List of honorary citizens of Frankfurt am Main

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The city council can grant honorary citizenship for life to people who have made special contributions to the city of Frankfurt am Main . It is the highest honor the city can bestow. Rights and obligations are not established or canceled by the granting of honorary citizenship; in particular, honorary citizens do not have to have their place of residence in Frankfurt. The honorary citizen is given an artistically designed certificate ( honorary citizenship letter ) about the award of honorary citizenship .

Since 1795 the city has made only 31 people honorary citizens, six of whom were also born in Frankfurt:

After the National Socialists came to power, the Jewish honorary citizens Leo Gans and Arthur von Weinberg were forced to renounce all honorary positions, and their honorary citizenship was also revoked. Gans died in 1935, von Weinberg in 1943 in the Theresienstadt concentration camp . In 1933, at the instigation of Lord Mayor Friedrich Krebs , the city had appointed three new honorary citizens, as well as Reich President Hindenburg, Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler and Prussian Prime Minister Hermann Göring .

On June 2, 1947, the magistrate decided to revoke Göring and Hitler's honorary citizenship. The then head of the city chancellery, senior administrative director Adolf Kohl, raised legal objections. According to a decree of 1936, honorary citizenship expires with death, which is why a formal revocation is not legally possible. The magistrate followed this line of argument and decided in its session on October 6, 1947: “Hitler and Göring were unworthy of being honorary citizens of the city of Frankfurt. Since the honorary citizenship expires with death, a formal revocation is not necessary. The names of those named can no longer be mentioned among the former honorary citizens of the city. ”Gans and von Weinberg were re-added to the list.

On January 30, 1988, the city council dealt again with the honorary citizenship of Göring and Hitler and confirmed the regulation of 1947. On June 11, 2015 the city council decided to remove the former Reich President Paul von Hindenburg from the list of honorary citizens, April 3, 1933 had been appointed by the same magistrate resolution as Hitler and Göring.

The plaque of honor of the city of Frankfurt am Main was awarded to a large number of people.

literature

  • Frolinde Balser : From ruins to a European center: History of the city of Frankfurt am Main 1945–1989 . Ed .: Frankfurter Historical Commission (=  publications of the Frankfurter Historical Commission . Volume XX ). Jan Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1995, ISBN 3-7995-1210-1 , p. 72-79 .
  • Hans-Otto Schembs , With grateful appreciation. The honorary citizens of the city of Frankfurt am Main , Verlag Josef Knecht, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-7820-0563-5
  • Regulations for honoring deserving personalities and old age and marriage anniversaries by the City of Frankfurt am Main (Honor Regulations) of April 13, 1967 in the version of January 31, 2002, § 1. ( PDF document )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hindenburg deleted as an honorary citizen , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of June 12, 2015
  2. ↑ Tobias Rösmann: From the hand of a Nazi: Ehrenbürger Hindenburg. In: faz.net. April 9, 2015, accessed June 12, 2015 .