Reconstruction Committee

The Reconstruction Committee for the City of Hanover (also: Committee for Reconstruction [AfW]) was founded on April 11, 1945, almost a month before the end of the Second World War in Germany. This took place "immediately after the occupation of Hanover by the Americans" on April 10, 1945, in the immediate wake of which the British troops with the designated city ​​commander Major GH Lamb moved in.

history

After the great destruction caused by the air raids on Hanover , the British city commandant GH Lamb proclaimed Gustav Bratke as mayor of the city under the supervision of the city commandant on April 11, one day after the American invasion . On the same day, the social democrat and trade unionist Albin Karl received, according to his own account, "from the Americans" the order to form a committee for reconstruction in Hanover. This was initially formed from fewer than 20 members (one of the first was Fritz Wulfert ), the majority of whom were Social Democrats, but also representatives of the bourgeois camp .

To delimit sub-committees in the various districts , the first committee was soon called the main committee and - at the request of the city commandant - from May 25, 1945, the information committee . The committee supported the city ​​administration of Hanover and saw itself as a basic democratic , anti-fascist instrument. The work program, which consists of 12 points, was primarily oriented towards the existential needs of the population: In addition to fields of work such as

• Securing field and garden cultivation
• Start of operations
• Reorganization of the school system

but political tasks were also formulated, such as

• Rebuilding the unions and
• Denazification measures .

Since above all "the work of some subcommittees consisting exclusively or predominantly of communists of the city administration and the military government was perceived as disruptive in the long run" - Major Lamb had warned the subcommittees twice - the subsequent city commander Colonel Pownall dissolved the committees - with explicit mentioning of the main committee - on June 1, 1945. Mayor Bratke was only able to avert a ban for the concentration camp committee under Paul Gerhard Grande .

Known members (incomplete)

• Albin Karl
• Fritz Wulfert
• Franz Henkel
• Horst Egon Berkowitz
• Paul Gerhard Grande , managing director / deputy chairman of the sub-committee for the care of former concentration camp inmates

See also

• Development community Hannover

literature

• Lutz Niethammer , Lutz (Ed.), Ulrich Borsdorf (Mitarb.): Workers 'initiative 1945. Anti-fascist committees and reorganization of the workers' movement in Germany. Hammer, Wuppertal 1976, ISBN 3-87294-103-8 , especially p. 451ff.
• Thomas Grabe, Reimar Hollmann , Klaus Mlynek : Ways out of chaos. Hanover 1945 - 1949 , Hamburg: Kabel, 1985, ISBN 3-8225-0005-4 , p. 58ff.
• Herbert Obenaus : The political new beginning of 1945 in Hanover. In: Niedersächsisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte , ed. from the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen , Vol. 78 (2006), pp. 383-412.
• Waldemar R. Röhrbein : Reconstruction , in: History of the City of Hanover , ed. by Klaus Mlynek and Waldemar R. Röhrbein, Vol. 2: From the beginning of the 19th century to the present , Hanover: Schlütersche , 1994, ISBN 3-87706-364-0 , pp. 582, 607, 609, especially pp. 655f.
• Klaus Mlynek: Reconstruction Committee. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 677.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Reconstruction , in: Hannover Chronik , pp. 191, 206, 223.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Klaus Mlynek: Second World War. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover, pp. 694f.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Waldemar R. Röhrbein: In the city of Hanover. In: History of the City of Hanover, Part 2 ... , pp. 652ff.
4. ^ ^{A b} Waldemar R. Röhrbein: Committee for Reconstruction. In: History of the City of Hanover, Part 2 ... , p. 655
5. ↑ ^{a b} Klaus Mlynek: Wulfert, Fritz. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover, p. 687.
6. ↑ Waldemar R. Röhrbein: KZ Committee. In: History of the City of Hanover, Part 2 ... , p. 656
7. ^ Klaus Mlynek: Henkel, Franz Wilhelm , in: Dirk Böttcher , Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein, Hugo Thielen: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2002, ISBN 3-87706-706-9 , p. 164, etc.
8. ↑ Peter Schulze : Berkowitz, (2) Horst Egon. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 62.
9. ^ Klaus Mlynek: Grande, Paul Gerhard. In: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon , p. 134.