Hugo Zimmermann (politician)

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Franz Hugo Adolf Zimmermann (born January 1, 1892 in Berlin ; † April 8, 1964 in Eupen ) was a Belgian administrative official and long-time mayor of Eupen.

Live and act

Zimmermann came to Eupen with his parents as a child and began a career as a civil servant with the Eupen city administration in 1909. He was then taken on as a civil servant in the district administration, before he was appointed mayor of the jointly administered towns of Lontzen and Herbesthal at the age of 27 a year after the First World War . Once under the Treaty of Versailles , the former Prussian district Eupen Country Belgium had been assigned, was a carpenter as a result of the new Belgian government as mayors of the two cities confirmed.

For the population of the former district it was the time of great upheaval, as the area had initially become part of the General Gouvernement Eupen-Malmedy from 1920 to 1925 and was only fully integrated into the Belgian state after a non-binding referendum. Zimmermann showed himself - although of German descent - as a staunch Belgian, which earned him the appointment of Mayor of Eupen by the Belgian Interior Minister Joseph Carnoy on May 18, 1928, although the lawyer and notary Leo Trouet von in the last elections in 1926 the political majority had been elected. However, this had been strictly rejected by the Brussels central government because it was not viewed as straightforward and problematic . As a result, months of tough negotiations took place between Eupen, who had insisted on Trouet's election, and Brussels, but the central government finally prevailed with the appointment of Zimmermann by virtue of an ordinance of the Integration Act of 1925 and finally his on May 16, 1928 Swearing in place.

The first few years in office were difficult for Zimmermann, as he repeatedly had to assert himself in the city council against the unfriendly political majority and in 1936, with the backing of the central government, even had several pro-German lay judges removed from office after they had been given a reception by the interior minister in Eupen whose visit stayed away in protest.

During the Second World War , when Eupen was occupied and administered by German Wehrmacht troops from 1940 to 1944, Zimmermann fled to Brussels, where he got a job in the Ministry of the Interior. After the withdrawal of the German troops and the resumption of Belgian administrative structures, Zimmermann took over the office of mayor in Eupen again. Just a few months later, he made headlines when he vehemently advocated reporting fellow citizens who, as “non-bourgeois”, were eligible for “denationalization”. At the same time, he encouraged the settlement of Belgians from the interior of the country in order to give Eupen a "real Belgian character".

Zimmermann held the office of mayor until his death, of which only the last two years as elected mandate holder for the Christian Social Party (CSP), whose local section he co-founded in 1945. With a total of 36 years in office, he was the longest incumbent mayor of the city of Eupen to this day. Despite all the initial difficulties as a “lateral entrant” in the city council, Zimmermann increasingly managed to implement and implement a number of prestige objects and thus also gain the approval of the population. At first he was primarily involved in the field of rural agriculture in the rural environment and became, among other things, a member and from 1922 to 1940 chairman of the agricultural district association and in 1933 co-founder and later chairman of the board of directors of the Eupener cooperative dairy Walhorn , which in 2014 with Arla Foods merged. His life's work counts above all his commitment to the construction of the new Weser Dam , which was planned both in the 1860s and again in the 1880s, but was rejected both times by the Prussian central government in Berlin due to security concerns of the population and finally in 1936 Attacked and, due to the war years, could not be inaugurated until 1950. In this way Zimmermann ensured the continuous water supply for the Eupen population and the local industry and at the same time promoted tourism in the area around the dam. In addition, his special merits include, among other things, his commitment to the Catholic school system in Eupen and in particular the new building of the Collège Patronné in the mid-1930s and the construction of the stadium with sports hall on the corner of Kaperberg / Judenstrasse and the youth hostel the Judenstrasse.

Zimmermann has been highly decorated several times for his services and received, among other things, the honor of

Hugo Zimmermann was married to Maria Louis, with whom he had two sons and a daughter, one of whom died in a car accident a year after his ordination .

literature

  • Heinz Warny: Hugo Zimmermann - 36 years mayor of Eupens . In: Lebensbilder from Ostbelgien , Grenz-Echo-Verlag, Eupen 2017, pp. 196–197
  • Mayor Hugo Zimmermann died , in: Grenz-Echo from April 8, 1964

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ East Belgium in retrospect: Hugo Zimmermann 36 years of Eupen's mayor , on grenzecho.net from August 12, 2016
  2. ↑ East Belgium in retrospect: Hugo Zimmermann 36 years of Eupen's mayor , on grenzecho.net from August 12, 2016
  3. ^ Thousands upon thousands in the sign of the dam inauguration , in: Grenz-Echo from July 2, 1951
personal data
SURNAME Carpenter, Hugo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zimmermann, Franz Hugo Adolf (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian administrator and mayor of Eupen for many years
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH April 8, 1964
Place of death Eupen