Werner Bockelmann (23 September 1907 – 7 April 1968) was a German lawyer and politician of the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...

, who served as the

Mayor of Frankfurt The Mayor of Frankfurt (German: (male) or (female), sometimes translated as "Lord Mayor") is the highest-ranking member of city government in Frankfurt, Germany. The mayor was traditionally elected by the city council. This system was replaced i ...

between 1957 and 1964.

Early life and education

Bockelmann was born in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

to a German banker, , and fellow German Anna Bockelmann (née Förster). The family was quite rich. In 1920, the Bockelmann family moved to Germany. After attending the

Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums The ''Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums'' ( ''Academic School of the Johanneum'', short: Johanneum) is a '' Gymnasium'', or grammar school, in Hamburg, Germany. It is Hamburg's oldest school and was founded in 1529 by Johannes Bugenhagen. The sch ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, Bockelmann studied Law at the universities of

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

and

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

. He became a lawyer in Hamburg in 1935. Bockelmann was the

Chief of Staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supportin ...

of the

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official military branch, branche ...

between 1941 and 1945.

Political career

Bockelmann's first political experience was in the city of

Lüneburg Lüneburg, officially the Hanseatic City of Lüneburg and also known in English as Lunenburg, is a town in the German Bundesland (Germany), state of Lower Saxony. It is located about southeast of another Hanseatic League, Hanseatic city, Hambur ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

. He served as the mayor of Lüneburg between 1945 and 1946, and became a

city manager A city manager is an official appointed as the administrative manager of a city in the council–manager form of city government. Local officials serving in this position are referred to as the chief executive officer (CEO) or chief administ ...

in 1946, staying in that role until 1955. From 1955 to 1957 Bockelmann was the mayor of

Ludwigshafen Ludwigshafen, officially Ludwigshafen am Rhein (; meaning "Ludwig I of Bavaria, Ludwig's Port upon the Rhine"; Palatine German dialects, Palatine German: ''Ludwichshafe''), is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in the German state of Rh ...

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

. In 1957, Bockelmann was elected as Mayor of Frankfurt am Main. During his tenure, the decision was made to create a city railway, which would become the

Frankfurt U-Bahn The Frankfurt U-Bahn is a Stadtbahn ( premetro) system serving Frankfurt, Germany. Together with the Rhine-Main S-Bahn and the tram network, it forms the backbone of the public transport system in Frankfurt. Its name derives from the German te ...

. Other defining events of Bockelmann's time in office were the re-construction of the University of Frankfurt, the creation of the "Nordweststadt" area of Frankfurt and the building of one of Frankfurt's first skyscrapers, the "Zurich House" (which has since been destroyed). Bockelmann met with US President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

when he visited Frankfurt in 1963, accompanying Kennedy at the signing of the "Golden Book" at the Frankfurt Rathaus. Bockelmann did not enjoy great popularity during his tenure as mayor, perhaps due to him being seen as an outsider, given his north-German origins. Bockelmann was re-elected as mayor following local elections in 1960, but left office in 1964 on medical grounds. He was succeeded in office by Willi Brundert.

Personal life and death

Bockelmann married and had four sons, Mischa, Andrej, Martin and Thomas. is a sociologist and journalist, and is an actor and director, who has served as the director of several theatres in Germany. Werner Bockelmann was the uncle of Austrian pop-singer

Udo Jürgens Jürgen Udo Bockelmann (30 September 1934 – 21 December 2014), generally known as Udo Jürgens, was an Austrian composer and singer of popular music whose career spanned over 50 years. He won the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 for Austria, ...

. Bockelmann died in a car accident on 7 April 1968. He was 60 years old at the time of his death. Also fatally injured was Christian Social Union politician Georg Brauchle, who died of his injuries just over two weeks later.{{Cite news , date=7 April 2008 , title=Werner Bockelmann verunglückt tödlich , work=Frankfurter Rundschau , url=https://www.fr.de/politik/werner-bockelmann-verunglueckt-toedlich-11592205.html , access-date=2 June 2022

References

1907 births 1968 deaths Mayors of Frankfurt 20th-century German politicians Kriegsmarine personnel of World War II Road incident deaths in Germany People educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums