Hanno Drechsler

Dr. Hanno Drechsler (24 March 1931 - 4 January 2003) was the legendary Lord Mayor of the City of Marburg, Germany, between 1970 and 1992, and the instigator of its restoration after urban renewal; he was also an important Social Democratic politician and political scientist.

Life

Education

Hanno Drechsler went to school in Saxony, where after High School he studied to become a teacher and was certified for doing so on all levels, becoming very early the Principal of the "Oberschule" in Falkenstein. Because of political conflicts with the SED regime (such as the toleration of students who were members of a church), he and his wife fled East Germany in 1955, and settled in Marburg, West Germany. Here, Drechsler studied again, at the University of Marburg (1955-1961), mostly Political Science, History, and German, and became a student and then assistant of the famous political scientist (the main representative of political science of the "Frankfurt School", Wolfgang Abendroth. In 1962, he received his PhD with a thesis on the Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands (SAP), which still today is the classic on this subject, and became an expert on the small parties "between" social democrats and communists during the Weimar Republic.

Career

Afterwards, he became "(Ober-)Studienrat im Hochschuldienst" (Lecturer and Senior Lecturer or Assistant Professor, but with tenure; also see Beamter) at the University of Giessen's Political Science Department, but he remained active in Marburg municipal and Hesse politics as a social democrat, where he soon held key positions in the City Parliament. In 1970, he was elected - after declining to become the President of the newly-founded [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universit%C3%A4t_Kassel University of Kassel] - Lord Mayor of the City of Marburg, a position he held until his retirement due to health reasons in 1992, drawing in the end popular support of well over 75% of the citizens.

Achievements

Of all his efforts and achievements in Marburg, the most notable and lasting was very likely his tenacious and strong support and indeed implementation of the restoration of the "Oberstadt" (uptown) of Marburg, one of the most important old German cities largely untouched by the war, full with timbered and stone houses of Gothic and Renaissance times and with famous castles, churches, includin the earliest Gothic church in Germany dedicated to St. Elisabeth of Hungary. In the beginning, this was a battle against the zeitgeist, as the idea in the early 1970s was still to raze the old houses to the ground, make the town centre accessible to traffic, etc. The restore all houses individually, create pedestrian zones, but to make the "Oberstadt" livable and not just a tourist attraction was largely his idea, and he implemented it against then strong opposition.

Party functions

Since 1956, Drechsler was a member of the SPD and held numerous party function, also on the state and federal level. He was for decades the Chairman of the local government SPD council in Hesse and on the board of the [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutscher_St%C3%A4dtetag Deutscher Städtetag] , the German Council of Independent Cities. He was a strong promoter, also in scholarly work and writings, of municipal autonomy, as well as of German Reunification. Offers of other positions, such as SPD candidate (with a great likelihood to win) for Lord Mayor of Frankfurt am Main, or as Minister of the Interior of Hesse, he always declined.

Honors

Among the many honors Drechsler received are the "Bundesverdienstkreuz" (Federal Merit Cross) 1st Class, the Merit Cross of the State of Hesse, the Silver Merit Cross of the Red Cross Germany, and the Freiherr vom Stein-Plaque, the highest German award for merits in the area of local governance and municipal autonomy. He was also a Honorary Citizen of Poitiers, France, a sister city of Marburg, and of Marburg itself. One of the issues closest to him - a Methodist - which he promoted very strongly was the dialoge and re-invitation of the Jewish former citizens of Marburg, the reopening of a synagogue and the reemergence of a Jewish community in Marburg; the recognitions and awards he received for that were those especially important to him. In fact, it was a stroke (after some earlier heart attacks) that he suffered after, against his doctors' advice, speaking in an outside ceremony to memorialize the "Reichskristallnacht" at the place of the former synagogue in 1991 that ended his career.

Family

Hanno Drechsler was married, for 53 years, to Gisela Drechsler née Streller (born 2 March 1931); their son is the social scientist Wolfgang Drechsler.

Memorials

Today, Hanno Drechsler is mostly remembered by the "Hanno-Drechsler-Platz", an urban space that forms the south-westerly gate to the "Oberstadt" for pedestrians, with fountain and trees, but mostly by the intact and restored Uptown itself.

References

By Hanno Drechsler

*Drechsler, Hanno et al, eds, "Gesellschaft und Staat: Lexikon der Politik", 10th edn., Munich: Vahlen, 2003 (1st edn. Baden-Baden: Signal, 1970; recipient of the "Deutscher Jugendbuchpreis")
*Drechsler, Hanno et al, "Zur Geschichte der Synagoge und der jüdischen Gemeinde in Marburg", 2nd edn., Marburg: Stadt Marburg, 1993 (Marburger Stadtschriften zur Geschichte und Kultur, 39)
*Drechsler, Hanno et al, "Rabbiner Dr. Leopold Lucas: Marburg 1872-1943 Theresienstadt: Versuch einer Würdigung", Marburg: Stadt Marburg, 1987 (Marburger Stadtschriften zur Geschichte und Kultur, 21)
*Drechsler, Hanno, "Die Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands (SAPD): Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Deutschen Arbeiterbewegung am Ende der Weimarer Republik", Meisenheim am Glan: Hain, 1963; Repr. Hannover: Politladen, 1971; 2. Repr. Hamburg: Junius, 1999

About Hanno Drechsler (Sources)

*Auerbach, Inge, ed., "Catalogus professorum academiae Marburgensis. Die Akademischen Lehrer der Philipps-Universität in Marburg von 1911 bis 1971", Marburg: Elwert, 1979 (Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Hessen, 15,2), q.v.
*Dettmering, Erhart, ed., "Dr. Hanno Drechsler, 22 Jahre für Marburg: Weggefährten erinnern sich an die Amtszeit von Oberbürgermeister Dr. Hanno Drechsler im Marburger Rathaus von 1970-1992 - Eine Würdigung anlässlich seiner Verabschiedung am 16. Dezember 1992", Marburg: Rathaus-Verlag, 1995 (Marburger Stadtschriften zur Geschichte und Kultur, 50)
*Dettmering, Erhart, ed., "Alles für Marburg": Eine Chronik mit Texten, Dokumenten, Artikeln und Reden aus der 20jährigen Amtszeit von Hanno Drechsler als Oberbürgermeister der Universitätsstadt Marburg 1970-1990", Marburg: Universitätsstadt Marburg, 1991 (Marburger Stadtschriften zur Geschichte und Kultur, 33)

External links

* [http://www.eisenachonline.de/news/last/2003.01.09-05905 obituary including portrait picture]
* [http://www.marburg.de/detail/58756 official site on Drechslerplatz christening]