Paul Schürholz

Paul Schürholz (* 1893 in Dorsten ; † January 27, 1972 ibid) was a businessman and politician ( Zentrum / NSDAP / CDU ) and mayor of Dorsten from 1948 to 1964 . For his service to his hometown awarded him in 1963 the honorary citizenship .

Business and political beginnings

Paul Schürholz was born in Dorsten in 1893 as the son of the cloth merchant Wilhelm Schürholz . At that time, his father was already the third generation to run a textile shop on Dorsten market square. Together with his brother Josef, Schürholz took over the management of his parents' company in 1925. In 1928 and 1935 the brothers bought the two neighboring houses of the textile house on Dorstener Marktplatz in order to expand the business. At the time of the Weimar Republic , Schürholz was involved as Dorsten councilor for the Catholic Center Party in local politics.

National Socialism

On July 5, 1933, the Center Party dissolved in Dorsten as part of the National Socialist “ seizure of power ”. Your previous member Schürholz remained a councilor. In the same year he was a member of a commission of the local council set up at the request of the NSDAP, which was supposed to prove abuse of office to the elected mayor Franz Lürken . Lürken then submitted his resignation and was replaced first by NSDAP man Fritz Köster and then by Schürholz 'later brother-in-law Josef Gronover (also NSDAP). In 1934 Schürholz himself joined the SA , and on April 1, 1938 also the NSDAP, to which he belonged until the end of the war.

During the time of National Socialism became involved Schürholz in numerous conformist societies and associations, including about the holiday club Kraft durch Freude , the Red Cross , the German hunter who Reichsbund of Physical Education , the German Labor Front and the National Socialist People's Welfare . As a captain of the Wehrmacht , he was taken prisoner of war in Münster in 1945 and was interned in the Rheinberg camp.

In order to be able to prove that he was merely a follower of the Nazi regime, he had his brother-in-law, the former Nazi mayor Gronover, issue a so-called clean bill of health in May 1946 , but this was unsuccessful. In August 1946 the local committee of the denazification authorities officially classified Schürholz as a "militarist" and therefore recommended that the higher-level main committee in the district town of Recklinghausen withhold his admission as a sworn expert in property matters at the Dorsten district court . The main committee agreed to this decision on the grounds that Schürholz was “unsustainable for democracy”. The British military government also supported the vote, referring to Schürholz's membership in nine Nazi organizations .

Mayor and honorary citizen

In 1948 Schürholz, who had since joined the CDU , became mayor of Dorsten. In this office, which he held for 16 years, he made special contributions to the reconstruction of the city, which was almost completely destroyed in the war. He was a member of numerous clubs and associations, such as the tourist office, the hunting club, the board of trustees of the local St. Elisabeth Hospital, the church council of the Catholic St. Agatha community and as a colonel and temporarily also as king in the shooting club. Schürholz's Nazi past occasionally led to internal disputes with his CDU party friend , former Dorstener HJ regular leader Werner Kirstein , in which both "accused each other of having been the bigger Nazi". In general, however, Schürholz enjoyed a high reputation in his hometown as a businessman and as a politician.

On the occasion of his seventieth birthday in 1963, Schürholz donated the St. Agatha Church on Dorsten's market square with the Paulus Bell, popularly known as "fat Paul" in memory of the founder. In the same year Schürholz was made an honorary citizen of the city of Dorsten . In 1964 he left the mayor's office.

The family-owned Schürholz company continued to operate as a textile company until 1969, and the real estate on Dorsten market square remained in the family's possession and was leased out - today it is home to the Dorsten branch of the Thalia bookstore chain .

Paul Schürholz died on January 27, 1972. At his funeral, the church bell he had donated rang a 20-minute mourning chime.

literature

• Wolf Stegemann : Still unsustainable for democracy in 1946, he became mayor two years later. Paul Schürholz remained, honored and respected, for 16 years. In the S. (Ed.): Dorsten after zero hour. The years after, 1945-1950 (Dorsten under the Hakenkreuz, Vol. 4), Dorsten 1986, pp. 114–117.
• Wolf Stegemann: NSDAP alderman Fritz Köster threatened critics with a concentration camp. As Mayor Dr. Lürken was levered out of office. In the S. (Ed.): Everyday life that is switched into line (Dorsten under the Hakenkreuz, vol. 3), Dorsten 1985, pp. 54–55

See also

List of mayors of the city of Dorsten

Web links

• City of Dorsten: honorary citizen (partly missing and incorrect information on political commitment)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Family Schürholz: Eine Dorstener Dynasty , WAZ Dorsten, September 1, 2010
2. ↑ Stegemann (1985), p. 54
3. ↑ cit. according to Stegemann (1986), p. 114
4. ↑ Stegemann (1986), p. 114
5. ↑ Stegemann (1986), p. 116
6. ↑ Schürholz-Haus am Markt: “You can't convert more than that” , WAZ Dorsten, September 1, 2010

predecessor	Office	successor
Paul Kempa	Mayor of the city of Dorsten 1948–1964	Hans lamps