Wilhelm Mützelburg

Wilhelm Theodor Mützelburg (born October 1, 1877 in Altona , † April 21, 1959 in Hanover ) was a lawyer and from 1913 to 1934 mayor (since December 1920 mayor ) of the East Frisian city ​​of Emden .

Origin and education

Mützelburg came from Altona, then still in Holstein , where he was born as one of seven children of a telegraph secretary and his wife. In 1897 he passed the Abitur and then studied law in Jena , Berlin and Kiel , where he passed the legal traineeship in May 1901. At the same time, he had already completed his doctoral thesis, and was awarded his doctorate in Leipzig in June of the same year. During his studies in 1897 he became a member of the Germania Jena fraternity . After working in the administration in Altona and Kiel , he was first mayor of the city of Uelzen (1910-1913) and successfully applied from there to succeed Leo Fürbringer , who had been mayor of Emden from 1875 to 1913.

Lord Mayor of Emdens

Mützelburg's term of office was de facto interrupted in 1914 by the First World War: he was drafted in 1914 and did not return from military service until 1916. During this time, his predecessor, Fürbringer, took over the office on a provisional basis for two years. From 1914 to 1919 Mützelburg was a member of the Provincial Parliament of the Province of Hanover for the Emden constituency. After the end of the war, a workers 'and soldiers' council was formed in Emden , which exercised actual violence in Emden for a period of about three months, but was dissolved in February 1919 by the deployment of a Reich defense unit initiated by Mützelburg .

Mützelburg, who initially belonged to the left-wing liberal DDP and switched to the right-wing liberal DVP in 1926 , endeavored to balance interests between the working class in the port and industrial city and the bourgeoisie. On the one hand, he was confronted with a rapidly growing share of communist voters among the Emden dockworkers during the first years of the Weimar Republic and, on the other hand, following a trend in the Reich - from 1924 onwards, there was also an increasing right-wing radical potential in the city. Economic crises as a result of the occupation of the Ruhr in 1923 as well as strikes in the inland shipping trade in 1927 made problems for the urban economy, which lived to a considerable extent on the import and export of iron ore and coal for / from the Ruhr area . Mützelburg's attempts to diversify Emden's economic structure through the establishment of new businesses in collaboration with the city councils failed and increased the city's debt service. The NSDAP , represented by a local branch in Emden in 1928, complained about this as “mismanagement”, as did right-wing politicians from other parties. The structural development of the city, on the other hand, was significantly promoted at that time, both in social housing and in public buildings.

Since the city council election in March 1933, Mützelburg has faced a majority from the NSDAP and the “right-wing bloc”. Despite efforts by the local NSDAP to remove Mützelburg from his office, he was able to stay in office until October 16. On this day, after an argument with the new local NSDAP district leader Johann Menso Folkerts , Mützelburg was mistreated by four NSDAP members in his office. Only when a policeman appeared in Mützelburg's office did they let go of him. But after a short time they returned with reinforcements. About 20 men grabbed the reluctant and struggling mayor and forcibly led him through the town hall and then through the city with hooters. The incident caused a stir. Mützelburg reported the matter to the Minister of the Interior in Berlin. There was outrage in Emden about the incident; the NSDAP Gauleitung in Oldenburg even publicly distanced itself from its district leader. As a punishment, Folkerts had to suspend his post in Emden for a year, and he was allowed to keep the post of district leader for Norden-Krummhörn, which he also held. Mützelburg was not allowed to return to his office, although the Prussian Minister of the Interior, Göring, confirmed in a letter that Mützelburg deserved rehabilitation. In order to make the public believe that the criticism of the actions of Folkerts and the members of his local chapter was meant seriously, a state commissioner - also a reliable Nazi - was temporarily appointed to the post of Lord Mayor, the police chief of Altona Paul Hinkler . Hinkler only had to officiate for one month, because then the 35-year-old NSDAP member Hermann Maas from Bad Bramstedt was named Mützelburg's successor.

After being expelled from office

After this incident, Mützelburg fell ill. The district president therefore gave him leave of absence. In March 1934, Mützelburg was retired in accordance with Section 6 of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service . From 1936 to 1945 Mützelburg was employed as a municipal auditor in the salaried position far below his previous position at the regional council of Hanover - interrupted by two years of military service as a first lieutenant in the Wehrmacht from 1940 to 1942. After the Second World War , Mützelburg was still at the Lower Saxony municipal administration school in Hameln and until 1950 later active in Hanover. In 1948 he retired as director of this school and died in Hanover in 1959.

literature

• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Sub-Volume 4: M-Q. Winter, Heidelberg 2000, ISBN 3-8253-1118-X , pp. 168-169.
• Beatrix Herlemann , Helga Schatz: Biographical Lexicon of Lower Saxony Parliamentarians 1919–1945 (= publications of the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen. Volume 222). Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 2004, ISBN 3-7752-6022-6 , pp. 254-255.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Unless otherwise referenced, the information comes from the article by Wolfgang Henninger: Wilhelm Theodor Mützelburg (PDF; 73 kB). In: Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland, accessed on May 12, 2013.
2. ↑ Marianne Claudi, Reinhard Claudi: Golden and other times. Emden, city in East Frisia. Gerhard Verlag, Emden 1982, ISBN 3-88656-003-1 , p. 256 ff.