Arnulf Klett (8 April 1905 in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

Kingdom of Württemberg The Kingdom of Württemberg (german: Königreich Württemberg ) was a German state that existed from 1805 to 1918, located within the area that is now Baden-Württemberg. The kingdom was a continuation of the Duchy of Württemberg, which exist ...

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

- 14 August 1974 on the Bühlerhöhe/

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

lawyer and politician. He was the first Lord Mayor of Stuttgart after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

(from 1945 until his death in 1974) and has been the Lord mayor with the longest period in office of that city.

Early life

After completing high school with an

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

in 1923, he studied

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...

, earning a

Doctor of Law A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL ...

in 1928. From 1930, he worked as a lawyer in Stuttgart.

Lord Mayor of Stuttgart

Having been at the least critical towards the

Nazi regime Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

and not belonging to any party, he was installed as Lord Mayor of Stuttgart by the French military administration after the war. In 1948, in the first free mayoral elections, he was confirmed in that office by a significant majority of the Stuttgart electorate. He won re-election into eight-year terms three times in 1956, 1964 and 1972 so that he stayed in office until his death in 1974, for a total of almost 30 years. In 1948, he was the initiator of a city partnership between Stuttgart and St Helens, the first post-war twinning to take place between Britain and Germany. In 1961, he was the initiator of a city partnership between Stuttgart and

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

, as part of the improvement of the post-war Franco-German friendship. Klett also initiated the re-building and major extension of

public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

in post-war Stuttgart, most of the

Stuttgart Stadtbahn The Stuttgart Stadtbahn is a light rail system in Stuttgart, Germany. The Stadtbahn began service on 28 September 1985. It is operated by the Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen AG (SSB), which also operates the bus systems in that city. The Stuttgar ...

system - one of the most extensive of such networks in Europe - was built up during his term.

Role in reconstruction

His role in dealing with the reconstruction of the large portions of the city destroyed by the

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

bombing of Stuttgart in World War II was controversial, as in most cases he preferred and succeeded to completely demolish buildings that weren't completely damaged and to not rebuild them in the original style, so that not much of pre-war Stuttgart is left in the city's current architecture. The most prominent example of this was the demolition of the old

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style town hall, that was replaced by a modern building, built 1953-1956.

Honors

A subway passage, opened in 1976, leading from ''Königstraße'' to Stuttgart's main train station building ( Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof) is named after Arnulf Klett as well as the square directly adjacent to the west of that train station. {{DEFAULTSORT:Klett, Arnulf 1905 births 1974 deaths Mayors of Stuttgart University of Tübingen alumni Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany