Martin Stritte

Martin Stritte (born November 6, 1877 in Brandenburg an der Havel ; † June 8, 1963 in West Berlin ) was a German lawyer and liberal politician . He was the first state chairman of the LDP Berlin.

Life

Stritte, the son of a teacher, attended grammar school in Spandau and, after graduating from high school, studied law and economics in Freiburg im Breisgau and Berlin . During his studies he became a member of the Landsmannschaft Thuringia Freiburg and in 1896 the Landsmannschaft Spandovia Berlin . As a trainee lawyer, he worked in the administrations of the cities of Charlottenburg , Spandau and Berlin, after completing his second legal exam as a court assessor . He did military service and was a reserve officer in the 5th Guards Regiment on foot . In 1906 he opened a law firm. In 1908 he became a paid city councilor in Spandau, where he took over the departments of hospital administration, civil engineering and poor people. From 1913 to 1920 he was the community leader in Tegel . After the incorporation of Spandau into Greater Berlin , the non-party Stritte was elected district mayor of Spandau by the district council in 1921 with the votes of the DDP , DVP , DNVP and the center . Stritte held this office until 1933.

Spandau continued to grow into an industrial district during Stritte's tenure. In addition to the existing German industrial plants and Siemens & Halske , the Osram light bulb plant and the large West power plant were built . Housing construction also experienced a significant upswing under disputes. Stritte became known beyond the borders of Berlin when he uncovered the Sklarek scandal in 1929 .

After 1933, Stritte headed the main auditing office of the magistrate (court of audit ). During the Nazi dictatorship , he was in close contact with the former mayor of Dresden, Wilhelm Külz , who had lived in Berlin-Wilmersdorf since 1935 and worked there as a lawyer. Külz maintained contacts with various resistance groups. In Külz's apartment, Stritte and Waldemar Koch , among others , met to discuss a new democratic start after the collapse of the Nazi regime and the establishment of a liberal party.

In July 1945, Stritte and Külz were among the founders of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Berlin. He was elected the first state chairman of the LDP Berlin on September 21, 1945. Disputes, such as Külz intended to achieve a compromise with all occupying powers, increasingly came into contradiction with the group around Carl-Hubert Schwennicke , which demanded that the Soviet occupying powers be confronted more clearly. Stritte resigned from his position as state chairman on February 14, 1946 after he had lost a trial vote in the state board initiated by Schwennicke.

Stritte was married and had two children.

Honors

• Stritte was buried in the honor grove of Spandau on the north fence of the cemetery In den Kisseln in Berlin-Spandau.
• The Stritteweg in Berlin-Wilhelmstadt has been named after him since November 1968 .

literature

• Karl-Heinz Bannasch: Martin Stritte - Spandau district mayor and first chairman of the Berlin Liberals after 1945. In: Communications from the Association for the History of Berlin. Vol. 84 (1988), pp. 53-58, zlb.de (PDF; 12.90 MB).

Web links

• Stritteweg. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
• Quarrel, Martin . In: Historical personalities in Berlin cemeteries .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Berthold Ohm and Alfred Philipp (eds.): Directory of addresses of the old men of the German Landsmannschaft. Part 1. Hamburg 1932, p. 464.
2. ^ War Ministry, Secret War Chancellery (editors): Ranking list of the Royal Prussian Army and the XIII. (Royal Wuerttemberg) Army Corps for 1904. [...] As of May 6, 1904. [...] , Verlag Ernst Siegfried Mittler und Sohn, Berlin undated, p. 59 and ranking list of the Royal Prussian Army and the XIII. (Royal Württemberg) Army Corps for 1914. [...] As of May 6, 1914. [...] , Verlag Ernst Siegfried Mittler and Son, Berlin undated, p. 852