Maximilian Reichel

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Maximilian Reichel (born April 5, 1856 in Magdeburg , † September 21, 1924 in Berlin ) was a German civil engineer and fire department official and from 1905 to 1922 the fifth head of the Berlin fire department . The First World War and the founding of Greater Berlin fell during his term of office . He became widely known with the world's first commissioning of a motorized fire engine in Hanover .

Career

After studying at the Bauakademie in Berlin, Reichel joined the fire service of the city of Wroclaw as a civil engineer in October 1882 and was employed there with the rank of fire chief as head of a fire station.

In 1886 he switched to the Berlin fire brigade and was finally promoted to fire inspector in 1891. A short time later he became head of the fire department in what was then Altona .

Fire chief in Hanover (1900–1905)

In the same position, Reichel took over the Hanover professional fire brigade in 1900 and was also appointed fire director. As the new head of the fire department, he was quickly confronted with the question of the motorisation of his authority , but initially did not rely on converting his vehicle fleet . In this debate he fell out especially with the city leadership and the newly founded and influential German Fire Brigade Association , which was finally able to prevail against him.

Maximilian Reichel bowed to the needs of the new century and faced the great challenge with which he steadily made friends. After all, he even played a pioneering role in terms of motorization. In fact, within a very short time he succeeded in putting the world's first motorized fire engine, consisting of three fire engines, into service in Hanover, which brought him great fame.

Fire chief in Berlin (1905–1922)

Motorization and management

After the sudden death of Erich Giersberg in February 1905, Reichel was called to Berlin again, where he was already active in the 1880s. Finally, on June 15, 1905, as fire director, he took over the management of the Berlin fire brigade, which was combined as a professional fire brigade , but was still surrounded by individual urban and communal firefighters in old Berlin .

With his experience from Hanover, he now took on the further motorization of the vehicle fleet in Berlin, together with his later successor Walther Gempp . The fire director initially concentrated on the organizational separation of the vehicle fleet and immediately tested various types of drive. So he procured electric vehicles for the inner city guards and equipped the weirs in the outside areas with vehicles with steam engines . The classic explosion engine was initially not an option for Reichel.

The Schillerpark fire station in Berlin- Wedding , which still exists today and was newly built at the time , was the first office of the Berlin fire service in 1910 to have a purely electric motorized vehicle fleet. Years later, at the end of his active service, Reichel could finally no longer prevent the use of the gasoline engine in the fire department, because after the First World War the necessary wheel hub motors were no longer built.

Another focus of his work was the realignment of the fire service administration and organizational structure. Reichel introduced commissions with advisory functions and had fire chief inspections set up, to which he delegated management tasks for the first time. With the separation of the telegraph network from the police system , he also implemented another project of his deceased predecessor Giersberg. Instead, Reichel had his own telegraph administration set up in 1913, although he was unable to really achieve any technical progress with the fire department.

The main reason for this was the special role of Berlin, which was growing steadily as the capital of the Reich , but was still divided into six large cities and numerous municipalities and manor districts in the outer area . Reichel recognized this very early on and strived for a rapid standardization of the deletion, which initially seemed unattainable to him.

Reichel's fundamental organizational plans led to extensive reforms in the German fire service. Even the establishment of the Erfurt professional fire brigade in April 1910 can be traced back to a report by Reichel dated July 10, 1909.

Before the start of the war, Maximilian Reichel was a well-known fire chief and fire expert who was even admired by the emperor . As a sign of respect, Wilhelm II personally accepted a parade of the Berlin fire brigade in the Lustgarten in February 1914 and then attended a major exercise in the neighboring cathedral .

New beginning after the war

Only a few months later the First World War broke out, which also had fatal consequences for the Berlin fire brigade.

Reichel and another 700 firefighters were drafted immediately , halving the workforce of the professional fire brigade. The fire director survived the turmoil of the war unscathed and was mainly deployed as " department head fire protection" in the main headquarters , the strategic command center , in the general staff building.

In November 1918, after the end of the war, he returned to his post with the fire department and was confronted with major changes that amounted to a riot. On the one hand, Reichel had to take note that 63 of his firefighters had died and more than 100 men returned as war invalids and were ultimately no longer fit for duty.

Even more: Maximilian Reichel was a flourishing monarchist and suffered from the change to a democratic republic . So he not only had to come to terms with a newly elected government, but also, as chief fire officer, with the workers 'and soldiers' council . In addition, there was the fact that his superior office was now commanded by the old communist Emil Eichhorn , who was appointed police chief in the course of the October Revolution .

Reichel's task now consisted mainly of restoring peace and order to the fire brigade's operations. In doing so, he had to make a number of concessions to the newly formed committee of officials.

In his heart still loyal to the emperor who was forced to abdicate , he now had to accept a civilization of his authority. So the military greeting for the fire brigade was abolished and the superiors drilled into a bourgeois tone towards the subordinate forces. The ordinances of the officers , who were meanwhile referred to as senior officials, were also dropped without replacement.

Another major challenge arose shortly after the Berlin fire brigade was confronted with the effects of the January Revolution . Not only did she have to transport hundreds of dead and injured , but she herself often stood between the fronts. Although the fire engines drove with Red Cross flags, they were often the target of attacks. Fireman Josef Meier was killed during the March riots.

A short time later, Reichel took over the chairmanship of the Reich Association of German Fire Brigade Engineers, which had emerged from the professional fire brigade officers association in order to gain more influence .

Another major project challenged Reichel once again: With effect from October 1, 1920, the city center of Berlin was merged with the adjacent large cities, communities and manor districts to form the new Greater Berlin. Reichel was given the task of uniting the previous 15 professional fire brigades and 65 volunteer fire brigades in one authority in the new city. Finally, in April 1921, the Berlin fire brigade became an independent authority that was no longer subordinate to the police.

In addition, Maximilian Reichel is appointed Chief Fire Director; a rank that was previously not available in Germany , but which also brought him little luck. Although he had clear ideas of what the structure of a large Berlin fire brigade should look like, he had not reckoned with the difficulties that the fire directors of the previously independent and now integrated fire brigades were causing him.

He was hardly able to carry out his actual task of promoting the standardization of fire extinguishing. In the end he even had to recognize that the magistrate , to which the Berlin fire brigade was subordinate from 1922, was ready to accommodate the fire directors on many individual issues. The fire chief could not and did not want to accept this fact.

Meanwhile, 67 years old, he celebrated his 40-year anniversary in October 1922, applied at the same time his transfer into the retirement . In the same month he took a leave of absence from the fire service.

At the end of February 31, 1923, Maximilian Reichel was finally retired as chief fire director. Walther Gempp succeeded him as the new head of the authorities on March 13th.

Last years

The fire department never let go of the fire department even after his retirement. He remained a consultant on fire fighting issues, comparable to today's preventive fire protection, and also worked out numerous templates for organizational structures for professional and volunteer fire departments.

In addition, he was a founding member of the Prussian Fire Brigade Advisory Board and participated in the reorganization of the Reich Association of German Fire Brigade Engineers.

His former authority, the Berlin fire brigade, realized fairly quickly that Reichel should be right with his ideas about standardizing fire fighting. Corresponding legislative processes were initiated through political channels and passed by the magistrate in March 1923.

The new "business instructions for the deputation of the fire department", which were essentially due to the plans of the former chief fire director, however, he did not live to see.

After a short illness , Maximilian Reichel died in Berlin in September 1924 at the age of 68. The cremation took place in the Wilmersdorf crematorium ; a short time later, countless fire service colleagues said goodbye to their former head of the agency during a memorial service.

His grave was in the Schöneberg III cemetery in Berlin-Friedenau before it was leveled in 2000.

literature

  • TH Hannover (ed.): Catalogus Professorum. The teaching staff of the Technical University of Hanover 1831–1856 , Hanover: Technical University of Technology 1956, p. 186.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. History of the Berlin Fire Brigade. In: Internet site of the Berlin fire brigade. Accessed January 27, 2019 (German).
  2. Hürgen Müller: Biography Maximilian Reichel . January 2009.
  3. Honor roll of the Berlin fire brigade . Berlin September 6, 2011, p. 3 .