Johannes Fuchs (politician, 1874)

Johannes "Hans" Fuchs (born September 30, 1874 in Bickendorf , Bitburg district , † September 9, 1956 in Cochem - Cond ) was a German administrative lawyer and politician ( center ). From 1922 to 1933 he was President of the Prussian Rhine Province , and from August to November 1923 he was also Reich Minister for the occupied territories . After the end of the Second World War he was again President of the Rhine Province and the Province of North Rhine in the British zone of occupation in 1945 .

Life and work

After graduating from high school in Prüm , he studied law and political science in Innsbruck , Berlin and Bonn from 1896 to 1899 , then completed his legal clerkship in Bitburg, Trier, Düsseldorf and Cologne. He did his military service as a one-year volunteer with the infantry in Giessen. Fuchs was appointed court assessor in 1904 and worked in Düsseldorf, Neuss and Hagen. From 1906 he was a government assessor in the state cultural administration . In 1912, Fuchs was promoted to government councilor and then headed a special commission in Adenau and Düsseldorf. During the First World War he served as an officer, and in 1915 he was appointed assistant to the War Ministry .

In 1918 he became a secret government councilor and lecturer in the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture , and in 1920 he moved to Trier as district president . He joined the Center Party . From 1922 to 1933 he was President of the Prussian Rhine Province . During the occupation of the Ruhr , the French occupation forces expelled him from Koblenz in February 1923, and Fuchs continued his official business from Wetzlar. From August to November 1923 he also served as Reich Minister for the Occupied Territories in the Stresemann I and II cabinets . In September 1924 he was able to resume his official business as senior president in Koblenz. After the National Socialists came to power, Fuchs was given leave of absence in March 1933 and retired two months later.

From April to May 1945 he was temporarily President of Koblenz at the behest of the Fifteenth United States Army advancing in Germany . After the end of the war, the American occupation forces appointed him Supreme President of the Rhine Province military district in May 1945. After the division of the Rhine Province between the British and French zones of occupation in June 1945, Fuchs remained Chief President of the province of North Rhine formed in the British zone (consisting of the administrative districts of Aachen, Cologne and Düsseldorf) until the occupying power surprisingly and without him on October 2, 1945 Statement of reasons dismissed. Afterwards, Fuchs was president of the Rhineland-Palatinate regional association of the German Red Cross .

Fuchs was a member of the Catholic student union Askania (now K.St.V. Askania-Burgundia Berlin ) in the KV .

Honors

• 1929: Appointed honorary citizen of Koblenz ,
• 1930: Honorary citizen of the city of Trier (for his assistance during the occupation from 1918 to 1930)
• 1952: Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1954: Large Cross of Merit with star and shoulder ribbon
• Grand Cross of the Order of St. Gregory the Great
• Cross of Merit of the German Red Cross
• Dr. hc

literature

• Markus Friderichs: In memory of Dr. hc Hans Fuchs, Cochem-Cond, Reich Minister and Upper President of the Rhine Province in: Yearbook District Cochem-Zell 1999, pp. 176–178.
• Alfons Friderichs : Fuchs, Dr. hc Johannes (Hans) in personalities of the Cochem-Zell district. Kliomedia, Trier 2004, ISBN 3-89890-084-3 , p. 118.
• Helmut Kampmann: When stones speak. Memorial plaques and memorial plaques in Koblenz. Fuck-Verlag, Koblenz 1992, ISBN 3-9803142-0-0 , p. 52f.
• Horst Romeyk : The leading state and municipal administrative officials of the Rhine Province 1816–1945 (=  publications of the Society for Rhenish History . Volume 69 ). Droste, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-7700-7585-4 , p. 454 f .
• Heinrich Studentkowski: Fuchs, Johannes (Hans) in: Heinz Monz (Hrsg.): Trier biographical lexicon . Landesarchivverwaltung, Koblenz 2000, ISBN 3-931014-49-5 , p. 123.

Web links

• Johannes "Hans" Fuchs in the online version of the Reich Chancellery Edition Files. Weimar Republic
• Entry on Johannes Fuchs in the Rhineland-Palatinate personal database
• Entry on www.saarland-biografien.de
• Estate in the State Main Archive Koblenz (LHA Ko Best. 700,040)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ District government Koblenz (ed.): The District Presidents of Koblenz (Volume 3 of the series of publications of the District Government Koblenz), Rhenania, Koblenz 1983, ISBN 3-922755-13-5 , p. 82.