Ebmeyer, Otto von

Spa director

born: 24.04.1850 in Hamm

died: 29.08.1919 in Wiesbaden

The son of a government councillor, he entered military service at the age of 19 and took part in the war against France in 1870/71 with distinction. In 1870 he was promoted to second lieutenant and in 1893 to major. From March 1890 to the end of 1894, he was adjutant to Chancellor Count von Caprivi and at the same time head of the "Special Bureau" in the Foreign Office. At this time he was elevated to the hereditary nobility. He then held the post of battalion commander in Freiburg im Breisgau until 1897.

On 01.01.1898, he was appointed spa director of Wiesbaden. The most important event of his term of office was the new construction of the Kurhaus. As early as 1899, he commented in detail on the deficiencies of the old building in the memorandum "Die Wichtigkeit der Kurhausneubau-Frage". A further publication, which he published in May 1907 to mark the inauguration of the new building, testifies to his pride in what had been achieved. As early as 1901, Ebmeyer also took a stand on the issue of the construction of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Therme and rendered outstanding services to the modernization of the spa business as a whole.

He did not remain uncontroversial within the administration; a dispute with the then mayor Karl Glässing over the awarding of advertising contracts in 1911 also caused a stir in the foreign press and had to be settled by government director Karl Wilhelm von Meister.

Ebmeyer was buried in the southern cemetery.