Wilhelm Hartkopf (politician)

Wilhelm Hartkopf (born November 3, 1920 in Duisburg , † December 22, 2004 in Remscheid ) was Lord Mayor ( SPD ) of the city of Remscheid.

Life

Through his work as a trade unionist, he came to Remscheid via Mülheim an der Ruhr and Solingen in 1959. There he was initially managing director of the ÖTV district administration ; from 1959 to 1969 he was the district chairman of the DGB .

politics

On October 28, 1968, he was elected Lord Mayor of Remscheid as the successor to Heinz Heinrichs, after having been a member of the city council since 1964 as a councilor of the SPD. He was confirmed in office four times (1969, 1975, 1979 and 1984) - in 1975 even unanimously. When he left the council on October 16, 1989, with 21 years in office, he was the longest serving Lord Mayor of North Rhine-Westphalia . During his tenure, the city partnerships with Quimper (France), Wansbeck (Great Britain) and Prešov (Slovakia) were established.

Honors

In 1985 Hartkopf was awarded the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany . In 1990 he received the Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia . In 1995 the city of Remscheid granted him honorary citizenship .

Web links

• Biographical data ( memento from December 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on the website of the city of Remscheid
• Speech ( memento of November 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) by Mayor Jürgen Kucharczyk on the occasion of the memorial hour on January 22, 2005 (PDF, Internet Archive )