18 Facts About Walter Kolb

Walter Eugen Kolb was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party who served as Mayor of Frankfurt from 1946 until his death in 1956.

The family lived in Bonn, where Walter Kolb studied at Beethoven Gymnasium and later at the University of Bonn, where he studied law.

In 1920 Walter Kolb joined the SPD whilst a student at Bonn.

In 1924, Walter Kolb took up his first position as a judicial clerk, and he moved to Berlin in 1931 to work in the Ministry of Agriculture.

Walter Kolb entered politics in 1932, becoming the "Landrat" of the Herrschaft Schmalkalden district in Hesse.

Walter Kolb initially sought to emigrate abroad but decided against the idea.

Walter Kolb opened a law firm in Bonn, where he defended political prisoners; he was arrested for these activities several times.

In 1945, Walter Kolb escaped from a prison transport and went into hiding until then end of the war.

Walter Kolb was the first mayor to be elected since the Nazis took power in 1933.

Walter Kolb initiated the reconstruction of Frankfurt's Old Town, with the rebuilding of the Romer, Frankfurt Cathedral and the Goethe House all occurring under Kolb's leadership.

Walter Kolb sought to revive the Messe Frankfurt and rebuild Frankfurt Airport.

In 1946, Kolb encouraged the intellectuals Max Horkheimer, Theodor W Adorno and Friedrich Pollock, who had been living in exile in the USA, to return to Frankfurt.

In 1946 Walter Kolb instructed the Frankfurt City Archives to collect files relating to the persecution of Jews during the Nazi era, which gave rise to the Commission for Research into the History of Frankfurt's Jews on 17 May 1961.

Walter Kolb sought to secure Frankfurt as the capital of West Germany, but these efforts failed in 1949, with Bonn eventually becoming the capital.

In 1954, Walter Kolb was elected for a second term as Mayor of Frankfurt.

Walter Kolb died two years later in 1956, having been Mayor of Frankfurt for ten consecutive years.

Walter Kolb died of heart failure on 20 September 1956, aged 54.

Walter Kolb's coffin was followed by over 100,000 people; Kolb was very popular amongst the Frankfurt populace.