Max Löcke

Max-Löcke-Rast at the source of the Lasmecke (Arnsberg)

Max (imilian) Franz Löcke (born November 14, 1850 - † May 7, 1936 in Arnsberg ) was Mayor of Arnsberg from 1879 to 1919 . During his term of office numerous measures to modernize the city fall.

Life

He was the son of the farmer Everhard Löcke and his wife Antonette Ida Calaminus. The family managed the Hohenover manor in North Dinker near Hamm .

He graduated from high school in Hamm and began studying law. This was interrupted by participation in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71. During his studies in 1872 he became a member of the fraternity of the North German Bonn . From 1873 he was a court trainee in Arnsberg. Because the re-election of Mayor Wilhelm Wulff in 1878 as a result of the Kulturkampf was not confirmed by the government, the search for a new mayor was necessary. One of the applicants was Löcke, who was also elected by the city council on July 10, 1878. At the age of 27, he was the youngest mayor of the Province of Westphalia . He built a house on Rumbecker Strasse, at that time still outside the city, and married Antonie Letterhaus in 1880. With this he had three children.

Immediately after his election, he began following the example of Unna and Iserlohn with the establishment of volunteer fire Arnsberg. As fire director, he headed the fire department for forty years.

As mayor, he also campaigned for the expansion of the infrastructure. This applied to inner-city road construction as well as to the connection with other municipalities. As a district deputy, he campaigned for a road from Arnsberg to Sundern and Stemel over the Ochsenkopf mountain . During his time in 1884/85 the first waterworks in the city was built. This was followed by the construction of a slaughterhouse in 1888 . In 1889 a training school was founded. With the support of the local Kneipp association , the Laurentianum grammar school and the general public, an indoor swimming pool was built in 1898. For years this was the only facility of its kind between Hagen and Kassel .

He campaigned for the construction of the small railway line between Arnsberg and Neheim . A corresponding committee was established under his leadership in 1896. The railway line was opened in 1907. Last but not least, he also advocated the settlement of industry in the poorly industrialized city. A corresponding commission was set up as early as 1893. This resulted in the founding of Ruhrwerke AG (today a work of Reno de Medici ) in 1900 . For this purpose, the hydropower of the Ruhr was used to drive turbines through an 800 meter long tunnel through the Lüsenberg . The upswing of the city required numerous new buildings. Between 1900 and 1914 a total of 500 new houses were built. He was supraregional chairman of the Rheinisch-Westfälischen Sparkassenverband.

At the rifle festival of 1881 he fired the honor shot in the name of the emperor and king and immediately shot the bird off the pole. After a corresponding telegram, Wilhelm I accepted the honor of being a rifleman king. Something similar took place in 1906 in the name of Wilhelm II. He sponsored the construction of the new shooting hall in 1897. In 1903 he became the main chairman of the Sauerland Mountain Club . The network of trails was expanded under his direction. In 1912 he laid the foundation stone for the construction of the Kolbe Tower in honor of Robert Kolb . During his time, the German Youth Hostel Association emerged from the SGV .

Löcke also led the city through the time of the First World War . He tried to alleviate the hardship of the war years, for example with a people's kitchen . After the war, at the beginning of July after 41 years, he applied for his retirement, which the city council accepted with great regret. The congregation decided to continue paying him full salary in gratitude. Löcke waived this additional amount in 1923 and made the money available for needy citizens.

In the same year he was given honorary citizenship. A street and the Löcketurm were named in his honor. The latter did not survive the Second World War . In 1973 the Max-Löcke-Rast was built at the source of the Lasmecke stream. This was restored in 2020.

Löcke was buried in the Eichholzfriedhof after his death .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Report of the Arnsberger Heimatbundes

literature

• Klemens Pröpper: Mayor Max Löcke. A life for the city of Arnsberg. In: Heimatblätter of the Arnsberger Heimatbund. 5/1986, pp. 17-29.
• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Volume 3: I-L. Winter, Heidelberg 1999, ISBN 3-8253-0865-0 , pp. 300-301.
• Günter Cronau : The mayors of cities and communities in the 19th and 20th centuries. In: Harm Klueting (Ed.): The Duchy of Westphalia. Volume 2.1 Münster, 2012, pp. 211f.