Ludwig Hobein

Ludwig Hobein (* July 12, 1911 in Immenhausen ; † September 27, 1997 ) (called "Lux" or "Lutz") was head of the police force between 1945 and 1957 and from 1957 to his retirement in 1976 police director and thus chief of the police in the city of Hanau am Main.

Life

As a teenager, Hobein first completed an apprenticeship as a blacksmith and art fitter . In 1929 he joined the Reichswehr and served in the 16th Cavalry Regiment . After completing his military service, he moved to the Hessen-Nassau Police School in Hann in 1931 . Münden . After completing his training, he first worked as a traffic policeman in Kassel . In 1933 he was transferred to Hanau as a sergeant.

Here he was able to save the two SPD politicians Hans Kargl and Karl Rehbein from being sent to the Oranienburg concentration camp by intervening with the Gestapo . In 1936 Hobein became a soldier again, this time as a sergeant in one of the then newly established police divisions. After another stopover as a Revier Oberwachtmeister in Hanau, he was recalled to the police division in 1939 due to the war. Hobein fought in Poland , France and the Soviet Union during World War II before he was transferred to the officers' school of the Ordnungspolizei in Fürstenfeldbruck in 1943 . As a police lieutenant he came to Augsburg, where he saw the end of the war.

In July 1945 Hobein resumed his service in Hanau and began to rebuild the police force, of which he was appointed chief commissioner after being checked by the American military authorities. In 1955, Hobein completed his training for the higher police enforcement service at the Police Leadership Academy in Hiltrup, which was shortened due to the war . Hobein was officially appointed police director in Hanau in 1957 and from 1974 until his retirement on July 31, 1976 headed the police headquarters of the then newly created Main-Kinzig district .

engagement

The enthusiastic athlete Ludwig Hobein rebuilt the Polizeisportverein (PSV) Hanau, which was founded in 1919, after the city was almost completely destroyed in the Second World War, as did the PSV sports hall on today's Freiheitsplatz , which was inaugurated in 1948, with his friends . PSV Grün-Weiss Hanau teams took part in several successful Hessian and German championships with Hobein.

After the war, Hobein was one of the most committed supporters of the German-American friendship, which he not only developed in a leading role in Hanau, but also lived in an exemplary manner himself. It was therefore only too understandable that his reputation as "Chief" penetrated as far as America and that he was occasionally received in the White House . After the war, Hanau had developed into the largest US community in Europe with at times over 30,000 US soldiers, and Hobein used his relationships to improve the friendship between the Germans and the Americans. In 1948 he and other friends founded a German-American club in Hanau . He was acquainted with US Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and President Ronald Reagan and was friends with the American chief of staff, General John W. Vessey junior . Vessey, who was retired on September 30, 1985 as Joint Chiefs of Staff and military advisor to President Reagan with a large military parade in the presence of his friend Ludwig Hobein , was stationed in Hanau three times during his active military service (1951/54, 1963/65 and 1967/69). A special friend of “Lux” was General William Westmoreland , 1964/68 Commander in Chief of US troops in the Vietnam War and later Chief of Staff of the Army . Westmoreland was, for example, especially for a visit to Hobein his 1969 special train in the railway station Hanau Nord stop. At Hobein's funeral, the then highest general (Chief of Staff of the Army) of the United States Army, Dennis Reimer, and his successor and later Minister in the Obama Cabinet, Eric K. Shinseki , then Supreme Commander of the United States' armed forces in Europe, condoled Europe .

Hobein is buried in the main cemetery in Hanau .

literature

• Fred Witta Jr .: The Police of Hanau. In: Military Police Journal. July 1962. pp. 18-20.
• Helmut Henning Schimpfermann, a passionate police officer. Hanauer Anzeiger Vol. 266 No. 159 (July 12, 1991), p. 5.
• Reinhard Breyer, police and sports club established. Hanauer Anzeiger Vol. 271 No. 160 (July 12, 1996), p. 7.
• W.-A. Nagel-Stiftung, Hanauer Geschichtsverein, Magistrat der Stadt Hanau (Ed.): Buried - but not forgotten. Well-known personalities at Hanau cemeteries. 2008, p. 98.

Web links

• http://www.hanau-hobein.de/
• Hanau online from July 12, 2011.

Remarks

1. ↑ Hanau online - incorrectly - states September 9, 1997.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Fred Witta Jr .: The Police of Hanau. In: Military Police Journal. July 1962. p. 20.
2. ^ According to Gerhard Flämig, this transfer of the Social Democrat Hobein was probably not voluntary: Gerhard Flämig: Hanau in the Third Reich. Volume II: Persecution and Resistance. Hanau. 2nd edition 2002. pp. 129f.
3. ↑ W.-A. Nagel Foundation: Buried.
4. ^ Letter from the Military Government Detachment H 79 to Lord Mayor and Police Director Karl Rehbein dated September 26, 1945
5. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from March 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ^ O. author; Hello Mr. President. Rhein-Main-Journal. February 28, 1986. p. 4; Werner Kurz, Awarded by two US presidents. Hanauer Anzeiger, July 12, 2011.