Wilhelm Kapferer

Wilhelm Kapferer (born January 27, 1888 in Mosbach , † 1961 ) was a businessman and councilor in Mosbach. Shortly before the Americans moved in, at the end of March 1945 he was given the mayor's business . It is thanks to his courage and negotiating skills that the city was surrendered without a fight and remained undestroyed in the final days of the Second World War . For his services he was made an honorary citizen of Mosbach in 1953 . He was also the managing director of the Mosbacher drugstore Kapferer, which he expanded into a pharmaceutical wholesaler.

Life

He came from an old Freiburg patrician family . His grandfather had been transferred to Mosbach as a judge as a result of his advocacy for the revolution of 1848 . The father, Wilhelm Kapferer senior (1858–1917), founded a drugstore in Mosbach in 1884 . Like his father, Wilhelm junior completed an apprenticeship as a drug and chemical wholesaler, but during his apprenticeship was also part of the time as a volunteer for a newspaper in Berlin , where he met his wife Irma. Because of a visual defect, he only took part in the First World War as a medic and in the pharmaceutical administration of the Army near Offenburg.

His father died in 1917, so that the mother initially continued the business of the Mosbach drugstore until Wilhelm junior took over the management after the end of the war. Despite setbacks during the inflationary period , he managed to expand the company further. He built a wholesale warehouse in Mosbacher Kesslergasse , the company specialized in precisely dosed medicines and in 1934 was recognized as a fully stocked pharmaceutical wholesaler. Before the Second World War , it had 24 employees and a range of 15,000 items.

Kapferer belonged to numerous associations in Mosbach. Politically, he was involved in the Center Party and, as evidenced by the records that have been received, he was a member of the Mosbach municipal council from 1919 to at least March 1942. No records have survived from March 1942 to 1945, but it is assumed that he was a councilor during this period as well.

In the final phase of the Second World War, turbulent events occurred in Mosbach. Fighter-bombers circled over the city for days at the end of March. An uninterrupted stream of refugees passed through the city from the approaching front in the west, and troops also repeatedly passed through. On March 31, 1945 ( Holy Saturday ), Deputy Mayor Muser resigned. On the same day, District Administrator Wilhelm Compter Kapferer transferred the business of the mayor of Mosbach. Barely entrusted with the business, Kapferer was faced with two SS officers who informed him that the Mosbach city area would be included in the main battle line and that 500 men from the citizenry would have to stand up for defense. After initial hesitation, Kapferer had the order spread and actually managed to get around 100 men to be deployed, but the SS released them again. Meanwhile, Kapferer, who obtained information from observation posts on the town hall tower about the troop movements in the area, negotiated with the SS officers about the planning of the battle. He pointed out the rich historical building stock of the city and that the Allies would bypass the city anyway if they advanced over the Dallauer Höhe in the direction of Allfeld , so that there would be no need for defense, which would only lead to a pointless destruction of the old town and pointless Victim would run out. The next day (Easter Sunday) the two SS officers had withdrawn and in the morning Kapferer was confronted with a new combat commander who had already set up some bazookas in the old town. He also negotiated with the latter and was initially assured that the SS stationed in the city would not make any attacks in the direction of the advancing Americans, which would result in the city being bombarded. Through further negotiations, Kapferer finally managed to get the SS units to withdraw completely from Mosbach in the early afternoon. In the further course of the afternoon a delegation from the citizenry appeared, swearing Kapferer to hand over the city in any case without a fight. In the evening Kapferer was called by an SA storm leader to organize armed resistance in the city, which Kapferer emphatically refused, referring to the senseless victims. After American troops had reached Neckarelz the next morning (Easter Monday), Kapferer raised the white flag on the town hall tower. Kapferer had a former local group leader appearing in civilian clothes in the town hall , who tried to call in armed resistance again at the last minute. A little later, the first American troops reached the city and occupied it without a fight.

Kapferer stayed in office on a provisional basis for a few weeks before the American occupation powers appointed Wilhelm Schwarz as mayor on May 23, 1945 . In the post-war period he joined the CDU and was a member of the local council from 1951 to 1959. In 1953 he was given honorary citizenship for his services to his hometown .

The company he managed, W. Kapferer KG , was continued by two generations after him. In 2006 the company had around 450 employees at four locations and a range of around 100,000 items. In 2008 the company was taken over by NOWEDA .

literature

• Dieter Marmann: City Councilor Wilhelm Kapferer, honorary citizen, businessman . In: Mosbacher Jahresheft 2006, pp. 152–159.