Hermann Kah

Hermann Kah (born October 25, 1904 in Ravensburg ; † February 17, 1990 ibid) was a German politician ( center / CDU ), administrative court director and from 1948 to 1954 mayor of Schwäbisch Gmünd .

Life

Hermann Kah studied law at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen . Since 1923 was a member of the Catholic student union AV Guestfalia Tübingen in the CV .

Kah settled in Schwäbisch Gmünd in 1931 and worked there as a lawyer until the beginning of the war in 1939 and was briefly chairman of the Center Party in Schwäbisch Gmünd until 1933 . Under his leadership, the center was the last of the democratic parties in the Gmünder area to wage a desperate election campaign against the NSDAP . On March 1, 1933, he led a large election rally in Gmünder Stadtgarten , in which he and the Württemberg President Bolz appeared as highly regarded speakers. In the Reichstag elections on March 5, the center in Gmünd achieved a clear lead over the NSDAP with 44 percent of the vote.

In 1939 Kah was drafted into the Wehrmacht. After his return from captivity in 1947, Kah moved to the Stuttgart Administrative Court , as he no longer wanted to continue his legal practice after the restrictions he had experienced as a center politician and non-NSDAP member until 1945. As a politically unaffected person, he could be accepted into the civil service without difficulty.

Term of office as Lord Mayor

In the election of the mayor on April 18, 1948 in Schwäbisch Gmünd, the city council of the Nazi era, Franz Konrad from Laupheim , prevailed against the incumbent Franz Czisch with a two-thirds majority . Due to the dubious circumstances surrounding the election and Konrad's past, the director of the military government in Württemberg-Baden , Charles M. La Follette , set up a three-person investigation committee. On the basis of this report, the military governor ordered in a letter to Prime Minister Maier on July 16, 1948 that Konrad was not allowed to take up the post of mayor in Schwäbisch Gmünd.

After the controversial mayoral election was canceled by the military governor, the politically unaffected Kah was asked to stand for the election. With 63.4% of the votes cast, he was elected to office on October 24, 1948 as the successor to Franz Czisch and was Lord Mayor of Schwäbisch Gmünd from November 22, 1948 to November 21, 1954. At the same time, he was the first directly elected mayor of the city after the war. His two predecessors were either appointed provisionally by the occupation authorities ( Emil Rudolph ) or elected by the municipal council (Franz Czisch).

For the new mayor, housing construction in the city overcrowded with refugees was the most urgent task. Several residential areas were opened up by 1950 after the currency reform . He also considered the rental housing construction run by the local building association to be worthy of funding and acquired 100 shares for the city worth 30,000 DM . Furthermore, at his instigation, approx. DM 15,000 salary advances were approved for municipal employees willing to build for the acquisition of business shares in the building association. Since the housing shortage was particularly great among the displaced, Kah initiated the expansion of the Rehnenhof district into a settlement for displaced persons. On March 11, 1950, he broke ground for 20 semi-detached houses on Rehnenhof. Thanks to the subsidized construction measures, almost 300 apartments were built in the entire city area in 1950 instead of the originally planned 250.

Also during his tenure in 1954, the city of Schwäbisch Gmünd took over the sponsorship of the expellees from Brno .

With a share of 28.19 percent of the total population, Schwäbisch Gmünd was particularly busy with displaced persons and refugees. Kah therefore tried to prevent further allocation with GDR refugees until they were evenly accepted into the country.

Due to the rapid increase in population, other major projects had to be tackled in addition to residential construction. Under Kah, the destroyed bridges were renewed with American help, several schools and kindergartens were expanded or rebuilt, the Trinity cemetery was set up and the expansion of the nursing and care facilities was decided. An extension also experienced the largest school of the city, the crafts school , while the business school from by decision of the county council district was taken over. After some heated debates in the local council, Kah was also able to push through the establishment of a girls ' high school , today's Hans-Baldung-Gymnasium . Parts of the local council questioned the need for a higher education for girls in the city.

Kah also pushed ahead with the completion of the bathing facility in the Schiessal valley. The city made an additional 500,000 DM available for the construction of a sports pool. In 1950 the leisure facility was put into operation, and in 1951 Schwäbisch Gmünd was the venue for an international swimming competition.

Also in 1951 a new sewage treatment plant was put into operation.

The Gmünder Hefte , contributions to the history of the city, were published on Hermann Kah's initiative .

In 1954, Hermann Kah applied for another term of office as Lord Mayor. Despite his undisputed achievements, especially for the expansion of the city and the alleviation of the housing shortage, Kah was not confirmed in office in the mayoral election on September 12, 1954. The citizens voted with an overwhelming majority for the re-run Konrad. This clear defeat was seen less in the person of Kah, although he was tactically imprudent during the election campaign. First and foremost, the election result was viewed as a defiant reaction by Gmünder and a demonstration of sympathy for Konrad, since the Americans had not confirmed him in office in 1948.

After Konrad's inauguration on November 22, 1954, Kah withdrew from politics.

An oil portrait of Hermann Kah, painted by Bäumler , has been in the Schwäbisch Gmünd town hall since 1986 .

further activities

In his capacity as Lord Mayor, Kah held other offices at the same time. So he was z. B. Member of the board of trustees and lecturer at the adult education center .

From October to December 1952, Kah was on a study trip to the United States . The two American lectures he then gave in the winter semester of 1952/53 set the adult education center's audience record with 530 and 670 visitors, respectively. In 1953, when a successor was being sought for the head of the adult education center, Kah jokingly suggested - probably in relation to the budget situation in the city - that we should look for a rich widow with a high pension to run the line on a voluntary basis.

Kah was also a member of the board of the tourist association and from 1953 to December 1954 a permanent employee of the local magazine Einhorn, which was published in Schwäbisch Gmünd .

literature

• Ernst Lämmle: From the empire through the time of the world wars to the democratic republic in the history of the city of Schwäbisch Gmünd , ed. from the Schwäbisch Gmünd city archive , Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-8062-0399-7
• Ernst Lämmle: The first years of development in Schwäbisch Gmünd after the currency reform , in einhorn Jahrbuch 1988 , Einhorn-Verlag Schwäbisch Gmünd 1988, ISBN 3-921703-88-3

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lämmle, p. 487
2. ↑ Lämmle, p. 403
3. ^ Eva M. and Wilhelm Lienert: A thousand times one-time achievement. The time of reconstruction , including excerpt from an interview with Kah from 1967, Westermann Verlag, undated, on westermann-fin.de , accessed on February 19, 2010
4. ↑ Lämmle, p. 487f.
5. ↑ Lämmle, p. 490
6. ↑ Lämmle, p. 491
7. ↑ Lämmle, p. 492
8. ↑ Lämmle, p. 493
9. ^ Richard Strobel: The art monuments in Baden-Württemberg. City of Schwäbisch Gmünd, Volume III. Profane buildings in the old town without fortifications , Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-422-00570-6 , p. 204
10. ^ Letter from Kah in December 1953, published in einhorn. Illustrated magazine to cultivate the idea of ​​home and to promote tourism in the city and district of Schwäbisch Gmünd , No. 2, Schwäbisch Gmünd 1953
11. ↑ Irmgard Schmücker: 'We didn't know anything' or 'We are who again ...' in 50 Years of Gmünder VHS. 1946 - 1996 , Festschrift, Schwäbisch Gmünd 1996, p. 31
12. ↑ unicorn. Illustrated magazine for cultivating the idea of ​​home and promoting tourism in the city and district of Schwäbisch Gmünd , Nos. 2 to 8, 1953–1954