Peter Becker (politician, 1812)

Portrait of Peter Becker in the Eupen town hall

Peter Becker (born June 7, 1812 in St. Wendel , † February 10, 1900 in Eupen ) was a German administrative officer and long-time mayor of Eupen. He made a decisive contribution to the expansion of the infrastructure as well as to sensible development and beautification of the city.

Life

Peter Becker, son of the farrier Peter Becker and Margaretha Jung, got a job as a surveyor after his school days and studies . At the beginning of the 1840s he entered the administrative service and later became district secretary for the Eupen district in the Aachen district government . In Aachen he met his wife Anna Maria Schröder (* 1825), a daughter of the police secretary Johann Schröder, with whom he had a total of five children.

In February 1850, Peter Becker was elected mayor of Eupen. One month later he took over the office temporarily and was confirmed by the government in Aachen in January 1851 and introduced in February by the incumbent District President Friedrich von Kühlwetter for a term of 12 years. Becker then ran for re-election in both 1863 and 1875 and was confirmed both times with a large majority. In this context he turned down an offer from Trier in 1875 to run there as a candidate for mayor. Becker also sat from 1855 to 1858 as a representative of the constituencies of Aachen-Stadt, Aachen-Land and Eupen in the Prussian House of Representatives and was a member of the Rhenish Provincial Parliament from 1860 to 1875 . In addition, from 1871 to 1878 he represented the cities of Eupen and Aachen in the state provincial administrative council of the Rhine Province .

For health reasons, Becker applied for his early resignation in 1880, which was approved with effect from April 1, 1881. He lived another 19 years as a pensioner in Eupen and died on February 10, 1900. He found his final resting place in the municipal cemetery in Eupen. Of his five children, he was followed by his son, the soap manufacturer Theophil Becker (* 1848), as a councilor and alderman in the city administration.

For his numerous services, Peter Becker received the honorary title of "Lord Mayor" from the district government in Aachen in 1865. Later a street in Eupen was named after him. An oil portrait of Becker as a gift from his son Theophil for the city of Eupen still hangs in the town hall there today.

Act

Gospertbach in front of the vault in 1865

At a time when what was then a small town was growing into a booming cloth industry town, Becker was instrumental in providing the necessary political support to improve the infrastructure and development. Becker had many of the mostly muddy paths and lanes expanded and paved as long-distance paths, as far as they concerned the Eupen city area. For example, in 1850 the route via Schönefeld to Roetgen , in 1855 the Oestrasse through the Oetal along the Weser in the direction of Dolhain , in 1856 the state route (today's Malmedyer Strasse) in the direction of Botrange and Malmedy and shortly before his abdication the inner-city connection route Rotenberg between the Eupen lower town and upper town completed and inaugurated.

Furthermore, in 1866 he had several new bridges built over the Weser and Hill to improve the connection of the cloth factories, and in 1867 the Gospertbach, which flowed across the city and served both as a sewer and for wool washing, was vaulted. In 1867 the aqueduct was completed, which fed the fountains of the city from the Buschbergweiher acquired two years earlier.

It is also thanks to Becker's initiative that the new rail feeder from Eupen to Herbesthal station was opened on March 1, 1864 , giving the city a connection to the Liège – Aachen railway line and thus to the international railway network.

He supported the numerous working-class families, especially from the cloth industry, by founding a stock corporation for the procurement of cheap and healthy housing. As a result, more than 60 families were able to find new homes by 1870 alone. He also campaigned for a comprehensive education of the citizens and founded a school scholarship association for this purpose, of which he became the first chairman. Through the acquisition of larger properties, Becker also achieved that in 1863 the Higher Citizens School and in 1870 the Lower City School could find accommodation and teach in restored rooms. In addition, he arranged for the Aachen Association for the Promotion of Labor to set up a new "children's custody" in Eupen in 1870 . In 1876 the new buildings for the boys' school on Rathausplatz and for the Protestant children on Neustraße followed.

Becker's grave

Although he was a devout Catholic, Becker helped the evangelical community of Eupens to build their Friedenskirche in 1851, the foundation stone of which was laid in 1851 and its inauguration in 1855. In addition, he also sponsored the construction of a second Catholic church for Eupen, the St. Joseph Church in the lower town, the foundation stone of which was laid on August 10, 1855 and its inauguration took place on January 8, 1864.

In addition, in 1857 he had the Marian column on the market square made in neo-Gothic style by the sculptor Christian Mohr , the town hall was extensively rebuilt in 1862 and the city cemetery was expanded in 1875/1876 and provided with a new cemetery wall. The wife of the English landlord Charles Eduard Hill, a born Mumm from Eupen, also participated in the renovation of the cemetery with a generous donation.

In his last years in office, Becker still brought urban greening on the way, which was then significantly pushed and implemented by his successor, Theodor Mooren .

literature

• Gottfried Loup: Lord Mayor Peter Becker , in: Geschichtliches Eupen , Volume XIV, pp. 59–65, Markus-Verlag, Eupen 1980.
• Sebastian Scharte: Prussian - German - Belgian; National Experience and Identity - Life on the German-Belgian Border in the 19th Century ; Waxmann, 2010, short biography on p. 235 and others; ISBN 978-3-8309-2406-7 ( digitized )

Web links

• Heinz Godesar: Peter Becker was born 200 years ago , on grenzecho.net on June 6, 2012
• Heinz Godesar: Eupen blossomed into a town under "Pioneer" Peter Becker , on grenzecho.net on June 6, 2012

Individual evidence

1. ^ Walter Buschmann: Eupen , section: The Gospert , on rheinische-industriekultur.de