Horst Pohl (politician)

Horst Pohl (born March 1, 1923 in Breslau ; † August 4, 2013 ) was a German local politician ( SED ). He was mayor of Gera from 1962 to 1988 .

Career

As the illegitimate son of a laundress, Pohl grew up in very simple circumstances. After graduating from elementary school , he completed an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk in an Opel agency in Wroclaw . This was followed by Reich Labor Service and, from 1941, military service in the Wehrmacht . At the end of the war, Pohl was taken prisoner by the Soviets in Czechoslovakia and spent three years in a camp on the Volga.

After his release from captivity, Pohl was first commercial manager in Eisenberg, Thuringia , then manager of a state-owned brick factory. Pohl and his staff did not take part in the strike of June 17, 1953 .

Pohl returned to Germany in 1948 and went into the Soviet occupation zone . He became a member of the SED in 1949 and from 1950 worked on an honorary basis in the Eisenberg city council. In July 1953 he became mayor of the city, then in 1955 he became chairman of the district council (district administrator) in the Rudolstadt district . From 1959 to 1962 he studied at the party college "Karl Marx" , which he graduated as a social scientist.

On November 22, 1962 he was elected Mayor of Gera. His long term in office was shaped by the growth of the city of Gera, which brought about the activity of large companies such as SDAG Wismut , VEB Elektronik Gera or the Carl Zeiss combine , and the associated shortage of housing. From 1972, the largest new building area in the Gera district was built in the southwest of the city in Lusan ; from 1986 the new development area Bieblach-Ost follows in the northeast. The 1980s brought two major cultural events to Gera: in June 1984 the 20th Workers' Festival in the Gera district and in October 1987 the city's 750th anniversary. On April 13, 1987, he signed an agreement on a town twinning agreement between the City Council of Gera and the City Council of Arnhem in the City Hall of Arnhem.

After reaching the age of 65, Pohl was removed from the office of Lord Mayor by the city council on March 15, 1988, and Horst Jäger succeeded him on the same day . At over 25 years, Pohl's tenure was the longest of all modern Gera city leaders. On April 28, 1988 he was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold. He continued to live in Gera as a pensioner.

Works

• Günther Linsel, Horst Pohl: Gera on the move 1962-1990 . Erhard Lemm Verlag, Gera 2016. ISBN 978-3-931635-94-7

literature

• Günter Domkowsky: Lord Mayor of the City of Gera . Publishing house Dr. Frank, Gera 2007. ISBN 978-3-934805-31-6
• Bernd-Rainer Barth :  Pohl, Horst . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Neues Deutschland , April 14, 1987, p. 5.
2. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , March 16, 1988, p. 2.
3. ↑ Neues Deutschland , April 29, 1988, p. 3.