Klaus Wehling

Klaus Wehling, 2012

Klaus Heinrich Wehling (born May 30, 1947 in Oberhausen ) is a German local politician ( SPD ). He was Lord Mayor of Oberhausen in North Rhine-Westphalia until October 20, 2015 .

Life

Wehling was born on May 30, 1947 in Oberhausen. After attending the Falkenstein elementary school from 1953 to 1957, he switched to the Anne Frank Realschule . After graduating from secondary school , which he achieved in 1963, Wehling began training as a banker at the Stadtsparkasse Oberhausen. He then attended the evening grammar school in Duisburg from 1966 to 1970 and continued to work as an employee of the organization department of the Stadtsparkasse. From 1970 Wehling studied economics and social sciences at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum for teaching at vocational schools. He completed his studies in 1974 with the first state examination. Then Wehling worked as a trainee student at the commercial schools in the city of Mülheim an der Ruhr . In 1976 he passed his second state examination. 1980 Wehling was senior teacher and was a 1997 to 2004 study director involved. Due to his election as Lord Mayor of the City of Oberhausen, his activity at the vocational college in Lehnerstraße is suspended. Wehling is married and has two grown sons and two grandchildren.

politics

Inspired by Willy Brandt's reform policy , Wehling joined the SPD in 1972. Since 1979 he has been a member of the Oberhausen City Council, where he was chairman of the youth and social committee for ten years. From 1994 to 1998 he was head of the Alt-Oberhausen district council . From 1998 to 2004 Wehling was first mayor and deputy to Lord Mayor Burkhard Drescher . In this role he replaced Wolfgang Grotthaus . In the local elections on September 26, 2004, Wehling was elected Lord Mayor, succeeding Drescher, who switched to Ruhrkohle AG .

As Lord Mayor, Wehling was confronted with the structural change in the town of Oberhausen, which was formerly characterized by coal mining and steel production. Wehling places particular emphasis on the fields of economic and family policy . As chairman of the supervisory board of the Ruhr area- wide economic development metropoleruhr GmbH and as chairman of the economic committee at the Ruhr Regional Association , he promoted the cooperation for the cross-city marketing of commercial space.

In May 2005 he came under criticism because he had kept silent about the failure of the financing of the major project “O.Vision” for weeks . The “Zukunftspark O.Vision” should bring the city 10,000 jobs. On April 26, 2005, NRW Interior Minister Fritz Behrens (SPD) forbade the city to use 25 million euros in revenue from the sale of RWE shares for the planned city portion of the park's financing ; the city should first reduce its debts. Wehling announced this to the city's main and finance committee on May 23, 2005, the day after the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia .

For the local election on August 30, 2009, Wehling was again nominated as candidate for mayor by his party with 98.1%. While the SPD missed an absolute majority in the city council for the first time in 45 years, Wehling was confirmed in the direct election with 47.4%. Wehling retired at the end of his term of office.

Web links

• Presentation by the SPD Oberhausen

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung , Oberhausen local edition, May 25, 2005: "Large-scale project O.Vision on a silk thread" and From the West, May 31, 2005: "The dream of Oberhausen's O.Vision is threatening to burst"
2. ^ Neue Ruhr Zeitung , Oberhausen local edition, May 25, 2005: "O.Vision: City sees no financial problem"
3. ^ "Oberhausen 2009 - the WAZ annual review", in: WAZ from December 31, 2009 [1] , accessed July 30, 2013.