Newman, James R.

Governor of the Military Government of Greater Hesse

Born: 24.09.1902 in Quality (Kentucky)

died: 23.12.1964 in Augusta (Georgia)

Newman studied art at Western Kentucky State Teachers College and received his doctorate in education from Columbia University in 1930. He then attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and volunteered for the army as a reservist in 1934. Before being called up to the armed forces in 1941, he was principal of the 16th school in Elmont County, New York, and worked in school administration. In 1944, he was transferred to Europe and quickly rose to the top of the European Civil Affairs Division in France, which was responsible for rebuilding the civil administration. He assumed similar responsibilities as commander of the US military unit E1A2 (E-5 from August 1945) and on May 18, 1945, established the first German civilian provincial government after the end of the Second World War in Neustadt an der Weinstraße.

With the proclamation of the state of Hesse on September 26, 1945, Newman became head of the military government of Greater Hesse (Office of Military Government Greater Hesse, OMGGH) and appointed the liberal-conservative, non-partisan business lawyer Prof. Karl Geiler (1878-1953) as Minister President on October 12, 1945. On the same day, he appointed Wiesbaden as the seat of the administration and the state capital. On December 19, 1946, he also opened the first session of the Hessian State Parliament in the City Palace with a speech.

After the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, Newman was appointed Land Commissioner and thus also head of the "Civilian High Commission for Hesse" (HICOG), while the military government of Hesse was dissolved on September 30. After the signing of the "General Treaty" between Germany and the three Western powers USA, France and Great Britain on May 26, 1952, the occupation status was gradually lifted and the office of Land Commissioner was abolished in June 1952. Newman returned to the USA and subsequently served in the 95th Civil Affairs Group at Fort Gordon in Georgia.

After his death in 1964, he was buried at the National Cemetery in Arlington. In 2012, a street in the newly opened Newman Village Housing Area in Wiesbaden was named after him.

Baker, Anni: Wiesbaden and the Americans 1945-2003: The Social, Economic, and Political Impact of the U.S. Forces in Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden 2004 (Schriften des Stadtarchivs Wiesbaden 9).

"Wonderland. The Americans in Wiesbaden. Edited by: Müller, Helmut, Frankfurt am Main 2013.