James R. Newman (Military Governor)

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James R. Newman (born September 24, 1902 in Quality (Kentucky) , † December 23, 1964 in Augusta ) was an American educational scientist and after 1945 governor of the military government of Greater Hesse .

Act

Newman studied art at the Western Kentucky State Teachers College , which he graduated from Columbia University in 1930 with a master's degree in education. He then attended the United States Military Academy at West Point . In 1934 he volunteered for the army as a reservist . He was then director of the 16th school in Elmont District, New York and worked in school administration. In 1941 he was called up for active service in the armed forces and in 1944 he was transferred to Europe. In August of the same year, Newman moved to the top of the European Civil Affairs Division in France, a unit that was responsible for civil development and administration in the areas liberated from the National Socialists.

On April 26, 1945 Newman took over command of the US military unit E1A2 (from August 1945 E-5), which on May 18 in Neustadt on the Wine Route , the first German civilian provincial government after the end of World War II establishes that for the territory Mittelrhein-Saar was responsible.

After the zones of occupation were demarcated and the state of Hesse was proclaimed on September 26, 1945, Colonel Newman became head of the military government of Greater Hesse (Office of Military Government Greater Hesse (OMGGH)), which was renamed in 1946 as the "Office of Military Government for Hesse" (OMGH ) was renamed. On October 12, 1945, he designated Wiesbaden as the seat of the administration and the state capital , since the American headquarters were already in Frankfurt am Main and Wiesbaden was comparatively little destroyed. On March 9, 1946, Newman and representatives of the state government opened the higher regional court in Frankfurt am Main and on December 19, 1946, the first session of the Hessian state parliament in the city ​​palace of Wiesbaden with a speech . In 1949 he advocated keeping Wiesbaden as the seat of the state government and not relocating it to Frankfurt. After the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, he was appointed Land Commissioner of the "Civil High Commission for Hesse" (HICOG). In 1952 he returned to the USA. He then served in the 95th Civil Affairs Group at Fort Gordon , Georgia .

In 1963 he received the Eli E. Nobleman Annual Award from the Civil Affairs Association . The Newman Village Housing Area in Wiesbaden, which opened in 2012, is named after him.

literature

  • Walter Mühlhausen: The American Military Government and the Building of Democracy in Post-War Hesse . In: Hessen: 60 Years of Democracy ; Contributions to the state anniversary, Historical Commission for Nassau, 2006 ISBN 978-3-930221-17-2 , p. 13 ff
  • Hans-Gerd Schumann: 40 years of the Hessian constitution, 40 years of politics in Hessen , Westdeutscher Verlag, 1989 ISBN 978-3-53112047-8 , p. 73

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Director of the American State Commission for Wiesbaden as the state capital, November 8, 1949. Contemporary history in Hesse. (As of July 7, 2012). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
personal data
SURNAME Newman, James R.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American educationalist and military governor in Hesse
DATE OF BIRTH September 24, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Quality (Kentucky)
DATE OF DEATH December 23, 1964
Place of death Augusta