Konrad Birkholz

Candidate poster for the district council election in Berlin, 1995

Konrad Birkholz (born February 3, 1948 in Berlin ; † March 17, 2015 there ) was a German politician ( CDU ). From 1995 to 2011 he was district mayor of the Spandau district and since 2014 city ​​elder of Berlin .

Early years

Konrad Birkholz grew up in Spandau, where he also passed the Abitur at the end of his school visit .

After training in the Berlin administration, he studied social pedagogy and later devoted himself to youth work as a social pedagogue. He also worked as a probation officer.

politics

Birkholz joined the Junge Union in 1965 and in 1966 also became a member of the CDU district association Spandau. He devoted himself primarily to social policy and was involved in the union's workers 'wing, the Christian Democratic Workers' Union (CDA) .

In 1979 Birkholz was elected to the district assembly of the Spandau district and shortly afterwards took over the office of deputy chairman of the CDU parliamentary group .

From 1989 until his death, Birkholz was chairman of the CDU local association in Kladow , and between 1990 and 1995 district chairman of the CDU Spandau.

Birkholz was elected deputy head of the district council in 1991.

After the SPD ruling in Spandau had to enter into a counting community with the CDU in 1992 , he took over the office of the district councilor for economics and finance as well as the post of deputy district mayor.

After the Berlin elections in 1995 , the SPD under Sigurd Hauff lost the majority in Spandau, whereupon Birkholz was finally elected as the new district mayor. For reasons of age, he did not stand in the 2011 elections and was now the longest-serving mayor of Berlin and has also broken the official record of his predecessor Werner Salomon .

With the election of his successor Helmut Kleebank , he finally resigned on November 2, 2011 after 16 years of service.

Birkholz had been honorary chairman of the CDU Spandau since February 28, 2009 .

Social work

Relationship with the British Armed Forces

Although his term of office as district mayor fell in the period after the withdrawal of the Allies , he worked harder to further strengthen the friendship that had developed between the Spaniards and the British soldiers formerly stationed in the district . In doing so, he made use of numerous contacts and finally launched the unveiling of a memorial stone on the site of the former Smuts Barracks in the Wilhelmstadt district , which has been a reminder of the Royal Engineers' units formerly stationed there since 2006 .

As former mayor, Birkholz was also present when a plaque of honor was dedicated to the former members of the 248 German Security Unit in Spandau-Wilhelmstadt in September 2014 .

Village mayor

With his self-image as a “servant of the citizen”, Birkholz often described himself in his role as mayor self-deprecatingly as a village mayor and thus alluded to the historical designation of a head of administration in the Middle Ages .

Spandau flag

Konrad Birkholz, as district mayor, had the Berlin state flag drawn down and the Spandauer hoisted on the roof of the Spandau town hall , contrary to the ordinance on the flagging of public buildings in the state of Berlin . In this matter, he disregarded repeated instructions from the Governing Mayor Eberhard Diepgen , who later allowed Birkholz to do his thing .

Since then, the Spandau town hall has been the only administrative building in a district that has its own district flag hoisted.

Private

Konrad Birkholz was a passionate collector of teddy bears and also an avowed bearer of flies . The bow tie became one of his trademarks.

On December 8, 2014, the Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit awarded him the title of city elder. Only a few months later, on March 17, 2015, Birkholz died at the age of 67 after a serious illness.

He was married and had two children. He found his final resting place on the mayor's field of the Spandau cemetery In den Kisseln .

Awards

• City Elder of Berlin (2014)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The roll of honor was officially inaugurated. In: website of the Kameradschaft 248 German Security Unit e. V. September 30, 2014, accessed on March 25, 2018 (German). 
2. ^ Carsten Schanz: Berlin's last village mayor . In: GUARD REPORT . February 2018, p. 1-3 .
3. ↑ Michael Ude: Former Mayor Konrad Birkholz carried to the grave with great sympathy. In: Spandauer Volksblatt . March 27, 2015, accessed on March 25, 2018 (German).