Richard Ballerstädt

Richard Carl Robert Ballerstädt (born March 3, 1873 in Hamburg ; † January 15, 1953 in Hamburg) was a German politician of the SPD and a member of the Hamburg Parliament .

Life and politics

Richard Ballerstädt grew up as an orphan. His parents had died of cholera in the year he was born . He attended elementary school and then the Hamburg teacher training college . He worked as a primary school teacher from 1893 to 1922 and then as a district school councilor until 1933.

Richard Ballerstädt joined the SPD in 1887 at the age of 14 and in 1909 the "Social Science Association". This association of social democrats was a cover organization that opposed arbitrariness and persecution. For his party he was a member of the Hamburg citizenship from 1919 to 1933. There he was a member of the citizens' committee from 1924 to 1933 . The Kapp Putsch occurred during 1920 , and the democratic parties in Hamburg also resisted it. Ballerstädt was sent for his party to the executive committee "to ward off the dangers threatening the Hamburg community".

In addition to his partisan work, Ballerstädt was also a committed educator . He joined the " Society of Friends of the Fatherland School and Education System" and was elected to the board for the first time in 1907. One of his main projects was the reform of the Hamburg elementary school. Above all, his experience with an authoritarian leadership style by his superiors convinced him that the system had to be revised. He also called for a single school system and a related comprehensive school . The abolition of religious education was another issue for him. Because of the separation of church and state, he was of the opinion that it was a logical consequence to forego religious instruction.

The educational policy work combined with his party political work above all in the citizenry. Ballerstädt was thus able to successfully implement his initiative to improve the salaries of teachers. In addition, on his advice, the training of elementary school teachers was transferred to the university . As a staunch social democrat, he was a rather unusual member of the German Association of Officials (DBB). But he was also a member of the “Association of Socialist Officials”, which is closer to the SPD.

After the “ seizure of power ” by the National Socialists in Hamburg in 1933, like the other SPD politicians, he lost his mandate and later his job.

After the end of the war, Ballerstädt was a member of the Hamburg citizenship appointed by the British occupying power in 1946 . Afterwards he was a member of the school deputation and helped rebuild the DBB in Hamburg. The Ballerstaedtweg in Ohlsdorf , where a primary school is located, is named after him.

literature

• Richard Ballerstädt's biography . In: Wilhelm H. Schröder : Social Democratic Parliamentarians in the German Reich and Landtag 1876–1933 (BIOSOP)
• Franklin Kopitzsch , Dirk Brietzke : Hamburg biography . Personal Lexicon , Volume 2, pp. 36/37. ( Google Books )
• Ursula Büttner : Political new beginning in difficult times. Election and work of the first democratic citizenship 1919–1921, State Center for Political Education Hamburg, Hamburg 1994, p. 110.