Walter Pott (politician)

Walter Pott (born June 5, 1878 in Nauen , † March 4, 1960 in Hohen Neuendorf ) was the first freely elected mayor in Hohen Neuendorf, Brandenburg, after the Second World War .

Career

Walter Pott at the age of 30 (1908)

Pott was the oldest of six other siblings. After leaving school, he decided to become a teacher and attended the preparatory facility of the Royal Evangelical Elementary School Teachers' College in Neuruppin . After his exams he was a teacher in the countryside in the Mark for two years. As early as 1908, when he was about 30 years old, he was appointed school rector in Angermünde and was then the youngest rector in the country. Three years later, two schools in Eberswalde were under his control .

During the First World War he was drafted as a non-commissioned officer on the 4th day of mobilization. Because of a double hernia , he was taken to the hospital in Königsberg , where he was detained and worked there as a hospital inspector. Towards the end of the First World War he was brought back to his schools by the school authorities in Eberswalde.

In Eberswalde, he was also a city councilor for the social sector and a member of the municipal authorities . In 1925 he was appointed school councilor in Sangerhausen , as he was three years later in Berlin-Zehlendorf . After the National Socialists came to power, Pott was forced to retire at the age of only 57 for political reasons.

Although retired, from then on he trained young teachers in a country school home without pay. After the war he joined the LDPD . As a member of this party, he was elected mayor of Hohen Neuendorf in the first free election after the end of the war in autumn 1946.

Since in 1950 he was only able to procure the spare parts (tires) necessary for the reopening of a bus route in West Berlin , he made appropriate connections there and was then imprisoned in Oranienburg for prohibited contacts with the West . But he was released after a short time. Because he did not actively campaign for the so-called " peace election " in October 1950, polemicism was raised against him in the media and his impeachment was being prepared.

A short time later, Pott became diabetic and had to resign from his position as mayor on March 10, 1951 for health reasons. He continued to work as an organist for the local community and died in 1960 in Hohen Neuendorf.

family

Walter Pott was married twice and had two children. He lost his first wife shortly after his second daughter was born. A great-granddaughter moved into Pott's house in Hohen Neuendorfer Niederheide in the 1990s.

swell

• Lecture by Günter Siebert (member of the Hohen Neuendorf History Circle ) on December 9, 2006
• Audio protocol of Johanna Pott (daughter of Walter Pott), recorded in 1979
• Archive of the city of Hohen Neuendorf