Willi Seidel

This article deals with the civil servant and politician Willi Seidel. For the writer, see Willy Seidel .

Willi Seidel

Grave of Willi Seidel in the main cemetery in Kassel

House of Youth, Willi Seidel House

Willi Seidel (born November 1, 1885 in Kassel , † March 9, 1976 ibid) was a German civil servant and local politician. From 1945 to 1954 he was Lord Mayor of the City of Kassel.

Life and work

After graduating from secondary school , Seidel began his training as a civil service candidate in the municipal service of the city of Kassel in 1903. In 1927 he became city administration director via the station as municipal secretary. After he was relieved of his position as Head of Personnel Office on June 1, 1933, because he did not have the confidence of the NSDAP, which had taken power, he was appointed head of the city insurance office. In 1935 he was responsible for the administrative integration of the neighboring communities of Harleshausen , Niederzwehren , Nordshausen , Oberzwehren , Waldau and Wolfsanger , which were incorporated that year .

The American occupation forces, which reached Kassel at the beginning of April 1945, appointed him as acting mayor on April 7th. On July 26, 1946, he was elected as the city head by the first elected city council after the war. Two years later, when his re-election was due, Seidel, who was not part of the party, won a drawing of lots against the FDP candidate Fritz Oellers . The vote had resulted in a stalemate of 29 votes each for Seidel and Oellers with one abstention. During his tenure, he not only campaigned for the reconstruction of the city, but also succeeded in having the first Federal Garden Show in Kassel in 1955 - one year after he left office .

Honors

• 1953: Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1970: Honorary citizen of the city of Kassel
• Honorary grave of the city of Kassel
• Naming of the House of Youth in Kassel the Willi-Seidel-House
• Willi-Seidel-Weg: A hiking trail in the Habichtswald , which leads from the Loipenhaus car park (above the Ehlener Kreuz), via Vorwerk Sichelbach , to the Hercules .

literature

• Sabine Schneider, Eckart Conze , Jens Flemming , Dietfrid Krause-Vilmar : Pasts: the Lord Mayors of Kassel Seidel, Lauritzen, Branner and National Socialism , Schüren Marburg, 2015, ISBN 978-3-89472-241-8 .
• Heinz Körner : Kassel's Lord Mayor of Reconstruction: Considerations based on Willi Seidel's diary entries with documents and explanations on contemporary history , 2017, ISBN 978-3-00-056102-3 .

Web links

Commons : Willi Seidel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Portrait near the city of Kassel