Martin Kirschner (politician)

Martin Kirschner

Martin Kirschner (born November 10, 1842 in Freiburg in Silesia ; † September 13, 1912 in Ehrwald / Tyrol ) was Lord Mayor and honorary citizen of Berlin .

Life

The father Julius Kirschner was a doctor in the small Silesian town of Freiburg. The family with Martin as the only child moved to Breslau in 1852 , where Kirschner attended the Maria Magdalenen High School. Illnesses in the first years of school meant that he could not do his Abitur until 1863. The father died in 1860. Kirschner studied law in Breslau , Heidelberg and Berlin . During his studies in 1863 he became a member of the Germania Breslau fraternity . In 1868 he became a trainee lawyer at the city court in Breslau and in 1871 a court assessor . Shortly thereafter, he was given the provisional administration of a judge's position near Bromberg in the Prussian province of Posen , where he became a district judge in 1872. In the same month he married Margarethe Kalbeck from Breslau, daughter of a Viennese writer and sister of the well-known Breslau music critic and writer Max Kalbeck , who made a name for himself especially through his Brahms biography. Kirschner's marriage had a son and four daughters.

In 1873 Kirschner was appointed to the city council in Breslau. In the following time, Max von Forckenbeck got to know and appreciate him, who at that time was Lord Mayor of the Silesian capital. Forckenbeck, who later became mayor of Berlin himself , also drew attention to Kirschner's abilities in Berlin. In 1879 Kirschner was elected syndic of the city of Breslau and then to the city ​​council . He became its deputy chairman and representative of the city of Wroclaw in the Provincial Parliament for Silesia. In 1892 he received a call from Berlin; he was elected mayor of the metropolis and was introduced to the office in February 1893, which he held for six years to the general satisfaction. After quarrels between the Berlin city council and the Prussian king, he was appointed mayor in 1899. From 1900 to 1912 he also represented the city of Berlin in the Prussian mansion .

tomb

He found his final resting place in a grave of honor of the city of Berlin in the middle path in the central cemetery Friedrichsfelde . His grave is dedicated to the city of Berlin as an honorary grave .

power

After Arthur Hobrecht (Lord Mayor of Berlin 1872 to 1878) and Max von Forckenbeck (in this office from 1878 until his death in 1892), he was the third Lord Mayor of Berlin to come from Breslau . During Kirschner's tenure, the new German capital experienced a tremendous boom. Kirschner created the political conditions for the emerging city of Berlin. The sewer system of the constantly growing community was renewed, road breakthroughs were made for better traffic management, the central cattle and slaughterhouse was expanded and the east port was redesigned. The old botanical garden , the Viktoriapark and the Schillerhain became an urban recreation area for all citizens. Among the new buildings to be mentioned are: the Rudolf Virchow Hospital , the new building of the Academy of the Arts (Pariser Platz), the Märkisches Museum , the new building of the municipal orphanage and the Bucher Anstalten (the “insane asylum” in Berlin-Buch was founded in 1929 known from the novel " Berlin Alexanderplatz " by Alfred Döblin ).

In the social field, Kirschner ensured the introduction of the compulsory advanced training school (later vocational schools) and he managed the conversion of the six-class community schools into eight-class ones. Kirschner also paid special attention to tram traffic , which was operated by a number of different companies during his tenure. Conflicts with the private large Berlin tram caused the city to build its own tram lines in October 1900 .

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Berlin University, Martin Kirschner was made an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Law in 1910. In March 1911 he was re-elected mayor. But just a year later he had to resign from this post because of his poor health. He died of a heart condition at the age of 69. He was no longer able to accept the honorary citizenship letter awarded to him by the city of Berlin . Leo Mugdan, spokesman for the Social Democrats in the city ​​council and a political opponent, paid tribute to Kirschner with the words: "We have always valued the deceased as a man full of character and an inviolable sense of justice." An honorary grave was set up for Martin Kirschner at the Friedrichsfelde central cemetery , albeit at own wish without a tombstone. Kirschnerweg has been named after him in the Gropiusstadt district ( Berlin-Neukölln ) since 1967 .

His son Martin Kirschner (1879–1942) became an internationally recognized doctor and surgeon, while his daughter Mathilde Kirschner (1875–1951) worked successfully as a superior for the socially disadvantaged and also acted politically as a city councilor in Berlin.

literature

• Joachim Hoffmann : Berlin-Friedrichsfelde. A German national cemetery - cultural and historical travel guide. Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-360-00959-2 , pp. 15, 45 and 210.
• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Volume 3: I-L. Winter, Heidelberg 1999, ISBN 3-8253-0865-0 , pp. 96-97.
• Gerhard Kutzsch:  Kirschner, Martin. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3 , p. 675 ( digitized version ).
• German Biographical Yearbook, Vol. 17 pp. 124–128 ed. v. Association d. German Academy, Berlin-Leipzig
• E. Kaeber, The Lord Mayors of Berlin since Stein's urban reform , in Jb. 1952 d. Ver. fd Gesch. Berlins, pp. 86-89