Willy Leonhardt

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Willy Leonhardt (born December 10, 1937 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein ; † June 14, 2017 in Saarbrücken ) was a German energy manager and politician ( SPD ).

education and profession

After an apprenticeship as an electrical mechanic in Kaiserslautern , Leonhardt studied electrical engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt and graduated there in 1965 with a degree in engineering . From 1966 to 1979 he was the plant director of the Pirmasens municipal utilities .

During his time as plant director in Pirmasens , the municipal energy supply in Pirmasens was modernized through various future-oriented projects. Among other things, the gas supply was switched to natural gas against resistance . Leonhardt's nickname "Erdgas Willy" comes from this time. Oskar Lafontaine, then Mayor of Saarbrücken (then SPD), who became aware of Leonhardt as a prominent representative of a contemporary and future-oriented municipal energy and environmental policy, brought Leonhardt to the Saarland capital in 1979.

The name "Knallgas-Willy", which was associated with a gas explosion during Leonhardt's time as Stadtwerke director in Pirmasens and was later taken up in political discourse, also comes from the Pirmasens days.

From 1979 Leonhardt was managing director (from 1982 spokesman for the management) of Versorgungs- und Verkehrsgesellschaft Saarbrücken (VVS), chairman of the board of Stadtwerke Saarbrücken AG and board member of the company for trams in the Saartal AG . Leonhardt was a member of several supervisory boards, including SaarFerngas AG, Saarbergwerke AG , Saarländische Landesbank and the Völklingen model power station .

In 1988 he received a teaching position for “Municipal Technology and Renewable Energies” from the University of Saarbrücken .

On November 24, 1992, the state government of Saarland awarded Leonhardt the title of professor. The award was made in recognition of his special merits in the development and scientific communication of an ecological energy concept that is a model for numerous cities worldwide and is determined by a new understanding of the energy industry .

politics

In the Lafontaine III cabinet , Leonhardt succeeded Jo Leinen as Minister for Environment, Energy and Transport in the Saarland on November 23, 1994 . During his tenure as minister, Leonhardt was involved, among other things, in the expansion of solar energy in the Saarland (“solar roof program”) and the expansion of the Saarland regional railway . As part of his policy as energy manager and minister, he advocates moving away from nuclear energy . His State Secretary was the later Federal Justice and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas . When Lafontaine moved to the federal government as finance minister in 1998 and Reinhard Klektiven became the new prime minister, Leonhardt left the cabinet on November 10, 1998.

As chairman of the board of Stadtwerke Saarbrücken AG, Leonhardt was largely responsible for the modernization of the Römerbrücke cogeneration plant in Saarbrücken, which, after a second conversion phase, went online in 1989 with new technology. The Römerbrücke cogeneration plant received very positive reviews from experts and the press because of its innovative energy concept and its architectural and artistic design, and it received prizes from various institutions. In 1996, after a lengthy political debate on the environmental impact of the Wehrden power plant, Leonhardt, as minister, caused it to be closed.

Leonhardt received several awards for his commitment to a future-oriented energy policy. Among other things, the UN Environment Prize 1992 (UN Conference on Environment and Development - Rio de Janeiro 1992) and the BAUM Special Prize ( Federal German Working Group for Environmentally Conscious Management ), Hanover 1994.

Stadtwerke Saarbrücken was awarded the first ever European Solar Prize of the European Commission in 1994 for the company policy pursued under Leonhardt of consistent and long-term promotion of renewable energies . The award of the German award winners took place on September 24, 1994 in Saarbrücken by the member of the Bundestag and EUROSOLAR President Hermann Scheer . With the official introduction of the “European Solar Prize” on October 3, 1994 in the Senate Chamber of the City Hall in Vienna by the then Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky , the first European solar prizes were awarded.

During his time as minister and energy manager, Leonhardt worked as a consultant for numerous institutions and governments.

Willy Leonhardt died on June 14, 2017 in Saarbrücken.

Publications (selection)

  • with Reinhard Klopfleisch: Municipal Energy Handbook: From Saarbrücken Energy Concept to Municipal Action Strategies . Ed .: Gerhard Jochum. 2nd Edition. CF Müller, Karlsruhe 1991, ISBN 3-7880-7326-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Olympia was brought forward in Pirmasens: OB lit “holy” natural gas flame. In: Pirmasenser Zeitung of August 3, 1972.
  2. ↑ a b Ex-Minister Willy Leonhardt dead. In: Saarbrücker Zeitung from July 20, 2017.
  3. ↑ Who said what - Kohl or Lafontaine? In: Saarbrücker Zeitung of November 26, 1994.
  4. ^ Willy Leonhardt: Municipal environmental management. In: Ulrich Steger (Hrsg.): Handbook of environmental management: requirement and performance profiles of companies and society. CH Beck, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-406-35083-6 , pp. 681-692.
  5. ^ Stadtwerke Saarbrücken AG (ed.): The Saarbrücken future energy concept. Krüger Druck und Verlag GmbH, Saarbrücken, 2nd edition.
  6. ↑ Willy Leonhardt, Reinhard Klopfleisch: Kommunales Energie-Handbuch: From Saarbrücker Energy Concept to Communal Recommendations for Action , edited by Gerhard Jochum. CF Müller, Karlsruhe 1991, 2nd edition, ISBN 3-7880-7326-8 .
  7. ^ Leonhardt: Get out of atomic energy. In: Saarbrücker Zeitung of May 13, 1996.
  8. ↑ Petra Wilhelmy: Römerbrücke Saarbrücken cogeneration plant. In: Saar Art Lexicon. Architecture and Space , ed. v. Cultural Department of the State Capital Saarbrücken / Institute for Current Art in Saarland, Jo Enzweiler.
  9. ^ Saarland. Mini cabinet formed. taz of November 22, 1994. Retrieved May 29, 2020.
  10. ↑ BAUM Environment Prize & International BAUM Special Prize , on the website of the Federal German Working Group for Environmentally Conscious Management (PDF). Retrieved May 29, 2020.
  11. ↑ EUROSOLAR European Association for Renewable Energies eV (Ed.): "European Solar Prize 1994." In: Solar Age. Politics, culture and economics of renewable energies , 4/1994, ISSN 0937-3802, pp. 13–36.
  12. ^ Wolfgang Palz : Power for the World: The Emergence of Electricity from the Sun. Pan Stanford Publishing, Singapore 2011, ISBN 978-981-4303-37-8 , 227-229.
  13. ^ Obituary notice for Willy Leonhardt . In: Saarbrücker Zeitung from June 20, 2017. Retrieved May 29, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Leonhardt, Willy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD)
DATE OF BIRTH December 10, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Ludwigshafen am Rhein
DATE OF DEATH June 14, 2017
Place of death Saarbrücken