Reese, Ernst Alfred Heinrich

Head of Social Affairs

Born: September 11, 1929 in Detmold (Lippe)

Died: January 17, 1984 in Wiesbaden

Reese was the son of Alfred Adolf Wilhelm Louis Reese (born 1902), a farmer who worked as an estate manager, and his wife Margarete Luise Pauline Marie Auguste Reese, née Fritzemeier (born 1909). He grew up on a farm and attended elementary school from Easter 1936 onwards, initially in Remminghausen and Spork-Eichholz. No reliable information is known about his membership of the Jungvolk and the Hitler Youth, which is likely based on his year of birth.

Apparently the family moved several times. Ernst Alfred Reese attended schools in Rennerod (Westerwald) and Runkel an der Lahn in the 1930s. From 1940 to 1946 he was a pupil at the secondary school in Diez. He graduated from secondary school there in 1946. In the same year, the family moved to the Rheingau, where his father took over the management of an estate.

In 1947, Ernst Alfred Reese began an administrative apprenticeship with the governor of the Wiesbaden District Municipal Association, the legal predecessor of the Hesse State Welfare Association (LWV). He attended the administrative seminar in Wiesbaden and passed the administrative examination I in 1950, whereupon he was taken on as a probationary civil servant in the intermediate civil service. On March 15, 1952, Reese married Inge Emmy Hanny Roth (1931-1987) in Wiesbaden. Their first son was born in 1952. He was followed by another son and a daughter.

From 1952, Reese lived in the Rheingau district of Wiesbaden. In 1953, he passed the administrative examination II and thus qualified for the senior civil service. He was promoted to state inspector in 1954 and to senior state inspector in 1961. In 1957, he was also appointed as a civil servant for life. From 1956 to 1959, Reese attended the Academy of Administration and Economics in Mainz in his spare time.

Reese also joined the SPD in 1953. From 1955 to 1960, he was chairman of the Jusos in the Wiesbaden sub-district. He was also chairman of the Southwest local association (Rheingauviertel) and a member of the SPD sub-district executive.

Reese had been a member of the Wiesbaden city council for the SPD since the 1960 local elections. From 1964 to 1968 he was deputy chairman and from 1968 to 1971 chairman of the finance and economic committee of the city council. He was also a member of the Main Committee, the Objections Committee, the Committee of Elders, the Rhine-Main Committee and various social deputations, committees and commissions, such as the Youth Care Committee, the Deputation for Health and Hospitals and the Operating Commission for Health Resorts. From 1966, Reese also held the office of SPD parliamentary group manager and headed the SPD parliamentary group's youth and social welfare working group.

Reese was also active beyond the region. He was a member of the Social Affairs Committee and the Health Committee of the Hessian Association of Cities and Towns, as well as a member of the Association Assembly from 1965 to 1969 and from 1977 to 1981, and a member of the Administrative Committee of the Hesse State Welfare Association from 1969 to 1977.

Parallel to his political career, Reese pursued a career as a senior civil servant. While working for the State Welfare Association in various areas of supra-local social welfare, most recently as head of the department for "Health and Physical Disability Care", he moved to the personnel department of the Hessian Ministry of Culture in February 1962. There he rose to become a government official by 1965. At the end of the 1960s, Reese worked in Department P I 2 "Legislation and fundamental issues in the areas of civil service law, collective bargaining law, social security law" as a case officer for issues relating to civil service and career law for academic staff at universities. In May 1970, Reese was appointed to the post of Regierungsamtsrat with special permission from the State Personnel Office. In 1971, he was the only candidate to be elected as Wiesbaden's head of social affairs. His goals included rationalization measures as part of budget consolidation and flatter management structures in the offices for which he was responsible.

During his ten years of service, Reese persistently demanded additional funding for his area of responsibility and also sharply criticized the federal and state governments in this context. Reese also worked on a voluntary basis for various institutions, such as the Wiesbaden-Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis non-profit association for the disabled, of which he was chairman until his death. He also took on leading roles at the Zimmermannʼschen Stiftung - Versorgungshaus für alte Leute Wiesbaden, the Institut für Erziehungshilfe Wiesbaden and the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der freien und behördlichen Wohlfahrtspflege.

Reese was re-elected in October 1976. On the occasion of his 50th birthday in 1979, the Wiesbaden press praised his commitment to social issues, especially for the socially disadvantaged. Reese was also committed to improving relations between the FRG and Israel. For example, he promoted a German-Israeli youth exchange, which developed into the town twinning with Kfar Sava.

Reese's term of office saw the establishment of the first senior citizens' advisory council (1976) and the establishment of various youth centers (for example in Biebrich in 1977). There were also new construction projects in the areas of retirement homes and hospitals. During his time in office, the construction of two inner-city daycare centers on Kronprinzenstraße and Luxemburgplatz and the establishment of the workshop for the disabled on Hagenauer Straße in 1979 were also highlighted. At the same time, however, there were also minor political scandals in the social sector, for example in connection with the PUB youth center in Friedrichstrasse.

In the summer of 1980, Ernst Alfred Reese's health deteriorated and he left office prematurely at the end of 1980 at his own request.

Reese married a second time in 1981 and died in Wiesbaden on January 17, 1984.