor of the Lower Saxony FDP (for his liberal-political life achievement, as the first holder)
  • 2010: Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany (for 40 years as mayor)
  • 2011: Honorary Mayor of the City of Otterndorf (for his lifetime achievement for the City of Otterndorf)
  • 2012: Golden badge of honor of the Lower Saxony FDP (for his liberal-political life achievement)
  • 2012: Ring of honor of the district of Cuxhaven (for 40 years of membership in the district council)
  • 2014: Freiherr vom Stein plaque from the Lower Saxony City Council (for 50-year council membership)
  • 2015: Johann Heinrich Voß Prize of the city of Penzlin (for services to the establishment of the twin-city connection between Penzlin and Otterndorf)
  • 2018: Honorary citizen of the city of Otterndorf

Web links

Commons : Hermann Gerken  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. A liberal long-running hit , Nordsee-Zeitung online from July 27, 2011
  2. a b c Awarding of the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class to Hermann Gerken , picture gallery and [ archive link ( memento of the original from August 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) 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. Laudation by Hans Volker Feldmann] (PDF, 149 kB) on otter-post.de, accessed on May 1, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.otter-post.de
  3. Back to the Future ( Memento of the original from December 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Niederelbe-Zeitung online from October 18, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nez.de
  4. ^ Land Hadeln city ​​council election Otterndorf from September 11, 2011 , KDO election portal. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
  5. Sensational victory for Claus Johannßen , Cuxhavener Nachrichten online from September 11, 2011
  6. ^ Hermann Gerken - parliamentary group chairman , website of the regional parliamentary group of the FDP Cuxhaven. Retrieved May 1, 2012
  7. Official final result of the state elections in 1994 and 1998  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , State Office for Statistics Lower Saxony. Retrieved May 2, 2012@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.nls.niedersachsen.de  
  8. Liberal Mayors - Hermann Gerken ( Memento of the original from April 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) 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. . Website of the FDP - Portal Liberal. Retrieved May 1, 2012  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.liberale.de
  9. a b Important step for the city , Niederelbe-Zeitung online from May 29, 2010
  10. Urban development "Our Otterndorf 2010" ( memento of the original from October 31, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF, 2.66 MB) Retrieved April 28, 2011  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.otterndorf.de
  11. ^ Otterndorf - the green city by the sea , website of the Junge Union city association Otterndorf. Retrieved May 2, 2012
  12. a b c Hermann Gerken is Honorary Mayor , Cuxhavener Nachrichten online from November 29, 2011
  13. Niederelbe-Zeitung of December 1, 1997
  14. Niederelbe-Zeitung of March 27, 1999
  15. Niederelbe-Zeitung of April 29, 2006
  16. ^ Order for Otterndorfer Urgestein , Niederelbe-Zeitung online from January 9, 2010
  17. Golden FDP pin for Gerken , Cuxhavener Nachrichten online from May 30, 2012
  18. Niederelbe-Zeitung of December 13, 2012
  19. Niederelbe-Zeitung of December 20, 2014
  20. Nordkurier of October 4, 2015
  21. Gerken is to become an honorary citizen of Otterndorf | CNV media. Retrieved November 20, 2018 .