John van Nes Ziegler

John van Nes Ziegler (born May 20, 1921 in Cologne ; † November 14, 2006 in Cologne-Porz ) was a German local and state politician of the SPD and a lawyer. He was President and Vice- President of the State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lord Mayor of Cologne .

biography

Van Nes Ziegler had already joined the SPD in 1946 while studying law. During this time he was also a member of the Socialist German Student Union (SDS), of which he was national chairman from 1948 to 1951 (as the successor to Helmut Schmidt ). Since 1953 John van Nes Ziegler was a member of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia.

In 1956 he joined the Cologne City Council for the SPD, where he headed the SPD parliamentary group until 1973.

From 1966 to 1970 he was President of the State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia. At the end of the 1960s he campaigned for parliamentary reform in the NRW state parliament, seeing the petitions committee as an important bridge between the population and parliament and consistently expanding it. From 1973 to 1980 John van Nes Ziegler was Lord Mayor of Cologne. He campaigned for the municipal regional reform , as a result of which Cologne became a megacity in 1975.

He has initiated numerous projects for Cologne, such as the Hohe Straße / Schildergasse pedestrian zone and the redesign of the cathedral , main train station , the Philharmonie , the Ludwig Museum and the Rheingarten in the old town .

From 1980, John van Nes Ziegler was again President of the State Parliament and Vice-President of the State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia until he left politics in 1985 and devoted himself to his private life.

Private

Grave of John van Nes Ziegler in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne

Van Nes Ziegler was married and had a daughter as well as five grandsons and two granddaughters.

honors and awards

For his services, "Big John" , as he was also called, was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit (1969) with a star (1973) and shoulder ribbon (1981) and the Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia . He was an honorary citizen of his hometown Cologne and an honorary senator of the University of Cologne .

Van Nes Ziegler was a member of the Freemason Lodge "Zum Ewigen Dom" in Cologne since April 2, 1949. From 1958 to 1960 he was master of the chair there . He was the holder of the Golden Badge of Honor of the Cologne Lodge and the Golden Sign of Merit "Pro Merito" of the United Grand Lodges of Germany .

literature

• Carl Dietmar: The Chronicle of Cologne , Dortmund 1991

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Merit holders since 1986. State Chancellery of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, accessed on March 11, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Drei Punkt, Spiegel article 13/1981 . Spiegel Online website. Retrieved March 31, 2011