Hermann Ostrop

Hermann Heinrich Adolf Ostrop (born August 10, 1888 in Buldern , now Dülmen , † August 9, 1963 in Münster ) was a German local politician ( center , CDU ). Immediately after the Second World War he was provisional mayor of the city ​​of Dortmund , then briefly senior city director .

Life and accomplishments

Hermann Ostrop was born on August 10, 1888 in Buldern, now Dülmen, as the son of the landowner Hubert Ostrop (1833–1906) and his wife Maria Ostrop, née Forkenbeck (1848–1916). He attended grammar school in Coesfeld and began studying law and economics in 1908. After the first state examination, he completed his legal clerkship in 1912, including at the Lüdinghausen District Court . During the First World War he was used as an officer on the Western Front. He returned from the war in 1918 and passed the major state examination to become a court assessor in 1920. In the same year the doctorate followed at the University of Münster . He then began his professional career at the Arnsberg Regional Court .

Just a year later, Ostrop began his career in local government. Initially active as a magistrate's assistant in Bochum, he successfully applied as a city councilor in 1914. On April 20, 1925, he was able to prevail against the Dortmund KPD parliamentary group chairman in the election as a paid member of the magistrate and took over the legal and regulatory department. After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists, Ostrop, as a center member, was rejected by the local NSDAP. Therefore, on April 6, 1933, he asked for a leave of absence. After the law to restore the civil service was passed , he continued to see the opportunity to work in the city's top management. Two and a half weeks after his release, he turned to the mayor, Bruno Schüler, with the request that he be reassigned to his old office. The Arnsberg District President complied with this request. In the new election to the magistrate, however, he was not re-elected and retired on June 15, 1937.

In the following years Ostrop did not have a permanent job, occasionally he took on vacation replacement for a lawyer. An application for inclusion in the list of directors was rejected in 1938. Ostrop volunteered as an organization and advertising manager for the Dortmund Reich Air Protection Association . Shortly after the start of the war, in September 1939, he resumed a position as a city councilor as a retired civil servant and headed the Welfare and War Aid departments as well as the city treasury, tax and insurance offices. Shortly before the end of the Second World War, Mayor Willi Banike appointed him his general representative.

After the liberation of Dortmund by American troops, Ostrop was appointed as one of three remaining city councilors on April 13, 1945 by the military government as provisional mayor of the city of Dortmund. After the North German council constitution was introduced , Ostrop was elected senior city director on February 8, 1946 - with the Social Democrats abstaining. However, since the British military government refused to confirm his position, he resigned from this post on March 9, 1946. The rejection sparked speculation about party political motives, since the Labor Party had taken over government in the United Kingdom and his successor Wilhelm Hansmann was a social democrat. The example of the Bochum City Director Franz Schmidt shows , however, that Ostrop's membership in the center was not the decisive factor. Rather, the military government had doubts that Ostrop was "free [...] from any trace of Nazism". He was offered further employment in administration, which he refused.

After his retirement, Ostrop joined the Dortmund CDU and participated in its development. He no longer held public offices, but continued to volunteer for numerous charitable and cultural institutions.

Hermann Ostrop died on August 9, 1963 in Münster at the age of 74.

literature

• Matthias Dudde: Ostrop, Hermann Heinrich Adolf . In: Hans Bohrmann (Ed.): Biographies of important Dortmunders. People in, from and for Dortmund . tape 3 . Klartext, Essen 2001, ISBN 3-88474-954-4 , p. 150 ff .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Matthias Dudde: Ostrop, Hermann Heinrich Adolf . In: Hans Bohrmann (Ed.): Biographies of important Dortmunders. People in, from and for Dortmund . tape 3 . Klartext, Essen 2001, ISBN 3-88474-954-4 , p. 150 ff .