Rudolf Prestel

Rudolf Prestel (born August 27, 1898 in Göggingen near Augsburg , † August 19, 1979 in Leonberg ) was a German lawyer, social and local politician.

Life

After attending school in Augsburg , Prestel took part in the First World War and was seriously wounded in combat operations. From 1918 to 1923, he graduated in law at the University of Munich and received his doctorate in 1924 at the University of Erlangen for Dr. jur. He then passed the exam as an assessor in 1926 .

From 1926 to 1936 he was a scientific advisor at the German Association for Public and Private Welfare (DV). Prestel, who joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1933 , worked for the municipal social administration in Frankfurt am Main from August 1936 . In February 1937 he was appointed to the magistrate's council until 1945, for the most part in the youth and welfare office.

After the end of the war he was released from his functions in 1945 and denazified as exonerated in 1946 after a court proceedings . He was then immediately reinstated and, as a member of the CDU , became a full-time city councilor and social affairs officer in Frankfurt am Main that same year. He headed the local health department (1946 to 1954) as well as the welfare and youth welfare office (1946 to 1966). Prestel retired in 1966.

After the end of the war, Prestel shaped social policy at the municipal level in Frankfurt and also at the federal level. He was involved in the planning of the Youth Welfare Act (JWG) and was a member of the working committee for welfare issues at the Federal Ministry of Labor . Prestel designed the social stations . In the course of the Berlin blockade in 1948/49 he co-founded the Berlin relief organization to support the West Berlin population and was a member of the board there. The television lottery Ein Platz in der Sonne and the construction of holiday villages for Berliners in Bavaria can also be traced back to the Hilfswerk Berlin, which was converted into a foundation in 1955 . From 1947 to 1977 he was a member of the main committee of the German Association for Public and Private Welfare , where he was an executive board member from 1950 to 1968.

Its role during the Nazi era has been controversial for some time. In this context, there was also a debate as to whether a retirement home named after him in Frankfurt am Main should be renamed again. Some of his work in welfare administration is viewed critically, including a. because in 1937 he was involved in the establishment of the Dieselstrasse forced camp for Sinti and Roma . In addition, he is said to have had early and extensive knowledge of anti-Jewish measures in Frankfurt. As a result of Prestel's endorsement, after the end of the war, Robert Ritter, who had been burdened by the Nazi persecution of gypsies, was stopped by the city of Frankfurt (“scientifically desirable”). Ritter's former assistant Eva Justin had been working as a child psychologist for the city of Frankfurt since 1948 and after her Nazi past, which had become public in 1963/64, was commissioned by Prestel to carry out surveys at the caravan or so-called "gypsy camp" near Frankfurt-Bonames (today Bonameser residential community Street ).

Honors

• Plaque of Honor of the City of Frankfurt am Main (1958)
• Freiherr vom Stein plaque of the city of Frankfurt am Main (1966)
• Ernst Reuter badge of the city of Berlin (1973)
• City Elder (1978)

literature

• Günther Grünsteudel / Gernot Römer: Augsburger Stadtlexikon (to be found using the search function), entry Rudolf Prestel (status: 2nd edition, print edition)
• Eckhard Hansen: Prestel, Rudolf , in: Hugo Maier (Ed.): Who is who of social work . Freiburg: Lambertus, 1998 ISBN 3-7841-1036-3 , p. 479
• Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
• Peter Sander: Administration of the Murder of the Sick - The Nassau District Association under National Socialism , Psychosozial-Verlag, Gießen 2003, ISBN 978-3-89806-320-3 (pdf; 1.06 MB)

Web links

• Prestel, Rudolf. Hessian biography. (As of May 9, 2020). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
• Prestel, Rudolf in the Frankfurt dictionary of persons

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Günther Grünsteudel / Gernot Römer: Augsburger Stadtlexikon
2. ^ ^{A b c} Peter Sander: Administration of the Sick Murder - The Nassau District Association in National Socialism , Gießen 2003, p. 738
3. ^ Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 472
4. ↑ Anne-Dore Stein: The scientification of the social Wilhelm Polligkeit between individual care and population policy under National Socialism , Perspectives of Critical Social Work Vol. 4, Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-531-16614-8 , p. 324
5. ↑ Peter Sandner: Frankfurt, Auschwitz: The National Socialist Persecution of the Sinti And Roma in Frankfurt am Main , Brandes + Apsel Verlag Gm, 1998, pp. 285, 291
6. ^ The Dieselstrasse forced camp 1937 to 1942
7. ↑ http://www.ffmhist.de/ffm33-45/portal01/portal01.php?ziel=t_ak_euthanasie_hadamar
8. ↑ Lutz Becht: “The welfare institutions have been dissolved ...” From “municipal commissioner at the Jewish welfare organization” to “commissioner at the secret state police” ... 1938 to 1943 . In: Monica Kingreen (Ed.): After the Kristallnacht: Jewish life and anti-Jewish politics in Frankfurt am Main from 1938 to 1945 . Campus-verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1999, p. 232, ISBN 3-593-36310-0 .
9. ^ Peter Sander: Roma in Frankfurt am Main. A historical consideration . In: Municipal Representation of Foreigners (KAV) of the City of Frankfurt am Main (Ed.): Roma. On the situation of a minority in Frankfurt am Main. Documentation of a hearing on February 20, 1997 , Forum Verlag Godesberg, ISBN 3-930982-22-6 , p. 17