Kurt Blaum

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Kurt Blaum on an election poster for the 1946 state election

Kurt Fritz Johannes Blaum (born April 10, 1884 in Strasbourg , † November 26, 1970 in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe ) was a German politician.

Professional and Political

Blaum was born as the son of the senior teacher Rudolf Albert Valentin Blaum and his wife Martha Elisabeth Woehler in Strasbourg . He attended the Lyceum in Strasbourg from 1890 to 1903 and then studied law and economics at the University of Kiel and the University of Strasbourg . During his studies he became a member of ATV Burgund Strasbourg and ATV Ditmarsia Kiel . He received his doctorate in 1910. rer. pole. In his doctoral thesis, he examined the background to the monetary system in Switzerland. Assessor since 1912, he was initially administrative director for the poor in Strasbourg. He developed the so-called "Strasbourg system" of social welfare. With the beginning of the First World War he became captain of the reserve in the German Alpine Corps in the Dolomites; he had previously served in the military for a year in 1908. After the war he worked as a “lecturing council” (government councilor) in the Württemberg Ministry of the Interior (1919 to 1921), where, among other things, he drafted the state's youth welfare law .

From December 29, 1921 to May 31, 1933 he was Lord Mayor of Hanau . He belonged to the German Democratic Party , but was elected by both the German Nationals and the Social Democrats. During his term of office, the inauguration of the Hanau Main Harbor , the town hall and the housing projects Beethovenplatz (“Circus Blaum”) and Hafenplatz . On April 1, 1933, he was given leave of absence due to his anti- Nazi attitude, and then retired on December 28. Thereafter, Blaum worked as a business consultant and published scientifically.

During the Second World War , in 1941/42 he served in the armaments command in Frankfurt as captain of the reserve, and from 1942 to 1944 he was conscripted as the manager of the Motorenfabrik Oberursel AG , which manufactured aircraft engines. On April 2, 1945 he was reinstated as Lord Mayor of Hanau by the American military government . However, on July 4, 1945 - as successor to Wilhelm Hollbach - he was appointed provisional mayor of Frankfurt am Main . During his tenure, the focus was on the beginning of the reconstruction , securing the supply of the population and the development of a functioning city administration. His office was in the Villa Bonn on Siesmayerstrasse.

On July 25, 1946, as a candidate of the CDU in the first democratic mayoral election after the war, he was defeated by the candidate of the SPD , the Düsseldorf City Director and Lord Mayor, Walter Kolb .

Blaum was buried on December 3, 1970 in the main cemetery in Hanau .

Voluntary and social engagement

Kurt Blaum worked as a consultant on the currency reform in 1948. From 1946 to 1962 he was president of the Polytechnic Society in Frankfurt am Main and of the Hessian Red Cross . He was also a member of the control committee of the Federal Compensation Office .

Blaum held various offices at the German Association for Public and Private Welfare (DV): he was a member of the DV main committee from 1916 to 1933 and 1946 to 1953, and was a member of the DV board from 1946 to 1951. Furthermore, he was DV managing director in 1949/50 and deputy chairman of the association from 1946 to 1951.

Honors

Blaum received the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1952 . After his death he was given a grave of honor in the Hanau main cemetery. The Kurt-Blaum-Platz in Hanau is named after him.

literature

  • Markus Häfner: The reconstruction of German medium-sized cities after the Second World War using the example of the city of Hanau. Series: New Magazine for Hanau History 2009, Volume 1, Short biography: Dr. Kurt Blaum , p. 219
  • Old gentlemen's association of the ATB (ed.): 100 years of the Academic Gymnastics Association 1883–1983. Melsungen 1983, pp. 196-197
  • Hilmar Hoffmann : Dr. Kurt Blaum. In: ders .: Frankfurt's Lord Mayor 1945–1995: A contribution to the city's cultural history. Societät, Frankfurt 2012, ISBN 978-3-942921-89-3 , pp. 55-78
  • Barbara Nagel (editor): Buried - but not forgotten. Well-known personalities at Hanau cemeteries . Hanau 2008, p. 46f.
  • Max Rehm: Rudolf Schwander and Kurt Blaum. Pioneer of modern local politics from Alsace. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1974 ISBN 3-17-001965-1
  • Thomas Klein: Senior officials in the general administration in the Prussian province of Hessen-Nassau and in Waldeck 1867–1945. (= Sources and research on Hessian history, 70; Ed. Hessische Historische Kommission Darmstadt and Historical Commission for Hesse), Darmstadt / Marburg 1988, ISBN 3-88443-159-5 , p. 99.

Web links

Commons : Kurt Blaum  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Altherrenbund des ATB (Ed.): 100 Years Academic Gymnastics Federation 1883–1983 Melsungen 1983, p. 196.
  2. ↑ German Association for Public and Private Welfare - Exhibition (PDF; 14.8 MB)
personal data
SURNAME Blue, Kurt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Blaum, Kurt Fritz Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (CDU)
DATE OF BIRTH April 1, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Strasbourg
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 1970
Place of death Bad Homburg vor der Höhe