Leopold Tweer

Leopold Tweer (born September 14, 1881 in Barmen , † October 18, 1960 in Velbert ) was a German politician. From 1920 to 1945 he was mayor of Velbert. During his tenure in office he tried in vain to develop Velbert into an independent city.

Early years

Tweer was born in Barmen and studied law from 1901 to 1904 at the University of Bonn and Leipzig University . After a subsequent legal clerkship, which he completed, among other things, at the district court in Velbert, he received his doctorate in 1909. He then went to local government, first in 1910 to Schwelm and the following year to Haspe: on February 16, 1912, he was finally appointed legal assistant in Velbert elected. During the First World War he was an officer on the Western Front, where he was badly wounded and finally spent four years in French captivity.

Weimar Republic

After his return to Velbert, Tweer was elected mayor of Velbert in 1920. He was considered an excellent administrative specialist with a decidedly authoritarian understanding of office. Under his aegis, the city's welfare and health services were expanded. The city's cultural offerings have also been expanded. The Velbert city archives , a local history museum (forerunner of the lock and fittings museum ) and the Velbert city library were created during this time. The housing shortage of the 1920s was countered by building numerous settlements. Numerous sites were bought for later cultivation. Settlements like the one on the Losenburg or on the Dalbeck came into being. The forest cemetery was built between 1923 and 1925, and a few years later the Velbert hospital was expanded and adapted to the new requirements.

The villa, which the city bought in 1925 and which is now known as the Mayor's House, was used by Leopold Tweer as an official residence from 1926 until his suspension in 1945.

At Tweer's initiative, donations were collected from the summer of 1928 to erect a war memorial, which was finally inaugurated on June 22, 1930 near the Offerbusch. Tweer's policy pursued the long-term goal of expanding the city of Velbert into a major city. Parts of Neviges were acquired in the late 1920s . The goal of district freedom was finally not achieved when all of Tweer's plans - he had called for the unification of Heiligenhaus, Tönisheide and Velbert - were not taken into account in the negotiations on the restructuring law . Velbert stayed with the newly formed Düsseldorf-Mettmann district .

National Socialism

In 1931, Tweer was re-elected. Tweer, politically initially a member of the National Liberals, became a member of the NSDAP in March 1933 . At first he was able to stay in office almost without any problems. From August 1934 Peter Berns became the new district leader. Berns wanted to make his hometown Mettmann the seat of the district administration. Tweer, who had advocated the establishment of an independent city of Velbert, was thus his political adversary. This enmity was still evident when Berns succeeded in initiating an investigative and a party trial against Tweer in 1938. After a year-long review of the allegations, the proceedings were closed in 1939. After the end of World War II, Tweer was suspended from service and finally retired in 1946. He died in Velbert in 1960. Tweer left a writ of justification that said a lot about his personality.

literature

• Horst Degen, Christoph Schotten. (Ed.): Velbert - history of three cities. JP Bachem Verlag, Cologne 2009, pp. 325ff, ISBN 978-3-7616-1843-1 .