List of honorary citizens of Lorsch
The honorary citizenship is the highest honor in the city of Lorsch . According to § 2 of the statute on honors of the city of Lorsch , the city of Lorsch can confer the right to persons who have made a special contribution to them. The city council decides on the award at the suggestion of the magistrate. The resolution requires a majority of two thirds of the legal number of members of the city council. The city council can withdraw honorary citizenship due to unworthy behavior. Since 1844 people have been made honorary citizens.
Note: The listing is done chronologically according to the date of award.
The honorary citizens and honorary ring bearers of the city of Lorsch
List of honorary citizens
| Honorary ring bearer | Award of honorary citizenship | Reason |
|---|---|---|
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Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Dörnberg (* July 5, 1781 in Mansfeld; † January 21, 1877 in Darmstadt) |
1844 | Dörnberg came to Lorsch in 1807 as a forester. He sustainably modernized timber construction and gave the needy population permission to meet their needs for food and firewood in the forests he cultivated. When he was transferred to the Oberforstdirektion Darmstadt, he was given honorary citizenship in gratitude for the achievements of his work. |
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Heinrich Johannes Heinstadt (born August 19, 1872 in Oppershofen; † April 8, 1956) |
1946 | Heinstadt worked from 1904 to 1942 as a pastor at the Catholic parish church of St. Nazarius . At his instigation, the hospital and the Catholic kindergarten were built in Lorsch. He had the parish church extended by two aisles. Because he stood up against the National Socialists from the pulpit, he was banned for two years from 1934 to 1936 . |
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Friedrich Behn (born February 14, 1883 in Neustrelitz; † August 20, 1970 in Mainz) |
1965 | Behn served from 1922 in the office of ground monument curator in southern Hesse. Numerous excavations were carried out in Lorsch under his aegis until the beginning of the Second World War. After the war, he was appointed to the chair of pre- and early history at the University of Leipzig . Because of his services to the monastery excavations and his close ties with the city of Lorsch, Behn was awarded honorary citizenship. |
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Albert Ohlmeyer (born October 31, 1905 in Münster, Westphalia; † December 5, 1998) |
1965 | From 1949 to 1977 Ohlmeyer was abbot of the Benedictine Abbey in Neuburg near Heidelberg. He also held the office of Prior of the Southwest Province of the Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher . His services in maintaining the connection between Lorsch and Neuburg, the last remaining daughter monastery of the Lorsch Imperial Abbey , were honored with the award of honorary citizenship. |
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Karl Minst (born April 26, 1898 in Triesen, Liechtenstein; † June 10, 1984) |
1972 | Minst was administrator of the Lorsch monastery for many years and was responsible for the management service in the monastery for many years . During this time he dealt with the writings of the former Lorsch abbey. In 1949 the first monograph on the history of the monastery was published. Between 1964 and 1972 he translated the Lorsch document book Codex Laureshamensis from the Latin original language into German. |
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Ekkehard Lommel (born December 14, 1913 in Weilburg; † October 1, 2006) |
January 25, 2001 | For his services to the city and the monastery, as well as the Lorsch Codex , Lommel was made an honorary citizen. Lommel acted from 1951 to 1976 as district administrator for the Bergstrasse district. In this role he was particularly committed to the cultural heritage of the Königshalle and the former Lorsch Monastery. So he prevented the development of the southern monastery area. He promoted the translation of the Lorsch Codex as well as the publication of the history sheets of the Bergstrasse district. |
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Paul Schnitzer (born November 5, 1934 in Lorsch; † September 21, 1995) |
posthumous award on January 25, 2001 | For his work around the archive of the city of Lorsch and the preservation of the monastery complex. Until his retirement, Schnitzer worked as a senior teacher at the Old Electoral High School in Bensheim. In his free time he volunteered in a special way for the collections and archives of the city of Lorsch. His reappraisal of the history of the Lorsch monastery and his efforts to maintain the monastery complex led to the establishment of a museum center in 1995. For many years he was the chairman of the working group of the history and homeland associations of the Bergstrasse district and the homeland and cultural association. Five years after his death, the city council decided to posthumously grant Schnitzer honorary citizenship at a ceremony. |
List of honorary ring bearers
The city of Lorsch introduced the ring of honor in 2001. This is awarded as a token of the community and special recognition of the city of Lorsch for the services of the sponsor to the city.
| Honorary citizen | Award of the ring of honor | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Abraham | September 3, 2001 | As a gesture of reconciliation and as a tribute to his life's work, the former Lorsch resident Claude Abraham was awarded the Lorsch Ring of Honor. In 1939 he was able to flee the horrors of the Nazi regime with his family to France, where they settled near Paris . After German troops marched into France, they fled to a place on the edge of the Pyrenees. But even there they were not safe from the persecution of the Jews . Father and mother were taken to Auschwitz concentration camp and murdered there. Claude escaped deportation and was able to emigrate to America with his grandfather . The current professor of Romance studies made his career there. At the invitation of the Olympic Club Starkenburg and the sports journalist Karl-Heinz Huba from Lorsch , he spent a few days at the site of his childhood. Karl-Heinz Huba, who knew Claude Abraham as a child, became aware of him again through his book “Das Raft”. |
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Peter Wahlig (born March 1, 1929 in Lorsch; † July 19, 2014) |
June 2003 | For his work as head of the public Catholic library in Lorsch. Peter Wahlig was head of the Catholic library for 55 years, for which he received the Lorsch Ring of Honor. As early as 1983 he was awarded the state letter of honor for his strong commitment and in 1988 with the golden badge of honor from the library department of the Diocese of Mainz by Cardinal Karl Lehmann. |
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Hans Ludwig (* 1929 in Heidelberg; † January 2016 in Lorsch) |
2007 | Hans Ludwig was awarded the ring of honor of the city of Lorsch for his many years of service to nature and bird protection in Lorsch and also at the state and federal level. The laudation was given by the chairman of the regional association of NABU , Gerhard Eppler. Hans Ludwig worked in various functions for nature conservation: since 1946 on the board of the Lorsch bird protection association; since 1958 as local representative for bird protection of the city of Lorsch and the state bird protection station for Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland ; since 1983 supervisor of the nature reserve Weschnitz-Insel von Lorsch ; since 2000 supervisor of the Erlache nature reserve near Bensheim ; Participation in the environmental commission of Lorsch. |
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Friedel Emig and Friedel Rühl |
2010 | For their work in the volunteer fire department of the city of Lorsch. Friedel Emig worked for the fire brigade for 50 years and during this time held several offices, including press officer and city fire inspector . From 1999 to 2014 he was a chronicler of the fire brigade and also took on tasks in the district fire brigade association . He received several awards, including the German Fire Brigade Cross of Honor in gold. Friedel Rühl, who was a member of the board for 43 years at the time of the award, showed a similar commitment to the Lorsch fire brigade. He was responsible for the state fire brigade day 2002, the fire brigade radio, the IT equipment and the repair of the electrics on vehicles. In addition, he was the “calculator” (treasurer) for the fire brigade. He has also been honored several times for his commitment, including the letter of honor from the State of Hesse and the golden fire protection badge on the ribbon. |
| Adelheid plate | 2014 | Because of their extraordinary voluntary commitment to the UNESCO World Heritage Site Lorsch Monastery. Among other things, Platte carried out research in the Lorsch Pharmacopoeia and campaigned for the herb garden according to the Lorsch Pharmacopoeia. |