Willi Brundert

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Willi Brundert (born June 12, 1912 in Magdeburg ; † May 7, 1970 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism and a politician . From 1946 to 1949 Brundert had various economic and political functions in the Soviet Zone . After a show trial he was imprisoned in the GDR until 1957 and then released to the Federal Republic of Germany. There he was, among others, for the SPD - state government in Hesse 1962-1964 State and then from 1964 until his death Lord Mayor of Frankfurt am Main.

Willi Brundert in front right (1950)

Live and act

Willi (actually: Wilhelm) Brundert was born the son of a typesetter who was influenced by social democracy and joined the SPD and the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold in 1930 . From 1931 to 1933 he was chairman of the socialist student body at the University of Halle . After studying law and political science in Halle an der Saale and Frankfurt am Main, he received his doctorate in 1935 at the University of Hamburg. After his release from civil service in Berlin, Brundert worked as a tax lawyer for an auditing company.

In the resistance against National Socialism he worked in the Kreisau Circle with, among others, Adolf Reichwein and Carlo Mierendorff . Until his convocation to the Navy in September 1941, he worked as a tax clerk. In 1944 he was taken prisoner by the British for two years. a. spent at Featherstone Park POW camp near Haltwhistle in Northumberland .

After his release from captivity in 1946, after the forced unification of the SPD and KPD , Brundert became a member of the SED in Halle, where he became Ministerial Director in the Ministry of Economics and Deputy Minister for Economics and Transport in the state government of Saxony-Anhalt, Willi Dieker . In 1948 he was also a lecturer and professor for economic, tax and administrative law at the law and political science faculty of the Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg in Halle (Saale). University curator Elchlepp had particularly advocated Brundert's appointment as a law professor at the Minister of Education of Saxony-Anhalt, Ernst Thape . As a professor, Brundert u. a. the impact of the two-year plan on business law. As a guest lecturer on a course at the German Administrative Academy in Forst Zinna , Brundert held a lecture lasting several hours on July 1, 1949, on current business law in the Soviet occupation zone . His political convictions brought him into conflict with state power. He was arrested on November 28, 1949 and sentenced to 15 years in prison on April 29, 1950 in the Dessau show trial together with Leo Herwegen for economic sabotage and social democracy . After seven years, most of which he spent in solitary confinement, he was released to the Federal Republic of Germany and came to Hesse, where in 1958 he took over the management of the state finance school in Rotenburg an der Fulda .

Thanks to his rhetorical talent , he soon achieved political advancement in the Hessian SPD. From 1962 to 1964 he served as State Secretary and Head of the State Chancellery in the government of the State of Hesse led by Prime Minister Georg-August Zinn . On July 2, 1964, he was elected Lord Mayor of Frankfurt am Main , where he quickly gained reputation and respect in the population and in influential circles in politics, business and society.

His tenure was marked by financial hardship and the first post-war recession in 1967. As mayor, he succeeded in reducing the city's debt and reducing budget deficits. To do this, he also had to push through unpopular decisions, for example in 1965 the waiver of the Federal Garden Show planned for 1969 , fee and tax increases and administrative savings. During his tenure, major projects such as the construction of the Frankfurt U-Bahn , which opened in 1968 , the Nordweststadt and the first high-rise master plan from 1967 fell into place. In cultural policy, Brundert had to mediate in the dispute over participation in the municipal theaters . He managed to win Ulrich Erfurth as general manager and successor to the resigned Harry Buckwitz . In 1966 Brundert was elected President of the German Stage Association. In 1967 he was appointed President of the German Association of Cities and in 1969 he was re-elected for 3 years.

When he was re-elected on March 19, 1970, Brundert was already seriously ill. He suffered from the consequences of malnutrition and mistreatment during his GDR imprisonment. The re-election was also burdened by the so-called Littmann affair . The radical wing of the Frankfurt SPD demanded the replacement of Police President Gerhard Littmann because of the police measures against demonstrating students - for which the mayor is politically responsible.

Honor grave in Frankfurt

Brundert died on May 7th at the age of 57 after pneumonia. He was given a grave of honor in the Frankfurt main cemetery . The Willi-Brundert-Siedlung in the Frankfurt district of Hausen and the Willi-Brundert-Straße in the Halle district of Ammendorf are named after him.

Private

Willi Brundert was married to Irmgard verw. Bockmühl born Schrader (* July 17, 1916 - June 30, 1988) from Wernigerode . His first wife, the mother of his two sons, Harald and Jürgen, died in 1945 while fleeing from Berlin to Magdeburg. His daughter Ingrid geb. Brundert-Bockmühl. His son Jürgen Brundert (* February 7, 1940; † February 28, 2014) had also studied law and was at the Sport-Club Frankfurt 1880 e. V. has been involved for many years as a hockey department manager.

Awards

literature

Web links

Commons : Willi Brundert  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brundert, Willi, Dr. jur. In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1943, Part I, p. 347. “Steuerjurist W 15 Düsseldorfer Str. 32”.
  2. ↑ a b Brundert: mirror image of German fate . Verlag für Literatur und Zeitgeschehen, Hannover 1964, p. 6
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Mittmann: Time of the offense - Great cases of the People's Police . Berlin 2000, p. 92 f.
  4. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , April 26, 1950, p. 1
  5. ↑ Neues Deutschland , January 17, 1950, p. 8
  6. ↑ Bernd-Rainer Barth , Beatrix Bouvier :  Brundert, Willi . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  7. ↑ Frank Hirschinger: Gestapo agents, Trotskyists, traitors . Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-525-36903-4 , p. 313 f.
  8. ↑ Series of publications by the Law and Political Science Faculty of the Martin Luther University Halle / Wittenberg; (1949) H. 1; DNB 450653072
  9. ↑ https://www.stadtgeschichte-ffm.de/de/info-und-service/frankfurter-geschichte/stadtchronik/1964
  10. ^ Obituary notice in the Neue Presse daily newspaper from July 4, 1988
  11. ^ Obituary notice in the daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine from March 8, 2014
  12. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
personal data
SURNAME Brundert, Willi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brundert, Willy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighters and politicians (SPD)
DATE OF BIRTH June 12, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Magdeburg
DATE OF DEATH May 7, 1970
Place of death Frankfurt am Main