Norbert Burger (politician, 1932)

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Norbert Burger (1983)
 Norbert Burger (1987)
Norbert Burger (1987)
Carnival medal with Norbert Burger (1987)
Carnival medals depicting Norbert Burger (1987)
Mayor Norbert Burger and Mrs. Annemarie Burger with NRW Prime Minister Johannes Rau and the art treasurers Irene Ludwig and Peter Ludwig (from right to left)
Norbert Burger (3rd from left) in February 2012 together with Martin Schulz , Jürgen Roters and Walter Schulz
Reception of the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz by Cologne's Lord Mayor Jürgen Roters in the Hansasaal of the Cologne City Hall.
 Burial place of Norbert Burger
Grave site of Norbert Burger, Cologne Melaten cemetery, grave number = HWG, No. 402
"Norbert Burger Square"

Norbert Burger (born November 24, 1932 in Cologne ; † May 16, 2012 there ) was a German politician ( SPD ) and mayor of Cologne from 1980 to 1999 .

Life

Norbert Burger grew up in Cologne-Ehrenfeld. As the owner of a small construction business, his father was not covered by social insurance . In 1937 he had three strokes and was dependent on care in the nursing home at the Riehler Heimstätten in Cologne . Bringing Norbert and his five-year-older sister through was now the sole responsibility of the mother, who as a housewife had no proper schooling or professional training, but later found a job in the welfare office of the city of Cologne. Under hardships they allowed their talented son in the difficult post-war years did not self-evident for the state of family education: 1953 put burgers on Hansagymnasium Köln the high school , and began studying law at the University of Cologne on.

After the second state examination , he worked as a tutor . In 1963 he entered the service of the City of Cologne and initially worked in the legal office. In 1965 he became head of the school administration office and was able to initiate important developments and innovations. According to the SPD motto "Send your children longer to better schools" and with parents' vote, many denominational schools were converted into municipal community schools. In 1967 the elementary schools in Cologne (first to eighth school year) were divided into elementary and secondary schools. During his term of office, six municipal high schools and four comprehensive schools were founded and the development of a differentiated special school system was promoted.

In 1970 he became head of the social affairs department and during his tenure tripled the number of municipal kindergartens and restructured the old people's and nursing homes. During the first squatting by young people and in the conflict with the SSK in Cologne, he demonstrated diplomatic skills and was able to end the squatting without violence. Through social housing programs and the renovation of the social houses, the number of homeless people in Cologne was reduced from 12,000 to 5,000 during his tenure. Burger also set up the first information and advice centers for people with foreign roots.

Although he was elected for 13 years as head of social affairs in 1970, he moved to the press and information office of the federal government in 1973 as deputy head of the department of Rüdiger Freiherr von Wechmar (FDP) under Willy Brandt, who was re-elected as Federal Chancellor in December 1972 .

A year later, the new Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt von Wechmar replaced Klaus Bölling (SPD), and so Norbert Burger had to leave for reasons of party political proportionality. He then moved to the Development Aid Ministry, where as Ministerial Director he was head of the "Sectoral Development Policy" department.

Norbert Burger was involved in the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund (ASB) from 1971 , initially as chairman of the Cologne branch. From 1993 until his death he was a member of the ASB Presidium. "With his social commitment beyond his duties as a politician, he was and is a role model," said the ASB Federal Managing Director Christian Reuter. A senior citizen center of the ASB in Cologne-Mülheim was named "Norbert Burger Senior Center" in his honor.

Political career

Norbert Burger was initially close to Gustav Heinemann's party , the All-German People's Party . After its dissolution in 1957, he joined the SPD , like Heinemann and Johannes Rau . In 1975 Norbert Burger became a councilor in Cologne, member of the SPD parliamentary group executive committee and chairman of the social committee. During this time, Burger initiated several party exclusion proceedings against radical left-wing Juso members. {"... they drive it too far. 75 years of Cologne Jusos - an anthology. 1996. p.90} In 1980 Burger was able to prevail against the candidate Heinz Lüttgen, who was nominated by the Cologne SPD parliamentary group and party chairman Günter Herterich elected Lord Mayor for the first time by the City Council of Cologne and was Lord Mayor of the City of Cologne for nineteen years through three subsequent elections until 1999.

During his tenure, he put major projects on the rails for Cologne, such as the museum complex at the cathedral with the philharmonic hall and the lowering of Rheinuferstrasse. In addition, the city's cultural offerings regained international status under his leadership, war damage disappeared and in 1985 the restoration of all twelve Romanesque churches in the city center was celebrated. In terms of economic policy, Burger set its sights on a new focus: the media industry. During his tenure, he was able to increase the number of city partnerships from twelve to twenty-three and thus strengthen Cologne's international relations. Including 1984 with Barcelona, ​​1987 with Beijing, 1988 with Corinto / El Realejo in Nicaragua and 1996 with Bethlehem. At the time, Cologne was the first German city to enter into a partnership with a Palestinian city as an active contribution to promoting the peace process in the Middle East at the local level. He was able to achieve great merits in one way or another in the international cooperation of the municipalities.

He was considered a man of balance and dialogue. He once described Cologne's cityscape as a "sum of special permits". Nobody is quoted as often when it comes to paraphrasing a traditional Cologne term: Klüngel, as Burger put it, is “the overcoming of difficulties in the run-up to decisions”. “With Norbert Burger, Cologne is losing one of its outstanding leaders, without whom our city would not have become what it is today. In all his initiatives and decisions, he always kept an eye on the people, ”said Jürgen Roters, who later became mayor, of Burger's services to the city. The Cologne made him an honorary member in over 150 Cologne associations. He remained connected to more than 115 Cologne associations until his death.

Due to a change in the North Rhine-Westphalian municipal constitution in 1994, Burger was the last honorary mayor, who was elected by the Cologne City Council from among its members and not by the citizens who were entitled to vote, as well as the last mayor who was not also head of administration Chief City Director united. Burger himself had pushed these changes to the municipal constitution and at the same time ruled out a new candidacy because of his old age. After the incumbent City Director and his successor Klaus Heugel (SPD), who was believed to be safe, made himself liable to prosecution through insider trading in shares and thus had no chance in his candidacy for mayor in 1999, Harry Blum (CDU) became Burger's successor. The SPD lost more than 12% of the votes in the local elections that were held at the same time (see: Results of the local elections in Cologne ). The party found it difficult to recover from this loss of confidence in the years that followed. With the end of Norbert Burger's term of office, a 43-year long successful era of the SPD in Cologne came to an end.

Even after his tenure, Norbert Burger remained active in many voluntary activities. “In my head, I'll never stop being a homo politicus,” said Burger. Two topics in particular interested him recently: the growing together of Europe and the appearance of his hometown. He was one of the founders of an initiative that fought against architectural growth to the detriment of historic Cologne and ultimately led to the city of Cologne's "height concept". Within the rings, within the medieval city of Cologne, no new buildings should be allowed to be built higher than a ridge height of 22.50 m.

MP

  • From 1969 to 1973 chairman of the local SPD association in Cologne-Sülz / Klettenberg.
  • From 1968 to 1987 member of the SPD sub-district executive committee in Cologne.
  • from 1985 to 1987 SPD member of the Central Rhine District Board.
  • From 1958 onwards, repeated delegates to the SPD sub-district party conference and to district, state and federal party conferences.
  • 1975 to 1999 member of the Cologne City Council and member of the parliamentary committee of the SPD parliamentary group.
  • from 1975 to 1980 chairman of the social committee.
  • From May 30, 1985 to June 1, 2000, Burger was a member of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia . He was elected directly in constituency 020 Cologne VIII.
  • From 1993 to 1995 President of the German Association of Cities, then Vice President.
  • From 1995 to 1997 he was president of the international umbrella organization of local authorities "International Union of Local Authorities" (IULA)

Private

After his resignation as mayor, Burger got caught up in a party donation scandal. In 2002, his home was ransacked by the prosecutor. He had submitted a fake donation receipt for 5,000 marks to the tax office, but asserted that he had not known about the receipt because his secretary had taken care of collecting the documents for the tax office. Four years later, the proceedings against him and other SPD members were discontinued against monetary requirements between 7,000 and 30,000 euros.

Norbert Burger was married to his wife Annemarie from 1963 to 2007, with whom he had three children. After the death of his wife Annemarie in 2007, he married his new wife Claudia, with whom he had had a closer relationship since the late 1990s.

Burger was buried on May 25, 2012 at the Melaten Central Cemetery in Cologne . Grave number = HWG, No. 402,

Norbert Burger Square

On June 27, 2019, the Cologne city center district council decided to name an area on the southern ramp of the Hohenzollern Bridge on the right bank of the Rhine after Norbert Burger.

Others

  • Burger was u. a. First chairman of the Association for the Promotion of the City Partnership Cologne-Bethlehem e. V. and board member of the Cologne Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation
  • Burger was chairman of the board of trustees of the AWO Rheinland Foundation.
  • From 1970 member of the ÖTV trade union,
  • Honorary chairman of the ASB local association in Cologne and member of the ASB Federal Presidium.
  • Initiator of the regional cooperation in the association Regio Köln Bonn und Nachbarn eV

Awards

 Norbert Burger's grave slab
Norbert Burger's grave slab
Posthumous award of the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland to Norbert Burger, accepted by his widow in 2015
  • 1983: Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany
  • 1988: Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
  • 1994: Golden Lot of the Association of German Surveying Engineers
  • 1996: Great Cross of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany
  • 1996: Commander's Cross in the Leopold Order of the Belgian King
  • 1997: Honorary citizen of the city of Katowice , Burger was the initiator of the city partnership between Cologne and Katowice
  • Honorary citizen of the city of Bethlehem , Burger was the initiator of the city partnership between Cologne and Bethlehem
  • Honorary citizen of the city of Corinto , Burger was the initiator of the city partnership between Cologne and Corinto
  • Honorary citizen of the city of Klausenburg , Burger was the initiator of the city partnership between Cologne and Klausenburg
  • Burger was awarded the title “Friend of the City of Barcelona”, and Burger was the initiator of the city partnership between Cologne and Barcelona
  • 1998: Honorary doctorate from the Law Faculty of the University of Cologne, Burger was ex officio chairman of the university's board of trustees
  • 1999: Honorary citizen of the city of Cologne
  • 2009: Award of the Ring of Honor of the Rhineland Regional Council
  • 2015: posthumously : Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland

literature

  • Carl Dietmar: The Chronicle of Cologne. Dortmund 1991

Web links

Commons : Norbert Burger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cologne mourns the loss of Norbert Burger Press release City of Cologne
  2. ↑ Cologne ex-Mayor Norbert Burger is dead express.de May 16, 2012
  3. ↑ a b c { http://www1.wdr.de/radio/wdr5/norbertburger100.html}
  4. ↑ a b http://www.stadt-koeln.de/politik-und-verwaltung/ehrenbuerger/dr-hc-norbert-burger
  5. ↑ - ( Memento of the original from May 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sozialistischeselbsthilfekoeln.de
  6. ↑ https://www.domradio.de/nachrichten/2012-05-16/koeln-trauert-um-oberbuergermeister-ad-norbert-burger
  7. ↑ http://www.bild.bundesarchiv.de/dev04/barchpic/2008/10-22/75/0a/65/athene-5mb36ab7vckhhztcobe_layout.jpg
  8. ^  Eduard Neumaier: Bonn government spokesman: A troika for the press office. In: zeit.de. January 26, 1973. Retrieved December 9, 2014 .
  9. ↑ At home from six . In: Der Spiegel . No. 23 , 1978 ( online ).
  10. ↑ - ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.asbnrw.de
  11. ↑ http://www.asb-koeln.de/norbert-burger-seniorenzentrum/
  12. ↑ { https://www.ksta.de/koeln/stadtrat-der-koelner-finanzpolitiker-heinz-luettgen-ist-tot-24820762}  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically defective marked. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.ksta.de  
  13. ↑ http://www.stadt-koeln.de/politik-und-verwaltung/presse/ehemaliger-oberbuergermeister-burger-wuerde-80-jahre-alt-
  14. ↑ http://www.report-k.de/Koeln-Nachrichten/Koeln-Nachrichten/Ehrenbuerger-Norbert-Burger-verstorben
  15. ↑ http://www.staedtetag.de/presse/mitteilungen/058056/
  16. ↑ http://www.ksta.de/10925138
  17. ↑ DAPD / cho: 79 years: Cologne's Old-mayor Norbert Burger is dead. In: welt.de . May 16, 2012, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  18. ↑ http://www.ksta.de/10925138
  19. ↑ - ( Memento of the original from September 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / koeln-nachrichten.de
  20. ↑ http://www.express.de/koeln/koelns-oberbuergermeister-keiner-regierte-so-lange-wie-norbert-burger-23032464
  21. ↑ http://www.stadt-koeln.de/politik-und-verwaltung/wahlen/oberbuergermeisterin-oberbuergermeister/wahl-des-oberbuergermeisters-1999
  22. ↑ http://www.ksta.de/10925138
  23. ↑ http://www.ksta.de/10925138
  24. ↑ http://www.romanische-kirchen-koeln.de/index.php?id=hoehenkonzept
  25. ↑ https://ratsinformation.stadt-koeln.de/vo0050.asp?__kvonr=15101
  26. ↑ http://www.stadt-koeln.de/mediaasset/content/pdf01/leitbild/eckpunkte-hoehenkonzept.pdf
  27. ↑ http://www.staedtetag.de/presse/mitteilungen/058056/
  28. ↑ http://www.report-k.de/Koeln-Nachrichten/Koeln-Nachrichten/Ehrenbuerger-Norbert-Burger-verstorben
  29. ↑ http://www.express.de/alt-ob-wirbel-um-burgers-geheime-hochzeit-2199398  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.express.de  
  30. ^ Funeral ceremonies in the town hall and in the cathedral , accessed on May 26, 2012
  31. ↑ https://ratsinformation.stadt-koeln.de/getfile.asp?id=725584&type=do& BV shooting protocol accessed on June 30, 2019
  32. ↑ https://www.domradio.de/nachrichten/2012-05-16/koeln-trauert-um-oberbuergermeister-ad-norbert-burger
  33. ↑ Katowice. Honorowi Obywatele Miasta
  34. ↑ - ( Memento of the original from September 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.koeln-bethlehem.de
  35. ↑ http://www.koeln-corinto.de/?p=232
  36. ↑ http://www.ksta.de/privat---aber-noch-immer-politisch-14029070
  37. ↑ https://koelnbarcelona.wordpress.com/?s=burger
  38. ↑ Press release at University Protocols
  39. ↑ Dr. Norbert Burger receives ring of honor from the Rhineland Regional Association 8th (No longer available online.) LVR, September 18, 2009, archived from the original on September 13, 2016 ; accessed on September 13, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lvr.de
  40. ↑ Award for long-time mayor Burger. Radio Cologne, accessed on November 28, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Burger, Norbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD), Lord Mayor of the City of Cologne (1980–1999)
DATE OF BIRTH November 24, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH May 16, 2012
Place of death Cologne