Josef Schürgers

Josef Schürgers

Signature of Josef Schürger

Josef Schürgers (born October 21, 1922 in Camp ; † May 21, 2001 in Viersen ) was a German politician and member of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU). He was the mayor of the city of Viersen and a member of the state parliament in North Rhine-Westphalia .

Life

Josef Schürgers began a commercial apprenticeship in 1936 at Pongs & Zahn, the largest textile company in Viersen at the time. In 1939 he completed the clerk's examination as an industrial clerk. In 1940, not yet 18 years old, he was drafted into the Air Force as a radio operator. Four years later he was wounded in the hospital and then in Soviet captivity, from which he was released home in 1946. He initially worked as a truck driver before returning to Pongs & Zahn AG in 1948. In 1949 he passed the specialist examination in accounting and finance. He became an authorized representative and dispatch manager. From 1955 he became deputy works council chairman for around 4,000 employees in Viersen and a branch in Bochum. In 1961 the company Pongs & Zahn AG had to close due to the general textile crisis. From 1962 Schürgers was managing director of the "Werk Beton", a concrete transport plant of today's company Beton Union West.

In 1964 he moved to Viersener Aktien-Baugesellschaft (VAB), a non-profit housing construction company. Schürgers worked there for over 24 years until he reached the professional age limit, initially as a managing board member, from 1965 as chairman of the board. During his tenure, the VAB built around 1000 new apartments, whereby Schürgers made the transition from the functional standard construction to sophisticated architecture with human features. He promoted housing construction for broad strata, taking into account large numbers of children, the elderly and the disabled. This earned him the nickname “building lion who acted socially”. The “Beginenhof” and “Klostermühle” residential complexes in Viersen are closely associated with the name of Josef Schürgers. Between 1972 and 1989 he held the office of chairman of the supervisory board of Stadtwerke Viersen. As chairman of the staff council, Schürgers worked at the tax office in Viersen. From 1958 to 1984 Josef Schürgers was a member of the savings bank and later administrative board of Stadtsparkasse Viersen.

Political career

Schürgers played an important role in local politics for several decades. As early as 1948 he joined the Junge Union and later the CDU. From 1966 to 1985 he represented the CDU in the Düsseldorf state parliament as spokesman for the CDU parliamentary group in the committee on housing and urban development. From 1975 to 1994 Schürgers was a member of the district council, temporarily as chairman of the building subsidy committee. He was also a member of the Health and Social Committee and the Organization and Personnel Committee. In addition, he was a deputy member of the district committee, district police board, election review committee, sports committee and the association assembly of the municipal waste disposal assembly in Mönchengladbach / Viersen district . In July 1970, the CDU parliamentary group in the Düsseldorf state parliament appointed him to the committee for state planning, housing and urban development.

In the mid-1970s, he played a decisive role in preparing and deciding the reorganization of the independent city of Viersen with the Kempen-Krefeld district . He sat on the Viersen city council from 1956 to 1965 and again from 1974 to 1979. In 1960 he was elected mayor of the city of Viersen, whose office he held until 1965. Within the CDU, Josef Schürgers held several offices, for example he headed the district party from 1964 to 1971 and the city association from 1971 to 1985. In 1981, the responsible minister appointed Schürgers to the advisory board of the Institute for State and Urban Development Research (ILS). In 1988 he founded the senior citizens' union of the Viersen district association. As its chairman and later honorary chairman, for many years he had set significant accents in the involvement of senior citizens in the work of the district CDU. "He was the engine behind the establishment of further senior citizens' associations in the city and community associations."

Awards

• In 1969 the City Council of Viersen awarded Schürgers the silver city badge for many years of voluntary work "for the good of the city of Viersen".
• In 1974 his political work was honored with the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon .
• In 1980 he received the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class.
• In 1985 he was appointed honorary chairman of the Viersen CDU and the senior citizens' union of the Viersen district.
• In 1987 the city of Viersen honored him with the award of the Golden City Plaque.
• In 1994 he was awarded the Johann Christian Eberle Medal , the highest honor in the German savings bank sector, for his special commitment to the savings bank organization.
• In 2018, the City of Viersen's Committee for Urban Development and Planning decided by a majority that a new street in the Rahser district would be called “Josef-Schürgers-Straße”. ^[15]

Web links

• Internet presence of Josef Schürgers
• Josef Schürgers at the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia

literature

• Ludger Gruber: The CDU parliamentary group in North Rhine-Westphalia 1946-1980. Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1998, ISBN 3-7700-1879-6 .
• Arie Nabrings: 50 years of the CDU in the Viersen district , published by the Viersen district CDU. (currently out of print)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Josef Schürgers died . In: Westdeutsche Zeitung of May 22, 2001
2. ↑ Obituary of the municipal utilities . In: Rheinische Post from May 22, 2001
3. ↑ Tax reform with advantages for citizens and civil servants . In: Rheinische Post from January 16, 1971
4. ^ Obituary by Stadtsparkasse Viersen . In: Rheinische Post from May 22, 2001
5. ↑ The “Baulöwe” from Viersen turns 70 . In: Rheinische Post from October 20, 1992
6. ↑ Schürgers in the planning committee . In: Rheinische Post from July 30, 1970
7. ↑ calling . In: Rheinische Post from June 24, 1981
8. ^ Georg Fuhrich: Seniors' Union not a social club . In: Rheinische Post from December 2, 1988
9. ↑ ^{a b} Obituary of the senior citizens' union of the Viersen district . In: Rheinische Post from May 22, 2001
10. ↑ Document dated December 29, 1969
11. ^ Award certificate of May 27, 1974
12. ↑ "1. Class “for Schürgers . In: Rheinische Post from December 18, 1980
13. ↑ Deserved for the city . In: Rheinische Post from February 25, 1988
14. ↑ Associated with the Sparkasse . In: Rheinische Post from January 26, 1994

1. ^ "Josef-Schürgers-Strasse" | City of Viersen. Retrieved April 5, 2018 .