Ludwig Landmann (18 May 1868 – 5 March 1945) was a liberal

German Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321 CE, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish commu ...

politician of the Weimar Republic. Landmann belonged first to the National Social party, then the Progressive People's Party, and finally, after the

German revolution German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

of 1918, the

German Democratic Party The German Democratic Party (, DDP) was a liberal political party in the Weimar Republic, considered centrist or centre-left. Along with the right-liberal German People's Party (, DVP), it represented political liberalism in Germany between 19 ...

. He eventually moved from Mannheim to

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

, where he became

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 ...

from 1924 until 1933 and led a significant expansion of the city. Through reorganizations and construction, Landmann gave the city new luster. Landmann was the first

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

mayor of Frankfurt. At the time he was mayor he hired the architect Ernst May to organize a new housing project, which became known as the '' New Frankfurt'' (Neues Frankfurt). Landmann also founded the '' Nassauische Heimstätte'' (Nassau Home), a housing association to improve the access to decent housing amongst the wider population. After the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

election victory in the municipal elections on 12 March 1933, he was expelled from his office. He then handed in his official resignation as mayor. He was succeeded by Friedrich Krebs of the

NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers ...

. Landmann left then for Berlin. But because of his Jewish ancestry, he was exposed to various antisemitic Nazi harassment; among other things, his pension payments were temporarily stopped. In 1939, he left Germany and emigrated to the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, the home of his wife. After the

German occupation of the Netherlands Despite Dutch neutrality, Nazi Germany German invasion of the Netherlands, invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940 as part of ''Fall Gelb'' (Case Yellow). On 15 May 1940, one day after the Rotterdam Blitz, bombing of Rotterdam, the Dutch forces ...

from 1940, he was hidden by relatives and friends to protect him from deportation, and possible death. He died in 1945 in hiding from

malnutrition Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients which adversely affects the body's tissues a ...

during Holland's ' Hunger Winter'. Today Ludwig Landmann Street in Frankfurt is dedicated to his memory. A portrait of the mayor by William Runze, a painter from the Sossenheim district of Frankfurt, hangs in the Council Hall at the Römer, Frankfurt's City Hall.

References

;Sources *Dieter Rebentisch. ''Ludwig Landmann. Frankfurter Oberbürgermeister der Weimarer Republik''. Wiesbaden 1975, (basing on Rebentischs dissertation, University of Frankfurt am Main, 1970) Politicians from Mannheim Politicians from Hesse-Nassau 1868 births 1945 deaths Mayors of Frankfurt Burials at Frankfurt Main Cemetery Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the Netherlands Deaths by starvation German Jews who died in the Holocaust {{Germany-DDP-politician-stub