Pia Beckmann

Pia Beckmann at a CSU event in Würzburg (2007)

Pia Beckmann (born May 14, 1963 in Gerolzhofen ) is a German and Romanist, was a Bavarian local politician ( CSU ) and is an entrepreneur. As the first woman in the history of the Lower Franconian city of Würzburg , she held the office of mayor from May 1, 2002 to April 30, 2008 . She was a member of the board of directors of the Bavarian Association of Cities from 2002 to 2008 and of the Presidium of the German Association of Cities from 2005 to 2008 .

Career

After studying German and Romance languages at the Julius Maximilians University in Würzburg , she wrote her doctoral thesis in German with Norbert Richard Wolf on the subject of abortion as a linguistic problem - a linguistic text analysis of selected draft laws to reform § 218 StGB , with which she received her doctorate in 2004 . She received grants from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the University of Würzburg. Beckmann was a lecturer in German linguistics at the Julius Maximilians University from 1991 to 1998.

From 1991 to 2002 she headed the Catholic Family Association in the Diocese of Würzburg as chairwoman of the board. During this time, she and her team launched three state and national model projects to promote families and people with disabilities:

1. She was the initiator and co-founder of the Germany-wide model project for renewable energies (1992–1994) supported by the Federal Ministry of Research , in which 20 families who could not have afforded a house on the normal housing market were able to build: inexpensive, space-saving, ecological with geothermal energy and photovoltaics as well as in the social network with car sharing, communal areas and neighborhood help. For this reason, the house building project in Hettstadt was also funded as a pilot project by the Bavarian Ministry of Social Affairs .
2. In 1999 she and her team in the Familienbund and the Institute for Social Pedagogy at the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg founded the Heilpädagogischer Forum e. V. and the Dolphinarium in Nuremberg Zoo launched the model project “Dolphin therapy for children with disabilities and the most severe communication disorders”.
3. In 2001 Beckmann started the project www.intakt.info with the board of the FDK and the working group “Families and Disability”, which was funded as a model project by the Bavarian Ministry of Social Affairs. The content of the Internet platform is the exchange between parents of children with disabilities, the provision of all information and experiences for those affected regardless of time and location, as well as access to a network of experts. The INTAKT forum enables users to expand and pass on their specialist knowledge that they gain every day as those affected.

In 1996 Beckmann moved into the city council for the first time. In the local elections in 2002, Beckmann received the most votes in the first ballot on March 3, with six opposing candidates ahead of the incumbent Mayor Jürgen Weber (Würzburg list) with 29.8%, and in the subsequent runoff on March 17, she won with almost 54% clearly prevail against him. She was sworn in as Mayor of Würzburg on May 4, 2002. During her candidacy in 1995, it became known that Beckmann had been a member of the Catholic organization Opus Dei (Priestly Society of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei) founded by Saint Josemaría Escrivá . At that time, according to her own statements, she no longer had any connection with Opus Dei.

In the 2008 local elections she ran again for the CSU. With 93 percent of the delegate votes, she sent the party to the OB election. In the first ballot she received 41.3% and her challenger Georg Rosenthal ( SPD ) 24.7%. In addition, she had the best result of all city council candidates with 36,192 votes. In the runoff election she was defeated by Georg Rosenthal with 47.53%. Beckmann founded the management consultancy Beckmann Consulting in August 2008 and was also a partner and managing director of clean energy GmbH in Giebelstadt from 2011 to December 2013 , a company that focuses on energy storage for on-grid and off-grid applications. In May 2013, together with her partner company, Faktor GmbH in Kolbermoor , she presented the first TÜV-certified megawatt storage system based on lithium iron phosphate. From 2008 to 2012, Pia Beckmann was also a lecturer for master’s students at the Faculty of Economics at the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, at the chair for business administration and business informatics. From 2014 she worked with her management consultancy u. a. as a partner of Faktor GmbH Kolbermoor .

Beckmann is committed to the compatibility of family and work as well as promoting women .

Since 2010 she has been chairwoman of the board of trustees of the Bavarian State Foundation "Help for Mother and Child"

Beckmann has been a regular volunteer at the University Hospital Würzburg ( Center for Internal Medicine and Center for Operative Medicine ) since 2008 . Together with Klaus Hiltrop, children and friends, as a voluntary initiative, she carried out a charity auction for the benefit of families with disabled relatives who, after the auction of unusual achievements and unique items, received EUR 20,000.

In 2017 Beckmann initiated the nationwide creative democracy project pics4peace with an annually changing regional reference point. It consists of three parts: pics4peace on site, pics4peace online and pics4peace in dialogue. In workshops, dialogue events as well as online activities and exhibitions, the content developed by the 16 to 26 year olds is presented and communicated to decision-makers in politics and society. Permanent partners of pics4peace are the Berlin artist Winfried Muthesius , who uses his technique pittura oscura to teach young people in the workshop how they can reflect current challenges with what has passed and develop perspectives for the future from them, and the PEN Center Germany which initiates discussion processes with well-known authors.

1. Objectives: "pics4peace" wants to use art to counteract political disaffection, encourage young people to express themselves in a creative way about their ideas about the future and to participate in the formation of political opinions. In addition, it builds a bridge to decision-makers in politics and society.
2. Regional partners 2017/18: City of Würzburg (sponsor), State Museum for Franconia (pics4peace special exhibition and first day of dialogue between young adults in the museum with the Minister of State and Lord Mayor), Leonhard Frank Society, Stadtjugendring u. a.
3. According to Beckmann, the following social phenomena were responsible for the project: increasing tendencies towards radicalization, the renewed exclusion of minorities and the influx of populist parties on the one hand, the low participation of young people in the political opinion process and the fact that young people differ from the Politics no longer feel understood.
4. Left: Film about artist workshop with Winfried Muthesius “Walk to the Theater”, film exhibition opening in the Museum für Franken, film about the day of dialogue with minister and mayor.

Family background

Beckmann was married to the lawyer Rainer Beckmann and has four children. In 2013 she married Klaus Hiltrop.

Web links

Commons : Pia Beckmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Pia Beckmann in the catalog of the German National Library
• Ludwig Greven: Mit Herrgott und Erdwärme , Die Zeit from August 2, 2007, issue 32
• dissertation

Individual evidence

1. ^ OPUS Würzburg: Abortion as a linguistic problem: a linguistic text analysis of selected draft laws to reform § 218 StGB .
2. ↑ See the course catalogs of the University of Würzburg from winter semester 1991 to summer semester 1998.
3. ↑ "Inexpensive building for families with photovoltaics and geothermal energy as well as social cooperation through car-sharing and the like. a. ”in Hettstadt / Ufr., Bavaria, Org .: Family Association of Catholics.
4. ↑ See the Hettstadt housing project. Family Association of German Catholics; Around 40 general assemblies and many working groups took place during the implementation phase.
5. ↑ "The Curative Education Forum Würzburg e. V. “wants to promote curative education research as well as the communication of curative educational theory and practice. This is done primarily through the ideal, material and / or financial support and implementation of research projects, scientific publications, courses, conferences, lectures, excursions and symposia. "
6. ↑ Cf. Main-Post article "Dolphin therapy can help"
7. ↑ http://www.intakt.info/ueber-uns/intakt-frueher-und-heute/#a01
8. ↑ www.wuerzburgwiki.de: Pia Beckmann .
9. ↑ Rolf-Ulrich Kunze : Würzburg 1945-2004. Reconstruction, modern city. In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes, Volume I-III / 2 (I: From the beginnings to the outbreak of the Peasant War. 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1465-4 ; II: From the Peasant War 1525 to the transition to the Kingdom of Bavaria 1814. 2004, ISBN 3 -8062-1477-8 ; III / 1–2: From the transition to Bavaria to the 21st century. 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1478-9 ), Theiss, Stuttgart 2001–2007, Volume III (2007), Pp. 318-346 and 1292-1295; here: p. 346.
10. ↑ Pia Beckmann in portrait: With bella figura in the runoff election . Main Post Wuerzburg, March 11, 2008
11. ↑ Cf. Mainpost online: 93-percent-for-Beckmann-as-OB-candidate-of-the-CSU (published on September 23, 2007, 5.45 p.m., updated on September 27, 2007, 3.06 a.m.)
12. ↑ City council election: Live ticker from the town hall
13. ^ Wolfgang Jung: Opposing hopes are attached to Rosenthal . In: Main-Post of March 17, 2008
14. ↑ Imprint of clean energy GmbH ( Memento from September 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
15. ↑ See Economy in Mainfranken. Published by IHK Würzburg-Schweinfurt. Edition 06/2012, p. 8
16. ↑ See course catalog of the University of Würzburg, Institute for Business Administration and Information Systems, from WS 2008 to SS 2012. - https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/?id=98834
17. ↑ Gisela Schmidt: Ex-OB: What has become of Pia Beckmann . In: Main-Post from November 1, 2013
18. ↑ See e.g. B. Lecture at the Wirtschaftsjunioren in November 2016 in Würzburg
19. ↑ "Landesstiftung Mutter und Kind: Pregnant women, large families or single parents can get into an emergency. Then special support is required. The" Landesstiftung Hilfe für Mutter und Kind "can help financially if statutory benefits are insufficient."
20. ↑ Cf. Mainpost: Ungewoehnliche-Verktion-Der-Bischof-unterm-Hammer Hiltrop and Beckmann and their son, Lukas Beckmann, created a benefit CD with sermons by the art consultant, cathedral capitular Jürgen Lenssen, entitled “Meditation and Music - Sundays, half past eleven, with Jürgen Lenssen “in favor of medical care for refugees in the region. See Mainpost article: Lenssen's sermon helps refugees, November 10, 2014
21. ↑ See project homepage pics4peace
22. ↑ Cf. Mainpost: Pia Beckmann wants to inspire democracy with pics4peace
23. ↑ See Mainpost of April 23, 2018: pics4peace: Young people want more politics in school
24. ↑ [1]
25. ↑ See workshop More Justice - What to Do
26. ↑ Blog posts on muthesius.com about pics4peace  ( 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.  
27. ↑ br würzburg from December 11, 2017: "pics4peace - art campaign against disenchantment with politics: 1st workshop"
28. ↑ See press release of the PEN Center Germany of January 3, 2018
29. ↑ boersenblatt.net of January 3, 2018: PEN Center Germany supports pics4peace - From Würzburg to the world
30. ↑ Cf. BR: pics4peace-Kunstaktion-gegen-Politikverdrossenheit-1.Workshop
31. ↑ See website Museum-Franken.de
32. ↑ See Mainpost of April 11, 2018: Young people express opinions when they are heard
33. ↑ See interview with the initiator, Mainpost from November 24, 2017: Pia Beckmann wants to inspire democracy with pics4peace
34. ↑ [2]
35. ↑ See TV Mainfranken of March 13, 2018: pics4peace - Art for Peace and Democracy
36. ↑ See TV Mainfranken of April 10, 2018: pics4peace - Art and Democracy in Dialog