Wilhelm Warsch

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Wilhelm Warsch (born December 6, 1895 in Viersen , † December 27, 1969 in Cologne ) was a German municipal official , mayor and politician ( CDU ). In his career, which was interrupted by the “ Third Reich ”, he took up management positions early on, initially in the municipal sector, and after 1945 also in the state sector. As a party politician, he belonged to the founding generation of the CDU , but without making a career there.

Life

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Youth and job

Wilhelm Warsch was the eldest son of the Catholic family of the commercial district auditor Heinrich Warsch (1866- before 1957) and his wife Maria nee Sahl (1869-1957). Warsch attended elementary school and initially worked as a clerk at the regional court in Munich-Gladbach (today Mönchengladbach ). He did military service in the First World War . He then studied law and political science in Bonn . In 1920, he was with a thesis on the importance of the Dutch ports and the Scheldt-Rhine Canal for the German economy to Dr. rer. pole. PhD .

From 1920 he worked first in his hometown Viersen and then in Munich-Gladbach in the local city administration. In 1921 Warsch became director of the housing office in Munich-Gladbach. A year later he was city ​​director and deputy head of the department. Warsch married Gerta (Gertrud), b. Steffes. The marriage resulted in a son in 1924.

Career until 1933

Warsch is likely to have become a member of the Catholic Center Party at the latest during his professional activity in Munich-Gladbach . Against this professional and political background, Warsch successfully applied for the post of mayor of the city of Uerdingen , whose city ​​council , in which the center had a majority (twelve of 22 seats), elected him on July 30, 1925 for a term of twelve years; on September 17, 1925 he was introduced to his new office.

Just two years later, in autumn 1927, Warsch was able to realize a goal of Uerdingen's local politics that had been striven for for decades: the incorporation of Hohenbudberg and part of Kaldenhausen . Shortly afterwards, the city of Uerdingen was to be added to the city of Krefeld as part of the municipal reorganization of the Rhenish-Westphalian industrial area .

Warsch succeeded in convincing the Prussian state parliament of the special path of a purpose-united city in the form of an "umbrella community" of the two cities of Krefeld and Uerdingen on the Rhine and this in the law on the municipal reorganization of the Rhenish-Westphalian industrial area of 1929 (§§ 4-7 ) to fix. Uerdingen was thus not incorporated (incorporated) into Krefeld. The city of Krefeld-Uerdingen on the Rhine was a construction that is still unique in German municipal constitutional law , in which the two cities largely retained their independence as districts of Krefeld and Uerdingen for a longer period of up to 30 years. After the reorganization law came into force on August 1, 1929, Warsch was initially the - equal - deputy of the acting mayor (this was the previous mayor of Krefeld, Johannes Johansen ) of the newly formed city of Krefeld-Uerdingen a. Rh. Appointed. In the spring of 1930, in the course of the implementation of the new municipal constitution of the new city, Warsch was confirmed as mayor of the Uerdingen district and at the same time first alderman of the entire city of Krefeld-Uerdingen a. Rh.

National Socialism

Warsch rejected National Socialism . In the run-up to the local elections on March 12, 1933, he was violently attacked by the NSDAP local group in Uerdingen, among other things because of allegedly “Marxist-centric” attitudes. Immediately after the local elections, in which the NSDAP in the Uerdingen district won eleven and the black-white-red battle front won three out of a total of 26 seats, with both parties together having an absolute majority, Warsch took a vacation that had already been approved in February. At the same time, the NSDAP and the fighting front agreed to apply to the District President of Düsseldorf, Karl Bergemann, for a further leave of absence with the aim of being removed from office. Warsch protested against it in all forms and emphasized his national convictions: he had always been loyal and correct to the NSDAP and had not been guilty of anything against the new government, but rather loyally and willingly parried orders.

On March 26th, the press office of the district president announced, "With my consent, Warsch will remain on leave for the time being". Warsch never returned to his office in Uerdingen. After a lengthy process, on March 3, 1934, he was served with the decree of January 25, 1934 on his dismissal under Section 4 of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service , that is, dismissal due to “national unreliability”. A criminal prosecution that was also initiated against him remained unsuccessful. In mid-1934 he applied for a conversion of the dismissal according to § 4 into a retirement according to § 6 of the law (due to administrative simplification), which the Minister of the Interior also pronounced in July 1935, even retrospectively.

Warsch had already moved to Cologne on July 10, 1933. Through the intercession and mediation of the Archbishop of Cologne, Karl Joseph Cardinal Schulte , as director and syndic of the hospitals and charitable institutes of the sister association of the Order of the Augustinians (central administration Cologne), he took over their economic support.

Career from 1945

Municipal activity in Cologne

On March 16, 1945, Konrad Adenauer was reinstated as Lord Mayor of Cologne by the British. Adenauer followed the expansion of the city of Cologne. He tried to incorporate the Cologne district into the Cologne city district. Incorporation was planned. Warsch was supposed to act as the incorporation commissioner in the position of a town councilor. On October 6, 1945, Adenauer was relieved of his office by the British brigadier John Ashworth Barraclough, because Adenauer, in his opinion, placed the major Cologne project before his duties to the starving and destroyed city of Cologne. After his impeachment, Warsch was elected Lord Mayor of Cologne. The election was not officially confirmed by the British, so that Willi Suth initially took over the post.

Co-founder of the CDU

On June 17, 1945, Warsh met in the Broad Street under the name "Democratic Christian People's Party" (CDPP) 118 in Cologne Kolpinghaus with former center members, a non-denominational People's Party new type founding wanted. Other members were Josef Baumhoff , Fritz Fuchs , Mathilde Gescher , Robert Grosche , Bernhard Günther , Sibille Hartmann , Clemens Hastrich, Josef Hellmich, Josef Hofmann, Alfred Keller, Josef Kuner, Robert Pferdmenges , Hans Pimperz, Bruno Potthast, Peter Schlack , Schlochauer, Leo Schwering , his brother Ernst Schwering , the secretary of the newspaper publisher Kurt Neven DuMont , Erika Voigt, Franz Wiegert and Karl Zimmermann. They asked the Allied Military Government for approval to found a Christian Democratic Party.

The Cologne librarian director Leo Schwering was elected chairman of the program committee. From June 1945, Warsch also worked in the so-called Cologne Circle on the programmatic basis for founding the party. The program ideas of the Cologne founding group of the CDU, the "Cologne Guidelines", had a thoroughly socialist character. Warsch had been a board member of the party in the Rhineland since August 28, 1945. Schwering was elected as the state chairman. On September 3, 1945, the Christian Democratic Party (CDP) was officially founded, renamed the CDU on December 16, 1945 . Warsch was one of the co-founders.

Many predecessor organizations and founding groups of the CDU had in the early summer of 1945, in some cases clearly socialist and social reform tendencies. The turn to the bourgeois and conservative party began in 1946, when Konrad Adenauer visibly intervened in post-war politics and after the Protestant North German CDU associations had organized themselves. Adenauer was an opponent of such socialist, social reformist ideas and was clearly in favor of a firm connection between Germany and the West. After Adenauer's election as CDU state chairman on February 5, 1946 in Uerdingen, no member of the Cologne Circle made any significant political career.

Lord Mayor of Krefeld

With effect from July 1, 1945, Warsch was brought back into service as a civil servant on revocation at the city of Krefeld-Uerdingen am Rhein, as the representative of the Lord Mayor, and was appointed mayor for the duration of his reuse. In the course of the introduction of the municipal dual leadership through the revised German municipal code, the British occupation authorities appointed him (honorary) Lord Mayor of the city of Krefeld on February 28, 1946. The previous full-time mayor of Krefeld, Johannes Stepkes , had to change to the post of senior city director .

The focus of Warsch's tenure in Krefeld - in addition to general reconstruction - was securing municipal finances, new industrial and commercial settlements, but also refugee issues , caring for war victims and treating prisoners of war. With regard to denazification , Warsch advised a measured approach so as not to unnecessarily open rifts.

After being appointed District President in Cologne, Warsch resigned his office as Mayor of Krefeld on February 20, 1947 and was ceremoniously bid farewell in the city council convened on the same day.

District President of Cologne

The North Rhine-Westphalian state government appointed Warsch, with the consent of the military government, as district president in Cologne. Warsch took over the official business on February 23, 1947 and was officially introduced to his office on March 17 by State Minister of the Interior Walter Menzel .

Warsch complained about the division of the Rhine province into two parts, which was completely unsustainable in the long term, also because it cut off the Cologne district from the neighboring districts of Koblenz and Trier . One of the first emergency measures initiated by the new District President Warsch was the restoration of the roads and bridges in the Oberbergischer Kreis . The district president made a name for himself mainly through his vehement commitment to the recultivation of the Rhenish lignite area . The law on overall planning in the Rhenish lignite area of ​​April 25, 1950, which he himself formulated in the draft, was given the nickname "Lex Warsch". In 1954 the lignite committee planned the relocation of Alt- Kaster to the vicinity of Gut Hohenholz, but violent public protests and the involvement of mayors Franz Vosen and Warsch prevented this plan. In the following years he was particularly committed to recultivation and afforestation.

In 1951 he became chairman of the German Poplar Association and the National Poplar Commission, member of the German Forest Protection Association and the German War Graves Commission , also president of the District Association Cologne the German Olympic Association and a member of the Board of Trustees of the German Olympic Association in Frankfurt / Main.

Grave at the Melaten cemetery in Cologne (2018)

Warsch suffered a stroke in early 1956. In May 1957, for health reasons, he asked for early retirement, which was issued by the state government on July 1, 1957. Warsch died in 1969 at the age of 74 and was buried in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne (Hall 6 (Q)). According to him, in Porz-Zündorf and in Bedburg-Kaster , the Wilhelm-Warsch street named.

honors and awards

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Without Grond . In: Der Spiegel . No. 43 , 1959, pp. 38 ( Online - Oct. 21, 1959 ).
  2. ↑ Never forgiven . In: Der Spiegel . No. 43 , 1962, pp. 45-48 ( Online - Oct. 24, 1962 ).
  3. ^ Portal Rhenish History .
  4. ↑ 60 years of the CDU
  5. ↑ "My God - what should become of Germany". Adenauer and the clergy - Adenauer and the socialists . In: Der Spiegel . No. 45 , 1961, pp. 47-60 ( Online - Nov. 1, 1961 ).
  6. ↑ Schwering's report on Konrad Adenauer's relationship with the CDU from its founding to its election as chairman of the Rhenish state and on what happened during this election on February 5, 1946 in Ürdingen. Schwering refers to the following letters: 1946 Febr. 6: Schwering to Albers 1946 Febr. 6: Warsch to Adenauer 1946 Febr. 6: Warsch to Schwering 1946 Febr. 6: Schwering to Adenauer and Albers 1946 Febr. 7: Schwering to Adenauer bw each 4 1/2 p., 2 concepts with different corrections, the second concept contains a statement by Wilhelm Warsch. - see. Correspondence with Adenauer, Albers and Warsch (1193-97, 99 and 294), Historical Archive Cologne, order number: Best. 1193 (Schwering, Leo), A 406 old number: 406
personal data
SURNAME Warsch, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German civil servant, mayor and politician (CDU), MdL
DATE OF BIRTH December 6, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Viersen
DATE OF DEATH December 27, 1969
Place of death Cologne