Redlhammer, Johann (Hans) Heinrich Theodor

Born: 30.09.1891 in Gablonz an der Neiße (Sudetenland)

died: 16.04.1980 in Hofheim am Taunus

Redlhammer, the son of a glass industrialist, attended the diplomatic academy in Vienna and initially worked for the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in the diplomatic service. After the beginning of the First World War, he was Imperial and Royal Consul in the Ruhr region, based in Dortmund.

After the collapse of the Danube Monarchy, he was able to transfer to the diplomatic service of the German Reich and make a career there. He studied German administrative law in Münster. In 1923, Redlhammer was appointed to the inner circle of Reich Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann (DVP) and took part in the Locarno Conference in 1925 as Secretary General of the German delegation. After his appointment as Leading Legation Councillor, he was also present at the Reparations Conferences in The Hague in 1929 and 1930. Redlhammer retired as a diplomat in 1933 and from then on worked in the private sector.

In the last years of the war, he managed a textile factory in Warnsdorf in the Sudetenland. In the first city council meeting of 1946, the Wiesbaden CDU parliamentary group elected him as its chairman, and on July 25, the city council then elected him with 57 of 59 votes as the first freely elected mayor of Wiesbaden after the Second World War (1946-53).

During his term of office, numerous companies such as Berlinische Leben, the administration of Didier-Werke or Deutsche Pfandbriefanstalt, several publishing houses as well as the Federal Statistical Office and the Federal Criminal Police Office moved to Wiesbaden. Together with the former Hessian Minister President Karl Geiler, Redlhammer founded the Franco-German Society in Wiesbaden and was appointed to the board of the Franco-German Cultural Foundation. After his term as Lord Mayor, he was President of the Gustav Stresemann Society. He was chairman of the Wiesbaden CDU until 1957.

Redlhammer's time in office was not a happy one at times. In December 1951, he was sentenced to three months in prison by the Wiesbaden district court for knowingly making false statements on a restitution questionnaire about his time as a diplomat. As a result, he was suspended from duty. Later, on April 23, 1953, he was acquitted in the second instance by the Limburg district court.

Nevertheless, trust in the municipal council was disturbed. It therefore voted him out as Lord Mayor on May 21, 1953 with the required two-thirds majority with the votes of the SPD, FDP and the BHE party. His own parliamentary group abstained from voting, while at the same time acknowledging Redlhammer's services to the reconstruction of the city. In 1967, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class.