Wilhelm Marx (politician, 1851)

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Lord Mayor Marx, Honorary Chairman of the International Art Exhibition and Large Horticultural Exhibition, Kunstpalast Düsseldorf , 1904
Lord Mayor Wilhelm Marx, honorary citizen of the city of Düsseldorf, and family, Nordfriedhof Düsseldorf

Wilhelm Marx (born December 29, 1851 in Oelinghoven , Siegkreis , † July 30, 1924 in Düsseldorf ) was a German lawyer and local politician . As Lord Mayor of the City of Düsseldorf, he brought about pioneering structural policy measures.

Life

Marx studied law at the universities in Bonn and Leipzig. He worked as a trainee lawyer and as an assessor in the Prussian state court system. In 1884 he became a district judge in Elberfeld (now part of Wuppertal ).

On August 7, 1888, Marx became the aldermen elected the city of Dusseldorf, the inauguration took place on 20 November 1888. The title of mayor , he was awarded on April 20 1899th On November 11, 1899, he was elected Lord Mayor for twelve years. One year before the end of this electoral term, he resigned as Lord Mayor in 1910 for health reasons.

During his 11-year tenure as Lord Mayor from 1899 to 1910, Marx, with the support of numerous industrialists such as Heinrich Lueg , Ernst Poensgen , Ernst Schiess and Hermann Heye, led Düsseldorf into the “modern age”. Under his aegis , Düsseldorf developed into a modern, expanding city and continued to expand its reputation as an exhibition city , which it had acquired in the 19th century. The population of Düsseldorf almost doubled. There is hardly an urban area of ​​life that has not experienced a significant boom during this time.

As an alderman and later as lord mayor, he made a decisive contribution to the construction of the first municipal indoor swimming pool (1888) and the construction of the new Rhine port and the subsequent shifting of the banks of the Rhine. He supported the "Consortium" for the construction of the Oberkasseler Bridge and was thus also a pioneer of the later Rheinbahn AG . He brought about the modernization of the school system in Düsseldorf and the construction of new hospitals. During his tenure in Düsseldorf in 1908/1909 the largest campaign in Germany to employ the unemployed took place. His local political successes also include the incorporations of 1908 and 1909, the establishment of a higher regional court in Düsseldorf, the glamorous exhibitions of 1902 and 1904 in the Kunstpalast , the development of the former barracks area between Königsallee and Kasernenstrasse and the construction of the urban airship hall used by DELAG , which stands at the beginning of the aviation history of Düsseldorf . Under his influence, the Stahlhof emerged as the seat of the newly founded steelworks association - a key factor in Düsseldorf's image as the “ desk of the Ruhr area ”. He also supported the construction of the Apollo Theater and the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus .

Marx was also one of the initiators of the founding of the Düsseldorf Industry Club .

For all these services he was made honorary citizen of the city of Düsseldorf in 1910 . In addition, the first high-rise office building in Germany, the Wilhelm-Marx-Haus in Düsseldorf, completed in 1924, was named after him as an honor.

Marx married Elise, née Hesse (1864–1938) , on May 19, 1885 in Olpe . He was buried in the cemetery in Olpe. In 2008 his remains were transferred to Düsseldorf. On May 6, 2008, his grave in the Düsseldorf North Cemetery was declared an honorary grave of the city of Düsseldorf.

Among other things, Marx is the namesake of the Society Reitercorps Wilhelm Marx from 1926 , this society is a member of the Sankt Sebastianus Schützenverein from 1316 eV Even today, the society still connects the Protectorate with the House of Marx.

literature

swell

  1. ^ Krause, Detlef, "Marx, Wilhelm", in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 16 (1990), p. 320 f. [Online version];
  2. ^ Last rest for Lord Mayor Marx , in Rheinische Post, May 6, 2008
  • Files in the Düsseldorf City Archive, inventory XXI - 2141

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Marx, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and local politician, Lord Mayor of the City of Düsseldorf
DATE OF BIRTH December 29, 1851
PLACE OF BIRTH Oelinghoven
DATE OF DEATH July 30, 1924
Place of death Dusseldorf