Carl Wilhelm Petersen (born 1 January 1868 in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
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, postal ...
; died 6 November 1933 in Hamburg) was a German lawyer, politician for the
German Democratic Party
The German Democratic Party (, or DDP) was a center-left liberal party in the Weimar Republic. Along with the German People's Party (, or DVP), it represented political liberalism in Germany between 1918 and 1933. It was formed in 1918 from the ...
(German abbr.: DDP) and
First Mayor of Hamburg
The following is a chronological list of mayors of Hamburg, a city-state in Germany. The mayors are the head of the city-state, part of the government of Hamburg. Since 1861, according to the constitution of 28 September 1860, the state has bee ...
(1924 – 29 and 1932 – 33).
Petersen, who in 1912 ranked among the 200 richest Hamburgers, was elected a member of the
Hamburg Parliament
The Hamburg Parliament (german: Hamburgische Bürgerschaft; literally “Hamburgish Citizenry”) is the unicameral legislature of the German state of Hamburg according to the constitution of Hamburg. As of 2011 there were 121 members in the parli ...
in 1899. His grandfather
Carl Friedrich Petersen
Carl Friedrich Petersen (6 July 1809 in Hamburg – 14 November 1892 in Hamburg) was a Hamburg lawyer and politician, who served several terms as First Mayor of Hamburg. He was a Hamburg senator from 1855 until his death.
Education and early car ...
had officiated as Hamburg's head of government (first burgomaster) until his death in 1892. A member of the
Progressive People's Party he joined the faction of the right. After in 1906 Hamburg's new suffrage law (nicknamed Wahlrechtsraub, i.e. suffrage robbery) increased the influence of voters paying high taxes on the expense of others, which Petersen opposed, he joined the newly formed faction of the , one of the predecessors of the post-World War I DDP. Petersen became the head of the United Liberals.
On 20 April 1918 the Hamburg Parliament elected Petersen a lifelong Senator of Hamburg. On 12 November 1918 the
Hamburg revolutionary Soldiers' and Workers' Council deposed the
Senate of Hamburg
The government of Hamburg is divided into executive, legislative and judicial branches. Hamburg is a city-state and municipality, and thus its governance deals with several details of both state and local community politics. It takes place in two ...
, but reappointed senate and senators as acting administration only on 18 November. In this function Petersen continued into the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...
, until the complete senate resigned on 27 March 1919, thus ending the life-term mandates under Hamburg's old 1860 constitution.
On 28–30 March 1919 the Hamburg Parliament, first time elected under equal suffrage by men and women of Hamburg, elected a new senate, into which Petersen and six more pre-war senators were reëlected, besides eleven new senators. Petersen gained 103 of 160 votes. Petersen was reëlected senator in 1921, 1924, 1928, 1931 and 1932. In 1919 Petersen himself was no member of the Hamburg Parliament any more, but returned from 1921 to 1924 and again from 1928 to 1933.
Petersen had a Jewish mother.
He fought against
anti-Semitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
.
Bernhard Lustig, (1884-1969) who served with
Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
during
WWI
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, in a 1961 interview tells, that in a meeting of the party in Munich, after a debate, Hitler refused to talk about the issues but attacked, in rage, Petersen, that his mother is
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
. Petersen replied proudly, yes, "my mother was Jewish. She was a wonderful woman."
Haretz, Dec 22, 1961
The man who served in the same regiment as Hitler by Natan Ribon ..The basement episodes
Mr. Lustig ran into Hitler one more time .. after the (first world) war. It was in Munich at the meeting of the "Democratic Party" held in ... basement. In the debate that arose after the words of Mr. Petersen, he was the mayor of Hamburg at the time, the disheveled and tattered figure of Adolf Hitler suddenly stood up from the crowd of listeners. Instead of replying to the substance of things, the young man struck by the sick hatred for Jews burst out with hateful anti-Semitic words, he accused Peterson that his mother is Jewish. Mr. Lustig cites the sentence that Petersen replied to Hitler and which was engraved -his verbatim and spirit- into his memory: "Indeed - Peterson defied Hitler, "My mother is Jewish, she was a wonderful woman." They refused to recommend a promotion Mr. Lustig adds and says that Hitler's commander at headquarters, Unteroffizier, Weimar, who was his (Lustig's) personal friend, could not stand Hitler and rejected repeated requests to promote him. Lustig himself encountered Hitler several times when he visited the battalion headquarters on vacation. "He was an unusual type, closed in on himself and left the impression of being vague, as someone whose mind is not settled on him. He never participated in soldiers' celebrations and parties, and even at Christmas retired to a "corner to be alone." This impression coincides with Scheerer's suspicion of Hitler's secretive personality. "He did not receive gifts or letters from home from others. He never asked for freedom, nor did he show any interest in women like the other soldiers in battle." More than once, Lustig heard a negative opinion about Hitler's behavior as a soldier, from the mouth of his commander Weimar....
From 1919 to 1924 he was president of the DDP, then a member of the German Parliament
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...
, and in its successor German State Party
The German State Party (german: Deutsche Staatspartei or DStP) was a short-lived German political party of the Weimar Republic, formed by the merger of the German Democratic Party (Deutsche Demokratische Partei, DDP) with the People's National Rei ...
he was one of three collegial speakers from 1932 to 1933. In 1924 his fellow senators elected him First Mayor of Hamburg
The following is a chronological list of mayors of Hamburg, a city-state in Germany. The mayors are the head of the city-state, part of the government of Hamburg. Since 1861, according to the constitution of 28 September 1860, the state has bee ...
, thus head of state and of government (president of the senate) - though under the auspices of a primus inter pares
''Primus inter pares'' is a Latin phrase meaning first among equals. It is typically used as an honorary title for someone who is formally equal to other members of their group but is accorded unofficial respect, traditionally owing to their sen ...
regulation -, and reëlected until 1929. Then Petersen became Second Mayor (deputy mayor) under his successor First Mayor Rudolf Ross
Rudolf Adolf Wilhelm Ross (Also styled Roß, 22 March 1872 – 16 February 1951) was a German teacher, politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), member of the Hamburg Parliament and first Mayor of Hamburg.
Early life
Ross was born ...
, succeeding him again as of 1 January 1932. On 4 March 1933 he resigned from office as First Mayor and senator, unwilling to execute orders he considered illegal given by Hitler's new government. After the end of Hitler's reign the Control Commission for Germany - British Element
Germany was already de facto occupied by the Allies from the real fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 October 1949. The Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and France ...
appointed his younger brother Rudolf Petersen
Rudolf Hieronymus Petersen (30 December 1878 in Hamburg – 10 September 1962 in Wentorf bei Hamburg) was a German businessman, politician ( CDU) and First Mayor of Hamburg (1945–46).
Petersen's brother Carl Wilhelm Petersen was head of Ha ...
First Mayor in 1945.
Sources
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External links
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1868 births
1933 deaths
German Lutherans
Members of the Hamburg Parliament
German Democratic Party politicians
Members of the Weimar National Assembly
Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic
Mayors of Hamburg
Heidelberg University alumni
Leipzig University alumni
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