Lower Rhine Chamber of Commerce and Industry Duisburg-Wesel-Kleve zu Duisburg

Chamber headquarters

The Lower Rhine Chamber of Commerce and Industry Duisburg-Wesel-Kleve zu Duisburg is a German Chamber of Commerce and Industry based in Duisburg .

organization

In addition to the headquarters in Duisburg, there is a branch in Kleve (Boschstraße 16) and a branch in Wesel (Großer Markt 7). The chamber has 61,000 member companies. These elect a maximum of 94 representatives to the general assembly every four years . This elects the Presidium every four years , consisting of the President and currently a maximum of eight deputies. The main management is appointed by the presidium.

The chamber district includes the city of Duisburg, the district of Kleve and the district of Wesel .

The chamber has the task of promoting the economy and taking care of the overall interests of all economic areas in its district. In particular, it can only fulfill the latter task because it is independent of the interests of individuals. The IHK Aachen is an institution of economic self-administration and therefore not an authority or association. Although it is subject to state legal supervision, it is not subordinate to the instructions of other departments.

The IHK Aachen performs the following core tasks:

Promotion of the regional economy
Perception of the general concerns of the economy
Advice to companies

history

Wesel Chamber of Commerce in the French era

After France annexed the left bank of the Rhine , French law was introduced there. One of the innovations was chambers of commerce under French law. By imperial decree of December 20, 1812, Napoleon set up a Wesel Chamber of Commerce. This should be responsible for the Arrondissement de Clèves . After the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig , Napoleonic rule collapsed in 1813 and the Chamber of Commerce was not formed.

History of the Prussian Chamber of Commerce Duisburg

After the Wars of Liberation , the Rhineland was Prussian. However, the establishment of chambers of commerce was still a wish of the merchants of many cities. Therefore, in the 1830s, a number of chambers of commerce were created by royal decree. After Elberfeld (1830) and Düsseldorf (June 18, 1831), the Duisburg Chamber of Commerce was the third Rhenish Chamber of Commerce. The decision of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. on the establishment of the Chamber was published on October 24, 1831 and the statute of the Chamber was adopted on September 18, 1831. The chamber was responsible for the city of Duisburg and consisted of six members. They elected a president from among themselves.

History of the Prussian Chamber of Commerce in Wesel

In Wesel, too, the merchants tried to set up a chamber of commerce. Ultimately, a petition from 96 Wesel merchants in 1837 was successful. As a result, the cabinet order of March 5, 1838 ordered the establishment of a chamber of commerce for Wesel. The 170 independent merchants and manufacturers who were based in Wesel and pay a trade tax of over twelve thalers had the right to vote for the chamber.

On October 1, 1877, the Wesel chamber district was expanded to include the Rees district and part of the Borken district, including the city of Bocholt.

History of the Prussian Chamber of Commerce Ruhrort

On November 22, 1897, a Ruhrort Chamber of Commerce was also formed. Geographically, the chamber was responsible for the Ruhrort district (with Hamborn, Dinslaken and Sterkrade) and part of the Moer district. The founding president is the general director of the Phoenix works, secret commercial councilor August Servaes.

The legal basis for all three chambers was the Chamber Act of August 19, 1897. The chambers thus became a legal entity. The electoral system and contributions were also reorganized.

Mergers

In 1906 the cities of Duisburg, Ruhrort and Meiderich merged. The two chambers in Duisburg and Ruhrort were also merged accordingly. The name of the common chamber was "Chamber of Commerce in Duisburg", the seat was in Duisburg-Ruhrort.

Due to a ministerial decree of April 23, 1919, after two years of discussion, the Wesel Chamber of Commerce and the Duisburg Chamber of Commerce merged to form the "Lower Rhine Chamber of Commerce Duisburg-Wesel". The seat was in Duisburg-Ruhrort. In 1923 the name of the chamber was changed to "Lower Rhine Chamber of Commerce and Industry Duisburg-Wesel zu Duisburg" by a ministerial ordinance.

In 1924 the right and left Rhine areas were separated due to the occupation of the Ruhr . Therefore, a branch of the IHK Krefeld was set up for the district of Moers , which was operated jointly by the Duisburg and Krefeld chambers. In early May 1923, the first in-house counsel, Otto Most, was convicted of a speech by the Belgian police court in Krefeld. Later he and the second syndic, Alfred Gentzsch, were arrested again

After the seizure of power by the National Socialists and the recent DC circuit IHK Duisburg-Wesel. The president was no longer elected, but appointed; the chamber was organized according to the Führer principle . The members of the advisory board have now been appointed by the president. In contrast to most of the IHKs, Johann Wilhelm Welker was left in office and remained at the head of the chamber until 1944. In 1942 the chamber was dissolved by the ordinance of the Reich Minister of Economics of April 20 and incorporated into the newly formed Essen Gauwirtschaftskammer .

After the end of the war, the Gau economic chambers were dissolved and the IHKs were re-approved by the occupying powers. The Duisburg Chamber of Commerce officially resumed its work on June 1, 1945. In addition to the existing organization, a chamber branch was set up in Geldern , which existed until the 1980s. On July 29, 1953, the IHK moved its new building across from Duisburg Central Station.

In 1956 the chambers of industry and commerce were given the status of corporations under public law by the law on the provisional regulation of the law of chambers of industry and commerce . As part of the regional reform in North Rhine-Westphalia , the boundaries of the districts and municipalities were adjusted. This was followed by the delimitation of the chamber district. Since April 1, 1977, the chamber district consisted of the city of Duisburg and the districts of Kleve and Wesel in their delimitations that have been in effect since 1975.

IHK building

District building Ruhrort, seat of the Chamber from 1912

After the Ruhrort district was dissolved , the Chamber of Commerce moved into the former district building in Ruhrort in 1912. The building, built in 1890 by August Jording on Fürst-Bismarck-Straße in Ruhrort, is a listed building (see list of architectural monuments in Duisburg-Homberg / Ruhrort / Baerl ). In 1921, part of the chamber building was confiscated by the Belgian occupation forces.

After the Second World War, the chamber moved into its new building opposite the main train station. The IHK building at Mercatorstraße 22, 24, Friedrich-Wilhelm-Straße 107 was built in 1938 according to plans by the Düsseldorf architects Philipp Wilhelm Stang and Rudolf Marwitz. It is under monument protection, including the forecourt including the fountain system with an anchor sculpture (1958) (see the list of architectural monuments in Duisburg-Mitte ).