Johann Adolph Steinberger

Johann Adolph Joseph Steinberger (* July 24, 1777 in Dormagen ; † September 14, 1866 in Cologne ) was from 1823 to 1848, and thus with 25 years of service, the longest serving Lord Mayor of the city of Cologne.

biography

Adolph Steinberger completed a law degree at the University of Cologne . He then initially worked as a lawyer. In 1805 he became secretary at the Aachen commercial court, then secretary of the French prefecture in Aachen and finally notary. After his brother Joseph Steinberger had already become a notary in Cologne in 1805, he was also able to be transferred to Cologne in 1809. During the Prussian period in Cologne, Adolph Steinberger was also a supplementary judge at the district court in Cologne.

Political activity

During the Prussian period, Adolph Steinberger turned to local politics. First he was a city councilor in Cologne from 1817 to 1823. He was a member of the Rhenish provincial assembly from 1837 to 1841 as a representative of the third estate . His most important office, however, was that of the Lord Mayor of Cologne. He held this office from November 8, 1823 to November 8, 1848. In the following years, Adolph Steinberger managed to bundle many offices in his person. He was an administrative member and chairman of the Rheinische Eisenbahngesellschaft , member of the administrative board and deputy chairman of the Cologne-Mindener Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft , member of the trade association, member and president of the Cologne Chamber of Commerce, board member of the cathedral building club, board member of the concert society, the municipal choir and member of the Olympic Society. In addition, since 1815 he was master from the chair of the St. Johannis Masonic Lodge to the Fatherland Associations. During his tenure in office, Cologne lost its main source of income at that time, the handling right in 1831 . In 1837, during the turmoil in Cologne , Adolph Steinberger participated as a Prussian military officer in the arrest of the then Archbishop of Cologne. When the revolution broke out in Cologne in 1848, Adolph Steinberger played an essential part in it, because the Cologne city council had refused to accept a petition from 5,000 people. In spite of the revolutionary turmoil in 1848, Adolph Steinberger was able to hold onto as Lord Mayor until November 8, 1848.

music

Adolph Steinberger was one of the founders of the Cologne Chamber Music Quartet Association in 1810, which organized subscription concerts from 1812 onwards, along with other Cologne personalities. In 1826 these concerts were performed by the “Concert Society”. Adolph Steinberger played the violin in the cathedral orchestra.

Old Steinberger grave site - now sponsorship grave of the Fritzen family (June 2018)

family

Adolph Steinberger married Agnes Kauhlen from Bonn on December 27, 1806. Her father, the doctor Franz Wilhelm Kauhlen , was electoral councilor in 1777 and a few years later professor of medicine. Her uncle Mathias Kauffmann worked as a treasurer of the city administration in Cologne from 1806. The Steinberger couple had two daughters and their son Friedrich Steinberger, judicial advisor and later a lawyer.

Steinberger was buried in the family grave at the Melaten cemetery in Cologne (Lit. F No. 97-100). The grave has now been converted into a sponsorship grave .

literature

• Carl Dietmar: The Chronicle of Cologne , Dortmund 1991.