Engineer, Chairman of the Management Board of Wiesbadener Stadtwerke AG

Born: August 25, 1878 in Kirberg (am Taunus)
Died: November 18, 1949 in Wiesbaden

Christian Bücher was the nephew of the distinguished Leipzig economist Prof. Karl Bücher (1847–1930) and the older brother of Hermann Bücher (1882–1951), who served as chairman of the AEG board of directors for many years. Until the age of 17, Christian Bücher received private instruction from Arnold Vogel, the dean and pastor of Kirberg, who was the son of the distinguished Nassau historian Christian Daniel Vogel.

In 1899, Bücher began studying engineering at the Rheinisches Technikum in Bingen, from which he graduated in 1902. He then completed a year of training at the Fresenius Chemical Laboratory. In 1902, he was hired by the Wiesbaden Waterworks Authority and soon earned a reputation as an outstanding expert during the expansion of the Schierstein Waterworks. The Schierstein Waterworks was of great importance for Wiesbaden’s drinking water supply because it was foreseeable that the water supply from the Taunus deep tunnels would not be sufficient to meet the needs of the large city. The challenge, therefore, was to purify water from the Rhine. Bücher tackled the task with flying colors. His appointment as director of the waterworks in 1922 marked the beginning of Bücher’s rise within the organization.

In the years that followed, Christian Bücher became a recognized expert in the field of municipal utilities in the Rhine-Main region. He played a key role in the founding of Kraftwerke Mainz-Wiesbaden AG (KMW) for the joint production of electricity and gas. This was preceded by the conversion of the Wiesbaden Municipal Utilities into a stock corporation. Bücher became director of one company in 1930 and general director of the other in 1931.

On May 1, 1937, Christian Bücher joined the NSDAP. He was also a member of the National Socialist People’s Welfare Organization, the National Socialist Federation of German Technology, the Reich Air Defense League, and the Reich Federation of German Hunters. Between 1933 and 1939, Bücher donated several hundred Reichsmarks to the NS-Opferring. The NS-Opferring was an organization structured at the Gau level that served to collect donations and other contributions for the NSDAP. Party membership was not required.

Due to a shortage of personnel, the Wiesbaden Employment Office assigned forced laborers to the municipal utilities to ensure the supply of electricity and water. As a result, at least 35 prisoners of war were forced to work at the Wiesbaden municipal utilities in 1943. Forced laborers were required, among other things, to repair damaged water, gas, and electrical lines. In addition to the prisoners of war, there is evidence of at least five French civilian workers. At the municipal utilities, they were employed as bus drivers, auto mechanics, and metalworkers.

Shortly after the end of the war, Bücher wrote a report on the situation in the city of Wiesbaden shortly before its capture by U.S. troops on March 28, 1945. A narrative has emerged around this report that attempts to place Bücher in a context of resistance and that deserves an even more thorough historical examination.

In the report, the director of the waterworks describes his efforts to oppose the destruction of the water and power lines—as well as the shutdown of the waterworks—ordered by NSDAP Mayor Felix Piékarski.

According to his own account, Bücher, together with Karl Stempelmann—who would later become director of the municipal utilities—contacted Colonel Wilhelm Zierenberg, the Wehrmacht area commander in Wiesbaden, on March 27, 1945, and secured from him a ban on the destruction of the water, gas, and electricity facilities. This ban is said to have prevented acts of sabotage and attempts at destruction and facilitated the city’s surrender to the U.S. Army without a fight.

Since the Wehrmacht area commander in Wiesbaden held the authority to issue orders, Bücher acted in agreement with the city’s last German leadership. There is no evidence of resistance activity in the strict sense, especially since the Nazi leadership had already handed over control of the city to the Wehrmacht. The acts of sabotage cited in the report cannot be substantiated.

Christian Bücher oversaw the reconstruction of destroyed utility facilities and pursued plans to build reservoirs for drinking water in the Upper Rheingau. On March 31, 1948, he retired after 45 years of service.

Christian Bücher died on November 18, 1949, in Wiesbaden and was buried at the Wiesbaden South Cemetery. The ESWE event hall on Weidenbornstraße was named after him in 1990.

Due to his articulation of National Socialist ideology in a speech to the waterworks staff, his membership in various Nazi organizations, his overall responsibility as chairman of the board of Wiesbadener Stadtwerke AG for the use of prisoners of war, and his associated involvement in the deliberate harm of others between 1933 and 1945, the historical commission—appointed in 2020 by resolution of the City Councilto review public spaces, buildings, and facilities in the state capital of Wiesbaden named after individuals recommended renaming Christian-Bücher-Straße. The Schierstein Local Advisory Council followed the recommendation at its meeting on March 13, 2024, and renamed Christian-Bücher-Straße to Hafenstraße. The renaming was implemented by a resolution of the municipal administration on May 5, 2026.

[This text was written by Klaus Kopp for the 2017 printed edition of the Wiesbaden City Encyclopedia and revised and expanded by Dr. Katherine Lukat in 2024]