Walter Hoffmann (politician, 1914)

Walter Hoffmann (born March 12, 1914 in Gelsenkirchen , † July 22, 1996 in Münster ) was a German politician. From 1968 to 1979 he was director of the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe (LWL).

Live and act

Hoffmann was born in Gelsenkirchen as the son of an official of the Prussian State Railways. He studied at the Westphalian Wilhelms University Law and was a member of the country club Rhenania Munster . He then went to Berlin and worked there in the advertising industry. During the Second World War he was a soldier and was taken prisoner. After his release, he initially worked as an unskilled worker, including cleaning up the Kamener Kreuz. Family connections led him to Lienen , where he was again active as an organization and advertising manager and began to be politically active in the SPD. In 1961 Hoffmann was elected city director in Lengerich , soon afterwards he also became a member of the landscape assembly of the Westphalia-Lippe Regional Association (LWL). As successor to Anton Köchling Hoffmann was elected director of the landscape association, on February 1, 1968 he took up his new office. He held this office for eleven years until 1979, when Herbert Neseker was elected as his successor . During his tenure, he tried to introduce a more modern, appropriate and efficient management of tasks that differed significantly from the more patriarchal administration of his predecessors, Salzmann and Köchling. Hoffmann is certified that he was pragmatic and that all pathos and Westphalian delicacy were alien to him. His motto in dealing with the state government was: As much self-government as possible, as much state administration as necessary.

His numerous other offices included u. a. the chairmanship of the Westphalian Heimatbund , which he held from 1969 to 1982 (later honorary chairman), the chairmanship of the Sauerland mountain association , the chairmanship of the regional association for nature conservation and the environment NRW, which he co-founded, the chairmanship of the landscape advisory board of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

literature

• Edeltraud Klueting : As much self-administration as possible . Country Director a. D. Walter Hoffmann †. In: Westfalenspiegel . tape 45 , no. 3 . Ardey, Münster 1996, p. 33 .