Volker Fleige

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Volker Fleige (born June 14, 1957 in Wimbern , now Wickede ) was mayor of the city of Menden from 2009 to 2015 and, as a member of the SPD, was the first social democratic head of administration in the city's history.

Life

During his school and study days, Volker Fleige was involved in, among other things, the school theater, the student theater and the management of a rock group. He studied administrative sciences and graduated with a degree in administrative management (FH) .

His professional career began at the Unna district , among other things as press spokesman from 1982 to 1984. In 1984 Fleige moved to the city ​​of Menden as head of the cultural office . From 1991 to 2009 he was department head ( department head ) for schools, sports and culture in Menden, where he lives today. Volker Fleige was mayor of the city of Menden from 2009 to 2015. On September 27, 2015 he lost in the runoff election with 54.43% to 45.57% against his challenger from the CDU, Martin Wächter , and therefore left office on October 20, 2015.

Cabaret, theater and visual arts

Small town disaster combo and Scaramouche

During his studies, Fleige built a cabaret group for an environmental festival in Menden (Sauerland) , from which the “Kleinstadt Katastrophen Kombo” (KKK) arose, which existed until the mid-1980s. With this cabaret group Fleige founded the Katastrophen Kultur e. V. as the sponsoring association of the Zimmer Theater Scaramouche in Menden, which started its performance on December 25, 1983 and is still in existence today.

theatrium - Young European Theater in Menden (Sauerland)

In 1987 Volker Fleige developed the idea of ​​a “theater festival for drama students”. In the same year the “Förderkreis Mendener Kulturprojekte e. V. ”founded with the future mayor Volkhard Wrage as chairman and Volker Fleige as managing director .

After three years of preparation, this idea was implemented in 1990 as the “theatrium - Young European Theater in Menden (Sauerland)” with the support of the European Community , the Federal Government , the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and several sponsors. For this purpose, the inner courtyard of the new Menden town hall was spanned with a tent roof specially constructed for this purpose.

From July 1, 1990 to September 18, 1990, drama students from Copenhagen, Arnhem, Hamburg, Graz, Stuttgart, Vienna, Leipzig, Paris, Ottersberg and Poland, as well as from several universities for fine arts and design etc. were guests in Menden.

The directors Werner Kuhn (Zurich), André Hübner-Ochodlo (Gdynia) and Asger Schubert (Leipzig) worked on “A Midsummer Night's Dream” by William Shakespeare , “The Dream of Life”, a world premiere and a musical theater written for the “theatrium” by Jacek St. Buras (text) and Jerzy Satanowski (music) as well as "Leonce and Lena" by Georg Büchner . Education Minister Hans Schwier opened a series of 15 performances on August 25, 1990. Despite the success, it was not possible to establish “theatrium - Young European Theater in Menden (Sauerland)” permanently in Menden. Even a later attempt by the city of Unna did not go beyond a one-time implementation.

Mendener Schaubühne and Theater Am Ziegelbrand

In 1990 Volker Fleige built the Mendener Schaubühne with theater friends. The first production was Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen with Holger Thews in the title role, among others .

Fleige staged Nigel Williams' “KlassenFeind” in a factory that had been vacant for decades and to which the audience was driven on school buses. “The Cherry Orchard” took place in a palm greenhouse, with the audience sitting in a depression in the middle while the action goes on around them. Sascha Rotermund played the Trofimov . On the occasion of Brecht's 100th birthday, Volker Fleige designed “Everything that Brecht is”. Excerpts from plays, scenes, songs, poetry as well as from the works of Heiner Müller and William Shakespeare were performed on the premises, in the workshops and the garages of the Menden construction company.

The Menden construction company then made a hall available. The city of Menden undertook the renovation and the addition of a foyer. The Sparkasse Menden and the companies Bega and Gebr. Albert sponsored the equipment. Since the place is a former brick kiln, the site was named Theater Am Ziegelbrand . On the initiative of Ferdi Schunck (1928–2005), the reading stage, later lesBar, was established parallel to the Mendener Schaubühne and later as part of the Theater Am Ziegelbrand.

Viewing container

Together with Wolf-Ulrich Rohe, a graduate of the Düsseldorf Art Academy and student of Joseph Beuys there , Volker Fleige developed the idea of ​​the viewing containers , which take place as a biennale .

Each artist or group of artists receives a sea ​​container in which to exhibit, work and present themselves. With the help of DHL and supported by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the viewing containers were shown for the first time in 2008 in the cultural region of South Westphalia and the participating cities of Menden, Hagen , Iserlohn and Siegen with the Siegen-Wittgenstein district .

mayor

At the beginning of his tenure as mayor, Fleige initiated the construction of the new station. After more than ten years of vacancy, it had turned into an eyesore. With the help of the investor List + Wilbers, it was also possible to develop the adjacent area of ​​the train station into a retail park.

The catastrophic budget situation in the city led Fleige to propose to conclude an agreement with the Arnsberg regional council in order to consolidate the budget with financial support from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The city council followed this suggestion. On this basis, the city of Menden presented an approved budget in 2012 for the first time in over 10 years.

Demography made it necessary to reorganize Menden's school landscape. Fleige was exposed to violent attacks. The planned closure of the primary school in Hüingsen, the headquarters of the Obo Bettermann company , led to a process aimed at by entrepreneur Ulrich Bettermann and supported by the FDP, to remove Fleige as mayor. This was preceded by some affairs involving Mayor Fleige, which caused great displeasure among the Menden public. Among other things, he recommended a citizen who turned to him with a concern to take a sedative.

The procedure failed in January 2013. Instead of the legally prescribed number of 7,800 signatures required to start such a procedure, only 7,447 signatures were collected. However, the number of signatures collected is not documented.

For decades, students from Menden attended the comprehensive school in Fröndenberg. In Menden there was no majority to found this type of school. With the change in the school landscape, Fleige managed to find a council majority for the comprehensive school in Menden.

Another focus was on the development of the inner city. The old town hall square, the heart of the city, was redesigned. The Glockenteichbach brook was also disclosed. For centuries this stream was the city's only source of fresh water. Now it flows through the middle of the city again and is an invigorating element of the pedestrian zone and its further development.

Five candidates applied for the mayoral election in 2015. In the first ballot on September 13th, Volker Fleige received the most votes with 39.5%, but not the absolute majority required. In the runoff election on September 27th between the two candidates with the most votes, he was defeated by his rival from the CDU, Martin Wächter .

Web links

swell

  1. ^ City of Menden: Citizen Information System
  2. ↑ Fleige has been Mayor of DerWesten since midnight on October 21, 2009
  3. ↑ SPDMK election portal
  4. ↑ 10 years of Theater Am Ziegelbrand on August 14, 2009 at DerWesten
  5. ↑ The whole of South Westphalia is to benefit from viewing containers from February 2, 2008 at DerWesten
  6. ↑ Michael Koch: The demolition of the station in Menden is only worthwhile for new buildings . In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung . September 10, 2010. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  7. ^ Thorsten Bottin: New retail park opened at Menden train station . In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung . January 31, 2013. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  8. ↑ Strengthening Pact City Finances . MIK NRW. Archived from the original on May 2, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 7, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mik.nrw.de
  9. ^ Corinna Schutzeichel: Capable of acting on a small scale . In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung . May 16, 2012. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  10. ↑ Michael Koch: Bettermann wants to organize Fleige deselection (PDF) bis-hueingsen.de. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  11. ↑ Signatures are not enough! . lokalkompass.de. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  12. ↑ Martina Dinslage: Start at the comprehensive school in Menden . In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung . August 22, 2012. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  13. ↑ Pia Maranca: The old town hall square is open . In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung . June 9, 2011. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  14. ↑ Thorsten Bottin: Construction crews are now bringing the Glockenteichbach to the light of day . In: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung . June 13, 2014. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  15. ↑ Mayoral election - election of the mayor in 2015 in the city of Menden (Sauerland) - overall result . Wahlen.citkomm.de. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  16. ↑ Ballot for mayor - election of the mayor in 2015 in the city of Menden (Sauerland) - overall result . Wahlen.citkomm.de. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Fleige, Volker
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German local politician and mayor
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Wickede (Ruhr)