Jakob Renz

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Jakob Renz (born March 18, 1866 in Eppingen ; † January 25, 1951 in Mosbach ) was the full-time mayor of Mosbach from 1902 to 1924 . After the end of his service, he made a special contribution to the publication of local history publications and was made an honorary citizen of Mosbach in 1931 .

family

Jakob Renz was the son of Johann Ulrich Renz (born April 23, 1837 in Eppingen ; † August 4, 1905 ibid) and Eva Margarete, born Zaiß (born September 29, 1844 in Eppingen; † April 9, 1913 ibid). He grew up with eight siblings. There are different details about the father's occupation, he is named in Renz's personnel files as field guard, school servant and mailman and probably carried out these activities at the same time. The family lived in poverty.

Life

Renz attended the elementary school in Eppingen from 1872 to 1876 and then until 1883 the higher middle school, which he left during the senior years because his destitute parents could not finance further schooling. The Grand Ducal Ministry of Justice, Culture and Education in Karlsruhe exempted him from further school attendance and complied with his request as a volunteer and later an incipent at the Eppingen district office . There he became secretary of the minutes in 1885. In 1886/87 he was a trainee at the Eppingen District Court . In 1887 he passed his actuary exam and accepted a position as such at the Pforzheim district office . In 1891 he passed the exam to become a district auditor and then quickly worked at various local courts. a. in Bretten , Wolfach , Pfullendorf , Villingen and Stockach . In Wolfach he met Leonie Elise Straub, whom he married there in 1894. The son Erwin was born in Stockach in 1895, daughter Martha in 1897. The second son Hans was born in Villingen in 1899.

In 1901, Renz applied for the office of Mayor of Mosbach from Villingen and was elected with a large majority on May 14, 1901 by the 69-member citizens' committee. The official business was handed over at the turn of the year 1901/02. His predecessor Strauss had grown tired of his office after about 20 years, a full-time mayor's position had only just been created, and major upheavals were imminent in Mosbach at the turn of the century, although there was also a complex, established power structure of associations and merchants. It was hoped that a foreign candidate like Renz would generate fresh ideas and drive.

Not yet in office, Renz campaigned for the construction of the still controversial Mosbach – Mudau railway line . From June 1901 he was, also as the successor to Strauss, chairman of the Mosbach-Mudau Railway Committee. From 1902 he was also chairman of the executive committee of the municipalities involved in the railway construction. For his commitment, he was soon awarded the Knight's Cross II. Class by the Zähringer Löwen, which was initially criticized, but was soon seen as proof of his good conduct. In the further course of his term of office he steered industrial settlements in Mosbach, promoted the construction of the Bergfeldsiedlung , the establishment of the Panoramaweg and the city ​​garden and enhanced the cityscape by exposing the half-timbered houses that were previously plastered. During his tenure, Mosbach experienced a huge boom, the population grew by more than 1,000 people.

Already during his tenure he was interested in historical things; the reorganization of the city archive and the founding of a local history association go back to him. In 1912 he gave his first home history lecture on Mosbach's beginnings and development , which appeared in 1913 as the first issue of a series of booklets he founded on the history of Mosbach.

In 1924 he resigned from the office of mayor for health reasons, but continued to be the head of the city archive. His successor as mayor was Eugen Boulanger . On his 65th birthday in 1931, Renz became an honorary citizen of the city of Mosbach. In the 1930s he published a number of writings on the history of the city of Mosbach , including the chronicle of the city of Mosbach published in 1936 as well as the series of publications Mosbacher Geschichtsblätter and a life story of Götz von Berlichingen , begun in 1934 , before the waning forces put an end to his work.

Already at the advanced age of over 70 he joined the NSDAP in 1937 , although no other National Socialist involvement is known of him and he is therefore at best considered a follower in recent historiography .

He died in 1951 and was buried in the Mosbach cemetery. The Bürgermeister-Renz-Straße in Mosbach is named after him.

Fonts

  • Alt-Mosbach, a townscape from the 16th century (1930)
  • Chronicle of the city of Mosbach, anniversary edition (1936)
  • The history of the Mosbacher Berg-Allmende (1936)
  • Detailed life story of the knight Götz von Berlichingen (1939)
  • Karl Diefenbacher: Ortssippenbuch Eppingen in Kraichgau . Interest group Badischer Ortssippenbücher, Lahr-Dinglingen 1984 ( German Ortssippenbücher, series A. Volume 109) ( Badische Ortssippenbücher . Volume 52).

Individual evidence

  1. Dietmar Weber: Die Schmalspurbahn Mosbach-Mudau , Buchen 1999, p. 69.

literature

  • Martin Runow: Jakob Renz - Mosbach's first full-time mayor and local researcher . In: Mosbacher Jahresheft 2001, pp. 15–62.
  • Ernst and Dorothee Brüche: Das Mosbach Buch , Verlag Laub, Elztal-Dallau 1978