Max Keller (politician)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Max Rudolf Keller (born December 5, 1883 in Lörrach ; † 1969 ) was a German administrative lawyer and mayor of Freiburg from April 22, 1945 to November 8, 1945 .

Life

The son of the building supervisor Max Keller and his wife Lina (née Schilling) attended high schools in Freiburg, Lörrach and Wertheim . In 1913 he wrote his dissertation on religious child rearing according to Baden law at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg .

On April 16, 1945, the National Socialists entrusted the lawyer and chief accountant Dr. Max Keller in an emergency administration with the "future performance of the mayor's duties in the event of enemy occupation". Keller had not belonged to the NSDAP and was therefore “ persona grata ” even after the French troops marched in on April 22nd and was accepted as the “head of the community at zero hour”.

At the end of April, the French ordered Keller to summon around 2,000 men between the ages of 16 and 55, if possible "nazis typiques" (i.e. people close to the Nazi regime), to carry out cleanup work. On May 15, 1945 the order was given to set up a "camp de concentration pour internés politiques" (German internment camp for political prisoners). This camp on Idingerstrasse was supposed to accommodate 3,000 prisoners, including 500 women. The camp was not closed until May 1, 1949.

On June 1, the French military government officially confirmed the basement, which is indispensable with its specialist knowledge, as Lord Mayor. Four days later, 120 people, including a large number of senior officials, were suspended or dismissed from city service, but Keller succeeded in reviving the city administration , which had been paralyzed by these denazification measures. Housing and food had to be procured for the badly destroyed city and this had to be brought into line with the demands of the occupying power for housing and food (the French, in contrast to the Americans, bought themselves from the occupied territories). At the end of April, Keller supported the demand of the French authorities for the removal of Nazi symbols with corresponding orders to the civil engineering office under Baurat Schneider, the building construction office under Joseph Schlippe and the gardening office under Robert Schimpf. He also published an appeal in the official gazette on June 27, 1945: “Put an end to the Nazi emblems! I hereby request the population to remedy this unworthy condition immediately by removing all such signs and thus also externally express the will to finally move away from the wicked Nazi system ”.

On November 8, 1945, Dr. Wolfgang Hoffmann from the sick cellar in office. When they passed, it was said that Keller had earned the "trust of the military government". He often had to show courage to be unpopular "for the good of the population", which also earned him criticism.

literature

  • Karin-Anne Böttcher: The two OBs of the "Zero Hour", Badische Zeitung from October 15, 1998
  • Peter Fässler, Reinhard Grohnert, Joachim Haug, Heiko Haumann and Edgar Wolfrum: Capital without bread Freiburg in the state of Baden (1945–1952) in Heiko Haumann and Hans Schadek (eds.): History of the city of Freiburg im Breisgau , Volume 3, Konrad Theiss Verlag GmbH, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 978-3-8062-1635-6
  • Hans Schneider, Freiburg stories, report from a small city, special edition 1945–1968, Rombach GmbH, Freiburg 1995, ISBN 3-923288-17-4

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner Köhler: Freiburg im Breisgau, 1945-1949 , publications from the archive of the city of Freiburg im Breisgau , Volume 21, City Archives, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1987, ISBN 9783923272211 , p. 17, preview in Google book search
  2. ^ A b Max Keller: Religious upbringing of children according to Baden law , Ruprecht-Karls-Universitat Heidelberg, 1913, p. 18, preview in the Google book search
  3. ↑ in Schneider, page 11
  4. ↑ in Fässler, page 383
  5. ↑ in Schneider, page 10
  6. ↑ in Böttcher
  7. ↑ in Fässler, page 386
  8. ↑ Ute Scherb: We get the monuments we deserve. Freiburg Monuments in the 19th and 20th Centuries , Freiburg 2005, ISBN 3-923272-31-6 , p. 193
  9. ↑ in Fässler, page 383
  10. ↑ in Böttcher
predecessor Office successor
Franz Kerber Lord Mayor of Freiburg im Breisgau
1945 		Dr. Wolfgang Hoffmann
personal data
SURNAME Keller, Max
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Keller, Max Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German administrative lawyer and mayor of Freiburg
DATE OF BIRTH December 5, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Loerrach
DATE OF DEATH 1969