Richard Breslau

Lord Mayor Richard Breslau, Erfurt

Richard Breslau (born May 26, 1835 in Königshütte , † March 4, 1897 in Sachsa ) was a German politician and from 1871 to 1889 Lord Mayor of Erfurt , he was also a member of the Prussian manor from 1872 to 1889 .

family

Breslau was born in 1835 as the son of the superstructure inspector Adolph Breslau (1801–1846) and his wife Liddy, b. Wellner (1809-1887), born. In 1866 he married Jenny Cramer from Beuthen in Upper Silesia . Seven children were born to the couple.

Breslau's younger brother Oscar Breslau (1836–1903) was temporarily Lord Mayor of Naumburg (Saale) and later Provincial Councilor in Merseburg . His sister Clementine Breslau (1845–1923) was married to the principal of the Princely School Schulpforta Diederich Volkmann (1838–1903).

Life

After studying law, he was employed in 1856 as an appellate court auscultator at the district court in Naumburg. In 1858 he became a government trainee, in 1862 a government assessor with the government in Erfurt. He took part in the Franco-German War as an officer.

He was elected mayor on July 14, 1871 and made a number of far-sighted decisions about the development of the city of Erfurt. On February 14, 1882 he was awarded the title of Privy Councilor.

The planning and construction of the flood ditch , which prevented the annual flooding of the Gera and thus cleared the way for new parts of the city, was particularly important . Within a decade, the municipal hospital, a drinking water pipe, a sewer system and a slaughterhouse were built. The cemeteries were moved to the periphery and various green areas were created. Erfurt had become one of the healthiest cities in the empire.

Portrait relief on the Richard Breslau monument in Erfurt

Richard Breslau monument at the Flutgraben in Erfurt

When Richard Breslau left office in 1889, he was granted honorary citizenship. He temporarily moved to Naumburg. In 1891 he built his representative retirement home "Breslauer Hof" in Bad Sachsa, helped develop the silver spring in 1895 and took care of the construction of the Bad Sachsa stop on the southern Harz route. He died in Bad Sachsa in 1897.

Richard Breslau was buried in the Erfurt Südfriedhof on March 9, 1897 in an honorary grave in the city of Erfurt. In the vicinity of the Richard-Breslau-Strasse named after him, the Richard-Breslau monument erected in his honor is still standing today.

Awards

• Iron Cross 2nd Class from 1870
• Order of the Red Eagle 3rd class with the ribbon
• Royal Order of the Crown 2nd Class
• Princely Schwarzburg Cross of Honor 2nd Class

literature

• Steffen Raßloff : Escape into the national community. The Erfurt bourgeoisie between the Empire and the Nazi dictatorship . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-412-11802-8 .
• Steffen Raßloff: Civil War and the Roaring Twenties. Erfurt in the Weimar Republic . Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2008, ISBN 978-3-86680-338-1 .
• Steffen Raßloff: The Lord Mayor of Erfurt since 1872. In: City and history. Magazine for Erfurt. 35 (2007), pp. 25-27.

Web links

Commons : Richard Breslau  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Richard Breslau on www.erfurt-web.de