Richard Boljahn

Richard Boljahn (born November 28, 1912 in Bremen , † October 19, 1992 in Bremen-Huchting) was a German politician, trade unionist and entrepreneur. From 1951 to 1969 he was parliamentary group leader of the SPD in the Bremen citizenship and for many years also chairman of the DGB local association in Bremen. Boljahn was in the 1950s and 1960s next to Wilhelm Kaisen as the most influential personality in the city before he had to resign due to a political affair.

biography

education and profession

Boljahn trained as a plumber and fitter . He worked as a plumber in 1946 at the Borgward works , among others .

politics

In 1927 Boljahn joined the Socialist Workers' Youth and three years later the SPD . Due to his left political views, he was in 1934 by the Nazis briefly arrested. From 1943 to 1945 he was a soldier in World War II .

In 1946, Boljahn became a member of the board of the DGB local association in Bremen due to his union involvement . In the first post-war state election on October 13, 1946 , he was elected a member of the Bremen citizenship .

Group leader

On April 10, 1951, the SPD parliamentary group elected Boljahn as its parliamentary group leader . He was to hold this post for 18 years. In addition, he was deputy head of the building deputation. Despite multiple requests, Boljahn refused to run for senator because he did not want to limit himself in his work.

In his function as one of the most influential politicians, he prevented, among other things, at the request of some party friends who lived in Bremen's Schnoorviertel , the construction of a car park in this area and campaigned for the construction of the town hall . Among his special confidants were many of the local office leaders who were represented in the citizenship at the time , including Heinz Meyer from Huchting , as well as union representatives such as Karl-Heinz Götze .

Because of his all-encompassing influence in the city, Boljahn was often referred to as "King Richard" by other politicians.

Other offices

In 1953, Boljahn became the managing chairman of the DGB local association in Bremen and thus the most powerful trade unionist in the city. In the same year he rose to chairman of the supervisory board of the housing company GEWOBA on February 18 . In this function he was largely responsible for the construction of the large housing estate in the Vahr district towards the end of the 1950s. From 1963 he held the same post in the municipal real estate company Weser. As early as 1961, he had been appointed union representative on the supervisory board of the car manufacturer Borgward , which was in financial difficulties , but had given up this work after a few months when he realized that the company could not be saved.

The slow fall

From around 1958, there was increasing criticism of Boljahn. Above all, his omnipotence in politics and business was received negatively. The Bremen SPD member of the Bundestag Hermann Hansing criticized him as early as 1958 and again in the 1960s. The Stuttgarter Magazin Zeitung accused him of unlimited power in 1964, to which he responded on July 10 of the same year with a criminal complaint for insult. At the state party convention of the SPD on March 15, 1964, he asked the mayor, Wilhelm Kaisen , who had been ruling for nineteen years , to resign from his post due to age before the next election, which was scheduled for 1967. Two days later, Kaisen announced his resignation with effect from July 1965, but expressed his displeasure with Boljahn. Boljahn's actions caused considerable resentment in his party. On October 23, 1965, the Bremen Jusos unsuccessfully demanded his resignation as SPD parliamentary group leader.

Richard Boljahn

On April 22, 1966, Boljahn presented the plans for the so-called large Hollerstadt housing estate to the board of the GEWOBA housing association , which was to be built on the meadows of western Hollerland in the Horn-Lehe district and to offer around 15,000 residential units on 300 hectares for up to 50,000 people . The ideas were not supported by the SPD. This decision meant Boljahn's first major defeat. The western Hollerland has been a designated nature reserve since 1985, the eastern area is built on.

Boljahn's relationship with mayor Hans Koschnick , who ruled from 1967, was not good. Koschnick disapproved of his cocky behavior and advocated curtailing Boljahn's political power. The criticism of Boljahn and his political omnipotence grew increasingly stronger.

The building land affair

On June 24, 1969, the Weser-Kurier published an article by the editor Ulrich Manz regarding the widening of the federal highway 27 in the Blockland and mentioned dubious commission payments to the real estate agent Lohmann, who was friends with Boljahn, when buying land in the widened area. Although politicians from the CDU and the FDP as well as party members von Boljahn were involved in the affair, the main focus was on the leader of the SPD parliamentary group.

Boljahn defended himself against the allegations or accusations and asserted that he had nothing to do with the matter. But on July 7, following a request from the SPD committees, as a consequence of the building land affair, he was forced to resign all of his party offices until the facts were clarified. Two days later a committee of inquiry was set up by the citizens and charged with uncovering the inconsistencies.

Almost four weeks later, on August 11, Boljahn was given leave of absence from his position as DGB local chairman for two months. The SPD disliked the fact that Boljahn did not want to voluntarily suspend his citizenship mandate, and so the state executive and the subdistrict executive of the party initiated party regulatory proceedings against him on August 18, in order to persuade him to resign from this office, but none Had success. He remained a member of the parliament, but on November 6th he resigned as chairman of the GEWOBA supervisory board.

The two final reports of the Committee of Inquiry were presented on August 15, 1970 and were heavily criticized by Boljahn and various other politicians. In the same month the SPD in Bremen decided not to nominate Boljahn for the mayor elections on October 10, 1971. This reacted irritably and threatened to publish facts about the affair. However, this did not happen because the SPD parliamentary group warned Boljahn and threatened to expel him from the parliamentary group.

His successor as SPD parliamentary group leader was Gustav Böhrnsen in 1968 .

The final debate on the building land affair took place on September 21, 1970 in the citizenry. Boljahn stayed away, probably out of anger about the behavior of his party towards him, and announced in writing that he did not want to disturb the course of the debate.

Life after politics

Boljahn was unable to regain his former political position. On February 1, 1971, he resigned as district chairman of the DGB and resigned from his citizenship mandate.

On December 31, 1977, after almost 24 years, he resigned from the GEWOBA Supervisory Board, to which he had only been a simple member since 1971.

Honors

The Richard-Boljahn Avenue was named after him. The road leads from west to east through the district of Vahr and the large housing estate that it helped to promote.

literature

• Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . 2nd, updated, revised and expanded edition. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Spiegel of February 5, 1968: False Friends
2. ^ Barfuß / Müller / Tilgner (eds.): History of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen from 1945 to 2005. Volume 1. Page 325. Bremen 2008.