For many Hamburgers, he was the embodiment of a Hanseatic:For nine years, the SPD politician Henning Voscherau led the fortunes of the Hanseatic city as First Mayor. He would have been 80 years old on August 13.
"A Hanseatic citizen gives his word, verbally or with a handshake - and he keeps it," Henning Voscherau once said, probably describing himself a bit. For many citizens, Hamburg's long-time mayor was the embodiment of a Hanseatic citizen. He was born in Hamburg on August 13, 1941, the son of the actor Carl Voscherau.
PhD lawyer and "born socialite"
After graduating from the Oberalster Gymnasium in Poppenbüttel, Voscherau studied law and economics at the University of Hamburg and received his doctorate in 1969. From 1974 to 2011 he worked as a notary and lawyer in the Hanseatic city - with an interruption during his time as mayor. Subsequently as a lawyer for real estate, corporate, family and inheritance law in an office community with his son. He had three children with his wife Annerose, a pharmacist.
Voscherau's political career began in 1966 when he joined the SPD, four years later he was elected to the Wandsbek district assembly, of which he was a member until 1974.
"Politics without tactics is like soup without salt"
In the same year, he changed to the Hamburg Parliament and the parliamentary group leader of the SPD. In 1982 he held the position of chairman of his party's parliamentary group and held this position until 1987. A year later, Voscherau finally succeeded First Mayor Klaus von Dohnanyi and entered into a coalition with the FDP.
Voscherau was considered a passionate tactician. For him, politics without tactics is "like soup without salt," the social democrat once admitted in a television interview. Voscherau acquired the reputation of a tactician with a moral drive in May 1985 when he wanted to resign from the post of parliamentary group leader because, in his opinion, the Senate was not doing enough to uncover a scandal about Hamburg's city cleaning department.
"Pioneering future achievements for the city"
For nine years, from 1988 to 1997, Voscherau was Lord Mayor of Hamburg City Hall.German reunification also took place during Voscherau's tenure. The social democrat quickly recognized what an opportunity, but also what a challenge, the fall of the Wall meant for Hamburg. "I am very proud of what I consider to be groundbreaking achievements for the future of the city," said Voscherau later. These were primarily 50,000 new apartments and major infrastructure projects such as the airport expansion, the first Elbe deepening and the port expansion.
"Restoration of legal peace" with Hafenstrasse contract
From 1991, Voscherau governed the Hanseatic city with an absolute majority. The major domestic political issue of his second term was Hafenstrasse. Initially, the social democrat wanted the squats to be cleared and demolished, but changed his mind in 1994. He later called it "the test of the example":"The goal that has been at stake from the beginning is not demolition as an end in itself, but the restoration of legal peace and non-violent, good neighborly relations." And they actually came through the contract with Hafenstraße.
Henning Voscherau:The "Father of Hafencity"
Voscherau's vision of the expanded inner city led to today's Hafencity. Since 2019, a square there has been reminiscent of him.In May 1997, half a year before the end of his term, Voscherau spoke publicly for the first time about his vision for a HafenCity:"As far as the city center as the heart and figurehead of Hamburg is concerned, I have the vision of a revitalized urban space. The expansion of the city center around the inner-city harbor edge opens up the unique opportunity to make this vision a reality." As the "father of Hafencity", Voscherau received the Mayor-Stolten Medal in 2011, the city's highest award.
Green coalition? "I don't go along with every nonsense"
At his last state press conference in 1997, the outgoing head of government had tears in his eyes.In the 1990s, the Green Party (GAL) grew stronger in Hamburg, but remained a red rag for Voscherau. "I don't go along with any nonsense," he said of a possible coalition with the Greens. Years later he accused the Greens of "blunders" and "tangles". In 1997, the SPD won the state elections, but with 36.2 percent of the votes had to accept the worst result of the Social Democrats in the Hanseatic city after the end of the war. Voscherau, who previously set a "pain limit" at 38 percent, refused to govern together with the GAL and declared on the evening of the election that he would no longer run for the office of mayor.
In 2007 he almost became the top candidate of the Social Democrats again as an emergency helper, but then surprisingly withdrew at short notice. He considered Olaf Scholz (SPD) a worthy successor:"A very disciplined, loyal, straightforward person who has great skills and from whom one will hear a lot of positive things."
Excursion to Gazprom
Voscherau caused a stir in the media in 2012 when he was elected chairman of the supervisory board of the joint venture South Stream Transport AG. This made him the second German SPD politician after Gerhard Schröder to get involved with the Russian energy company Gazprom. Voscherau was supposed to advance the controversial gas pipeline from Russia through the Black Sea to Europe, but the project was shelved in 2014.
The "right man" for the Minimum Wage Commission
In 2014, Voscherau held the office of chairman of the minimum wage commission appointed by the federal government. Both the German Trade Union Confederation and the Confederation of German Employers saw the Hanseatic as the "right man" for this task. The commission decides in which steps the statutory minimum wage of 8.50 euros, which was newly introduced in 2015, will be further increased.
Moving farewell at the Thalia Theater
"Now the curtain is lowering for the last time":Henning Voscherau's brother Eggert gave his brother's farewell speech in September 2016.At the beginning of April 2015, however, Voscherau had to give up his post for health reasons with immediate effect. He underwent an operation on his head at the UKE and only returned to the public six months later. On the night of August 24, 2016, he died surrounded by his family as a result of a brain tumor. He just celebrated his 75th birthday on August 13th.
Family and companions said goodbye to the original Hanseatic politician at a funeral service in the Thalia Theater. The Voscherau brothers spent many of their childhood days where their father was an actor. Henning Voscherau was buried in the Ohlsdorf cemetery. Since November 2019, Henning-Voscherau-Platz in HafenCitiy has been a reminder of Hamburg's long-standing mayor.