Karl Gerstein

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Portrait painting
The grave of Karl Gerstein with a portrait bust at the Bochum flower cemetery.

Karl Gerstein (born January 10, 1864 in Rietberg , † June 19, 1924 in Tübingen ) was a German lawyer , civil servant , national liberal local politician and economic manager in the water and electricity supply .

Live and act

Origin and education

Karl Gerstein comes from the well-known Westphalian family Gerstein, which has repeatedly occupied leading positions in justice, administration, politics and economics. This family also includes Ludwig Gerstein and Kurt Gerstein .

Karl Gerstein was born in Rietberg in the Prussian province of Westphalia in 1864 . His father Ludwig Friedrich Gerstein was a district judge in Rietberg and Rheda and a district judge in Dortmund. After finishing school at the Archigymnasium Soest , Karl Gerstein studied law at the University of Tübingen , the University of Leipzig and the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin . For his studies he received a scholarship from the Ludwig Foundation , which served the training and further education of the Gerstein family.

Activity in justice, administration and politics

After completing his studies, Gerstein - briefly interrupted in 1884/1885 by military service - embarked on the career of a judicial officer, became a trainee lawyer in 1888 and a court assessor at the Dortmund commercial court in 1893 . After moving to the Arnsberg district government , he became legal advisor in 1897 and government assessor in 1898 .

From 1900 until his retirement in 1919, Gerstein was district administrator and head of the municipal administration of the district office of the district of Bochum . As a district administrator, Gerstein was a member of the Provincial Parliament of the Province of Westphalia.

From 1909 he took on the function of police director and police chief in Bochum in addition to the office of district administrator . He was also President of the Civil Administration of the German-occupied Belgian province of Brabant-Brussels during the First World War from 1915 to 1917 .

Activity in the utility industry

In addition to his functions in politics and administration, Gerstein made a name for himself as the founder and head of various municipal companies and associations in the field of utilities :

Through his function as head of the water management department at the Arnsberg government and as a member of the water advisory board for the province of Westphalia, Gerstein came into contact with issues relating to the water supply industry . On a joint initiative by Karl Gerstein and the Mayor of Essen Erich Zweigert , representatives of the municipalities and industry along the Emscher came together in 1900 to form the Emschergenossenschaft to regulate the increasing discharge of wastewater into the river. A short time later, Gerstein also became chairman of the cooperative. Furthermore, as chairman of the Ruhrverband and the Ruhrtalsperrenverein, he promoted the use of the Ruhr for the drinking water supply of the Ruhr area. In a similar role he worked as chairman of the Bochum waterworks association and as a board member of the association for combating common diseases in the Ruhr coal region .

In addition to the water supply, Gerstein also promoted the electrification of the eastern Ruhr area. He developed a local authority association for the electricity supply, from which the Elektrizitätswerk Westfalen Aktiengesellschaft developed in 1906 , of which Gerstein was chairman of the supervisory board from 1909. As an electricity supplier, Gerstein recruited various mines that had their own power plants with reserve capacities that could be fed into the municipal grid. Furthermore, he initiated the construction of new power plants, including one to supply the Münsterland on the Lippe near Werne , which was later named " Gersteinwerk " in his honor .

With the expansion of the electrical network, Gerstein also campaigned for the construction of the electric tram in the Bochum district; Under the newly founded Westfälische Straßenbahn GmbH , an intermunicipal network between Bochum and Herne was created , which was later merged with the network of Bochum-Gelsenkirchener Straßenbahnen AG .

After Gerstein retired as a civil servant in 1919, he moved to Essen and devoted himself entirely to association and club activities. He died in Tübingen in 1924 and was buried in the flower cemetery in Bochum.

Honors

The Gersteinwerk in Werne

During his lifetime Gerstein received various military and civil medals and awards, including the Landwehr Service Award I. Class, the Iron Cross II. Class, the Order of the Crown III. Class and the Order of the Red Eagle III. Class with bow and crown.

The Gersteinwerk , a large-scale power station built by Elektrizitätswerk Westfalen AG in Werne from 1913, whose construction was largely based on the initiative of Karl Gerstein, was named after him - as were Karl-Gerstein-Strasse in Werne and Gersteinring in Bochum.

literature

  • Barbara Gerstein:  Gerstein, Karl. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 324 ( digitized version ).
  • Helge Kleifeld: Karl Gerstein and the water management in the Rhineland and Westphalia. 100 years of the Emscher Cooperative . In: Association of Rheinischer Museen (Hrsg.): Rheinische Heimatpflege . No. 1, 2005. Cologne 2005, p. 1-9 .
  • Walter zur Nieden: From the communal work of the Bochum District Administrator Karl Gerstein on the anniversary of his death . Prussian District Assembly, 1925.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Gerstein, Karl. Internet portal “Westphalian History”, accessed on December 16, 2011 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Barbara Gerstein:  Gerstein, Karl. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 324 ( digitized version ).
  3. ^ Wilhelm Schulte: Westphalian heads: 300 life pictures of important Westphalia: biogr. Handweiser . 2nd Edition. Aschendorff, 1977.
  4. ↑ Ludwig Gerstein: How are we related to each other? Revised and continued by Karl Gerstein. Munich 1971.
  5. ↑ Note: The Ludwig Foundation was established by Friedrich and Wilhelmine Gerstein around 1884, named after their only son Ludwig , who died early ; In 1928 merged with the Hoffmann Foundation to form the United Hoffmann and Ludwig Foundation . See About Family. (No longer available online.) United Hoffmann and Ludwig Foundation, archived from the original on November 30, 2011 ; Retrieved December 16, 2011 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hoffmann-ludwig-stiftung.de
  6. ↑ a b c Hike through the industrial nature trail. City of Bochum, accessed on December 16, 2011 .
  7. ^ A b Helmut Croon: The city of Bochum - your way to the modern city and university city. City of Bochum, accessed on December 16, 2011 .
  8. ^ Peter Döring, Karl-Peter Ellerbrock, Theo Horstmann, Meinhard Schwarz: More than energy - The company history of VEW 1925-2000 . Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2000 ( review ).
  9. ^ Hugo Wagner: Photo of the tombstone of Karl Gerstein in the cemetery in Bochum. Picasa , archived from the original on July 12, 2012 ; Retrieved December 16, 2011 .
personal data
SURNAME Gerstein, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer, civil servant, local politician and business manager
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Rietberg
DATE OF DEATH June 19, 1924
Place of death Tübingen