The city of Koblenz mourns the loss of its honorary citizen and former mayor Eberhard Schulte-Wissermann. He died on the night of September 14 at the age of 81. Schu-Wi, as many Koblenz residents called him, was associated with his hometown in political offices for many decades. From 1974 to 1994, the lawyer with a doctorate and his own law firm in the Rhine-Moselle city was a member of the city council and was elected mayor of the city of Koblenz in 1994 – in the first ever direct election by the citizens. He held this office until April 2010. In September 2019, the city council decided to award Schulte-Wissermann the honorary citizen award for his services to the city of Koblenz. Mayor David Langner presented him with the honorary citizenship certificate at a ceremony in the Electoral Palace.
Schu-Wi, born in 1942, served his hometown of Koblenz with great commitment and his honorary citizenship letter states: “He did this with tireless diligence, with extraordinary reliability, great care and the unconditional will to develop the city positively. He always put himself behind the well-being of all Koblenz residents.”
Schulte-Wissermann was considered a visionary and a practitioner who pushed forward large projects with great enthusiasm. He drove modernization in the administration, for example by expanding IT technology at workplaces or by establishing in-house companies. During his term of office, major construction projects took place, such as flood protection in Ehrenbreitstein, the then new train station square, the new adult education center and music school, and the redesign of the central square. His name is also associated with the application for the Federal Garden Show, which was a great success story in 2011 with 3.5 million enthusiastic guests.
“We are very sad about the death of Eberhard Schulte-Wissermann. He did a great job for Koblenz and rightly received honorary citizenship of our city. His civic-minded manner earned him great recognition across the population. For him, people were always the most important thing. He accompanied me personally from my beginnings in politics. The city of Koblenz will always be grateful to him, even after his death, for his reliable, humane work, blessed with extraordinary integrative skills. Koblenz is losing one of the great personalities in the city’s history,” said Mayor David Langner in an initial reaction to the death of Eberhard Schulte-Wissermann.
