Joachim Erwin

Joachim Erwin 1990

Signature of Joachim Erwins

Joachim Erwin (* 2 September 1949 in Stadtroda , Thuringia ; † 20th May 2008 in Dusseldorf ) was a German jurist and CDU - local politicians . From 1999 until his death, he was Lord Mayor of Düsseldorf.

Life

Erwin and his family first came to Wuppertal at the age of three and then to Düsseldorf at the age of eleven. In 1968 he passed his Abitur at the Humboldt Gymnasium in Düsseldorf . He then studied law , sports and Hispanic studies at the Ruhr University in Bochum . Since 1976 he worked as a lawyer in Düsseldorf. As a member of the CDU , he was on the Düsseldorf city ​​council between 1975 and 1988 , then a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament , and since 1994 again on the city council. In 1998 he was elected mayor of the city of Düsseldorf. Erwin has been Lord Mayor since the local elections in 1999, succeeding Marie-Luise Smeets (Lord Mayor from 1994 to 1999). He held this office until his death.

Joachim Erwin died on May 20, 2008 in the Augusta Hospital in Düsseldorf from bowel cancer diagnosed in 2003 . He left behind his wife and two grown children. He was buried in an honorary grave in the Düsseldorf North Cemetery .

Direct elections for the Lord Mayor

As a result of a change in the local election laws, the mayors, mayors and district administrators in North Rhine-Westphalia were elected directly from 1999, instead of by the city council.

When Erwin first ran for the mayor's office in Düsseldorf in 1999, the new provision was already in place. His social democratic rival candidate and previous incumbent Marie-Luise Smeets had led the first red-green city ​​government of the traditionally Christian-democratic Düsseldorf for five years . Erwin received 48.3% of the vote in the first ballot, Smeets 45.3%. He was able to defend his lead in the second ballot with 50.8% of the vote, just ahead of Smeets, who came to 49.2%. Erwin thus became the first directly elected Lord Mayor of Düsseldorf.

In the 2004 local elections, Joachim Erwin was re-elected in the first ballot with 50.4% of the votes cast (voter turnout 53.1%).

politics

As Lord Mayor, Erwin was the top line manager of the city ​​administration and chairman of the city council as well as the main and finance committee. He was also chairman of the supervisory board of Messe Düsseldorf GmbH, the Fortuna Düsseldorf football club , as well as the administrative board of Stadtsparkasse and a member of the supervisory board of Düsseldorf Airport. Since 1999, his policy in the Council has been largely supported by a majority of the CDU and FDP - at times based on a coalition agreement. In most cases, however, there was no formal cooperation agreement between the parties, so that for the first time in the debate about the Düsseldorf Arcaden at Bilk train station in July 2005 there was no council majority. In June 2006, however, this project was resolved by a narrow majority in a secret ballot and the house opened in September 2008.

During his second term of office, the so-called “Düsseldorfer Strasse Statung ” was introduced, the partly heavily controversial regulatory authority ordinance for maintaining public safety and order in the state capital of Düsseldorf (DStO).

He became known beyond Düsseldorf's borders through the ultimately unsuccessful applications from the state capital to host the 2006 World Cup and the 2012 Olympic Games .

Under Erwin, Düsseldorf was one of the few major cities in Germany that, on the one hand, had a balanced budget for years - benefiting from a good development of the economy and tax revenue - and, on the other hand , was able to significantly reduce debt through privatization . In particular, under the leadership of Erwins, the city sold a majority stake in Stadtwerke Düsseldorf (to EnBW ) as well as shares in the energy group RWE . According to Erwin and the black and yellow majority of the council, the city should be free of debt by the end of 2006. On September 12, 2007, Erwin declared Düsseldorf to be debt-free. However, in the years that followed, under his successor Elbers, various authorities questioned whether this freedom from debt would be maintained.

After his death, representatives of all parties and the local press unanimously acknowledged that the economic and urban development as well as the increased reputation of Düsseldorf in the world was one of Erwin's great merits, for which he was vehemently committed until a few days before his death. He was able to inspire world-famous architects, artists and companies for projects in the city.

With his approaching death, Erwin left a "political legacy" to the city's citizens and politicians, which was posted posthumously on the city's website.

In 2017, the newly created Joachim-Erwin-Platz at Kö-Bogen was dedicated to him, a project he campaigned for during his tenure.

Management as Lord Mayor

Erwin's advocacy of large construction projects such as the LTU arena , the Medienhafen (planning took place before he took office), the Düsseldorf Arcaden and the Kö-Bogen led to a growing polarization of the public. Some accused him of megalomania, others welcomed his attempt to establish Düsseldorf as a booming business location and a magnet for visitors. In 2006 the ISS Dome , which is also under Erwin's aegis , was opened. The sale of the majority of Stadtwerke Düsseldorf to EnBW was particularly controversial , as this took place immediately after the expiry of the validity period for a contrary referendum, while a new referendum was being prepared. Ultimately, however, Erwin achieved his goal of freeing the city from debt through this sale.

With the SPD state government (until May 2005), the CDU state government, the former as well as the incumbent police president of Düsseldorf, Erwin was often involved in a high-profile dispute on security and financial policy issues. His public appearance was often classified as clumsy. His tough crackdown on the camp of a group of Roma was just as much a part of it as the dispute over the Düsseldorf Arcaden and the Golzheimer Friedhof and the sale of Jan-Wellem-Platz . In the last two cases mentioned, Erwin first tried to formally prevent a referendum, which he did not succeed legally. However, he won the subsequent votes as the necessary quorum was not achieved.

In 2003, during a press conference in front of sixty journalists, Erwin described a PDS council member as a “crazy communist”. He was forbidden to make this statement as a defamatory criticism under threat of a fine after he had rejected an amicable settlement proposed by the court. With the judges' scolding that was subsequently uttered, Erwin drew harsh criticism from the NRW Ministry of Justice.

Also in 2003 it became known that Erwin was being investigated for initial suspicion of tax evasion . It was about 90,000 euros of undeclared income. However, the investigation was discontinued due to a lack of sufficient suspicion. Erwin himself suspected an election campaign maneuver by the opposition behind the advertisement.

In 2005, his role in the sale of Schloss Eller to Provinzial-Versicherung was controversial after it became known that he was on the company's board of directors. Another focus was his personnel policy, which was criticized as favoritism.

The lack of citizen participation in political decisions was often criticized. Examples of this were the sale of shares in the Düsseldorfer Stadtwerke and the construction of the Düsseldorf Arcaden and the Kö-Bogen. Others in turn praised its economic and financial policy as well as the high level of investment.

Erwin has been one of the deputy presidents of the German Association of Cities since 2005 .

Others

In the episode Kidnapped the series Alarm für Cobra 11 (episode 166, season 20) Joachim Erwin was seen in the role of a lawyer; in 2006 he embodied himself in the daily soap Verbotene Liebe . He played a supermarket cashier in the film Beautiful Bitch .

Erwin's daughter Angela Erwin (* 1980) moved into the state parliament as a direct candidate ( state electoral district Düsseldorf III ) in the NRW state elections in 2017 .

biography

• Joachim Erwin - 1949-2008 . Droste, Düsseldorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-7700-1312-8 .

Web links

Commons : Joachim Erwin  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Joachim Erwin in the catalog of the German National Library
• Joachim Erwin at the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia
• One-sided.info: The city between Machiavelli, Pan and Joachim Erwin

Individual evidence

1. ↑ In the end, his family was with him ( Memento from May 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), RP-Online , May 21, 2008
2. ↑ Rheinische Post: After a long illness - Lord Mayor Joachim Erwin is dead
3. ↑ Lord Mayor Joachim Erwin is dead. In: rp-online.de. Rheinische Post , May 20, 2008, accessed on March 19, 2019 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Lost the last fight , Focus , May 20, 2008
5. ↑ A visit to Erwin's grave ( Memento of the original from June 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , RP-Online, May 30, 2008 
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Düsseldorf: election results and social structures; An analysis of the local elections since 1999 (PDF; 3.5 MB), Office for Statistics and Elections, State Capital Düsseldorf
7. ↑ Ordinance of the regulatory authority to maintain public safety and order in the state capital Düsseldorf (Düsseldorfer Straßeordnung). In: Düsseldorf Official Gazette number 42. October 21, 2006, accessed on July 8, 2018 .  
8. ↑ Düsseldorf the debt-free state capital  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , RP-Online, September 11, 2007  
9. ↑ New statistics: City has 383 million euros in debt , RP-Online, May 30, 2014
10. ↑ First reactions to the death of Joachim Erwin  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Video from Center.tv with statements from party representatives, under RP-Online, May 20, 2008  
11. ^ Joachim Erwin's political legacy , RP-Online, May 21, 2008
12. ↑ https://rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/duesseldorf/joachim-erwin-platz-wird-ende-august-in-duesseldorf-eingeweiht_aid-19454571
13. ↑ Citizens' petition: City of Düsseldorf is tricking again ( memento of the original from May 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Press release Mehr Demokratie eV, August 29, 2007  
14. ↑ Citizens angry about Erwin's testimony ( Memento of the original from May 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , RP-Online, April 14, 2008 
15. ↑ Erwin rejects agreement  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , RP-Online , October 15, 2003  
16. ↑ Erwin is defeated in the dispute against Laubenburg  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , RP-Online, October 29, 2003  
17. ^ Rheinische Post: Erwin is defeated in the dispute against Laubenburg
18. ^ Rheinische Post: Investigations against Erwin stopped
19. ↑ Entertaining Rise of an Intern , Welt-Online , April 20, 2003
20. ↑ Judges slow down Erwin ( Memento of the original from May 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , RP-Online, May 8, 2008 
21. ↑ From the action rate hit to the art film - Stars zu Gast am Rhein , website of the city of Düsseldorf, accessed on December 8, 2009