Marcus Krüsmann

Marcus Bernhard Hubert Krüsmann , also Markus Krüsmann or Max Krüsmann , (born April 11, 1879 in Bergisch Gladbach , Rhine Province , Prussia; † February 25, 1964 in Münster ) was a German lawyer and local politician of the Center Party . He was an alderman for the cities of Bocholt , Altenessen and Münster as well as the mayor of Limburg an der Lahn and the Ostbevern district .

Origin and education

Marcus Krüsmann was born on April 11th, 1879 in Bergisch Gladbach as the son of the machine master Johann Bernhard Hubert Krüsmann and his wife Helena, née Mauel. After graduating from the Royal High School at St. Aposteln in Cologne in 1898, he studied law and political science at the universities of Würzburg , Strasbourg and Bonn . On July 25, 1901, he passed the first legal examination before the Cologne Higher Regional Court . After his legal clerkship in Bensberg and Cologne , he passed the major state examination in Berlin on March 19, 1906 with the grade "Good". In the same year he received his doctorate at the University of Heidelberg to the Dr. jur. with a dissertation on the legal nature of devotion to fulfillment instead of according to the civil code ( § 364 ) .

Professional background

After passing the major state examination, Marcus Krüsmann initially worked for three months as a lawyer representative in Cologne-Mülheim . On 12 June 1906 he was then by the city council of the city of Bocholt for salaried aldermen chosen this activity also chaired the local merchants and commercial court went along. On April 26, 1907, Krüsmann took up a new position as a salaried alderman in the then independent Essen district of Altenessen , where he remained until 1911.

On April 1, 1911, he was finally appointed second alderman of the city of Münster . There he headed, among other things, the building commission, chaired the Sparkasse Board of Trustees and was also responsible for the war support system, the welfare of the bereaved and the coal supply.

On July 26, 1919, as a member of the Center Party, he was elected mayor of Limburg an der Lahn . The ceremonial inauguration took place on September 18. During his term of office, among other things, the establishment of the first tax office in Limburg and the establishment of a vigilante group.

When French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr area on January 11, 1923 on charges of outstanding reparations payments , a large protest rally also took place in Limburg, led by Bishop Augustinus Kilian and Mayor Marcus Krüsmann. In the course of the occupation of the “ Free State of Bottleneck ”, Moroccan auxiliaries of the French army moved into Limburg early in the morning of May 15, 1923 and occupied the train station, post office, district office and town hall. Sometimes machine guns were also brought into position, including in front of the town hall, where Marcus Krüsmann had meanwhile been taken. When he was told that he was now subject to the command of the commanding general, Krüsmann replied that as the German mayor of the German city of Limburg, he was only subject to the German government. Thereupon he was arrested and taken to the prison in Koblenz (later to Bonn). He was accused of protesting against the French occupation of Limburg. After he was heard by an examining magistrate in September 1923, he was released from custody on bail until the main hearing. The condition for release was not to return to Limburg. On December 11th, he was sentenced to three months in prison by the French court martial in Bonn. The prison sentence had already been settled through the previous four-month pre-trial detention. It was not until autumn 1924 that Krüsmann returned to his post after a long vacation with his family - his son Wolfgang was born on May 24, 1923, shortly after his arrest. After this period of political unrest, there was intensive building activity in Limburg between 1925 and 1931, and a period of prosperity associated with it; Over 10,000 people came to the city every day.

On April 29, 1931, Krüsmann was unanimously re-elected for a further 12-year term. The city of Limburg an der Lahn was still considered the center of the Center Party ; Even after Adolf Hitler's appearance at Limburg Neumarkt in October 1932, the NSDAP was unable to get enough votes. Even in the Reichstag elections in May 1933 in Limburg, it achieved only 32.1%, whereas the center received 47.7%. Nevertheless, National Socialism did not stop at Limburg and so the swastika flag was hoisted on the town hall on March 7, 1933, due to a ministerial order . At the meeting of the magistrate on April 5, 1933, a tumult arose, in the course of which, among others, Krüsmann was asked to give the Hitler salute; He was also accused of not having flagged his house at Dr.-Wolff-Strasse 4 on the “ Day of Potsdam ”. Finally there was a demand for Krüsmann's resignation and arrest. After a meeting in the town hall, the local NSDAP announced from the town hall balcony that Dr. Krüsmann submitted to the protection of the NSDAP. Krüsmann was then escorted to his apartment by the members of the NSDAP parliamentary group and arrested there. On April 6, 1933, he submitted an application for leave to the district president until the 30th of the month. This application was later extended again.

Formally, Krüsmann remained in office until autumn 1933, but the business of government had long since been taken over by the NSDAP. On October 20, 1933, he was retired by the district president. Finally, on December 1, he moved back to Münster with his family. Various allegations that Krüsmann had been guilty of embezzlement in the course of his work at the Electricity Commission, that he had misled a subordinate to give false information on an expropriation matter and that he also arbitrarily changed an escape route plan, remained unsuccessful. The proceedings were discontinued in 1934, and in the reparation proceedings after 1945 the correctness of his administration was confirmed.

From August 11, 1941 to June 30, 1942, Krüsmann was employed in Münster as a war aid worker at the military district administration, and then until September 15, 1945 as a legal assistant at the price monitoring office of the Münster district government. After the end of the war, he was the mayor of Ostbevern from September 16, 1945 to May 3, 1946 , and then until the beginning of 1948 as the official director . Krüsmann came into consideration for this position primarily because he was politically unaffected and not a member of the NSDAP.

Eventually he retired from Haus Sentrup. This was on the property of his father-in-law Wilhelm Hüffer and fell victim to the construction of the new all-weather zoo in Münster in later years . He died in Münster-Amelsbüren in 1964 , his grave is in the Münster Central Cemetery .

Private

In 1909 Krüsmann married Maria Lenders (born November 28, 1882 in Elberfeld ). She died on June 11, 1910 in Altenessen, probably as a result of the birth of their son Max Johannes Joseph Krüsmann. This son also died a few days after his mother.

During his time as an alderman for the city of Münster , he married Anna Maria Katharina Hüffer on August 8, 1916 (born March 14, 1889 in Münster; † December 4, 1967 in Rheine ). She was the eldest daughter of the landowner Wilhelm Hüffer, who was also the economic director of the Hüfferstiftung for many years , and the great-granddaughter of the politician and publisher Johann Hermann Hüffer . Together they had four children, Helene (* 1917), Hildegard (* 1920), Georg (* 1922) and Wolfgang (* 1923).

Works

• The legal nature of the surrender to fulfillment instead of the civil code (§ 364) , inaugural dissertation , Buchdruckerei Robert Noste, 1906.

Trivia

Krüsmannstraße in Limburg an der Lahn is named after Marcus Krüsmann.

Literature and web links

• Marcus Krüsmann: The legal nature of the devotion to fulfillment instead of according to the civil code (§ 364). Inaugural dissertation, Robert Noste printing house, 1906; CV, p. 29.
• Eduard and Anton Wilhelm Hüffer: Johann Hermann Hüffer, b. December 25, 1784 Münster, died January 12, 1855 Münster, publisher, owner of the Aschendorff bookstore, Mayor of Münster, Westphalia, 1842–1848, Privy Councilor - descendant tables with 1 family tree. Aschendorff'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Münster 1996, p. 55.
• Christoph Waldecker: The Limburg mayors in the first third of the 20th century. Joseph Kauter (1901–1907), Philipp Haerten (1907–1919), Dr. Marcus Krüsmann (1919–1933). In: Limburg in the river of time, 2. Lectures on city history. Limburg 2013, pp. 259–300 (Contributions to the history of the district town of Limburg ad Lahn, 2).
• Website of the district town of Limburg an der Lahn: http://www.limburg.de/Leben/Stadtportrait/Geschichte?&La=1