Engineer, Chairman of the Management Board of Wiesbadener Stadtwerke AG

Born: August 25, 1878 in Kirberg (am Taunus)
Died: November 18, 1949 in Wiesbaden

Christian Bücher was the nephew of the renowned Leipzig national economist Prof. Karl Bücher (1847 - 1930) and older brother of the long-standing AEG Chairman of the Board Hermann Bücher (1882 - 1951). Until the age of 17, Christian Bücher received private tuition from the Kirberg dean and pastor Arnold Vogel, the son of the distinguished Nassau historian Christian Daniel Vogel.

In 1899, Bücher began studying engineering at the Rheinisches Technikum Bingen, which he successfully completed in 1902. He then completed a year of training at the Fresenius Chemical Laboratory. In 1902, he was taken on by the waterworks administration of the city of Wiesbaden and soon gained a reputation as an outstanding expert in the expansion of the Schierstein waterworks. The Schierstein waterworks was of great importance for supplying Wiesbaden with drinking water because it was foreseeable that the water supply from the Taunus deep tunnels would not be sufficient to supply the city. It was therefore necessary to turn Rhine water into pure water. Bücher accomplished the task with flying colors. Bücher's rise within the company began with his appointment as head of the waterworks in 1922.

In the years that followed, Christian Bücher was a recognized expert in the field of municipal management in the Rhine-Main region. He was largely responsible for the founding of Kraftwerke Mainz-Wiesbaden AG (KMW) for the joint generation of electricity and gas. This was preceded by the transformation of Wiesbadener Städtische Werke into a public limited company. Bücher became director and general manager of both companies in 1930 and 1931 respectively.

Christian Bücher joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1937. He was also a member of the National Socialist People's Welfare Association, the National Socialist Association of German Technology, the Reich Air Protection Association and the Reich Association of German Hunters. Between 1933 and 1939, Bücher donated several hundred Reichsmarks to the Nazi Victims' Ring. The NS-Opferring was an institution organized at district level that served to collect donations and other contributions from the NSDAP. Party membership was not required.

Due to staff shortages, the Wiesbaden employment office assigned forced laborers to the municipal utilities to ensure the supply of electricity and water. In 1943, at least 35 prisoners of war were forced to work at Stadtwerke Wiesbaden. Forced laborers had to repair damaged water, gas and electricity lines, among other things. In addition to the prisoners of war, there is evidence of at least five French civilian workers. They were employed by the municipal utilities as bus drivers, vehicle mechanics and locksmiths.

Shortly after the end of the war, Bücher wrote a report on the situation in the city of Wiesbaden shortly before it was conquered by US troops on March 28, 1945. This report is the basis for a narrative that Bücher attempts to place in a context of resistance and which would have deserved a more detailed historical reappraisal.

In the report, the director of the waterworks describes his efforts against the destruction of the water and power lines ordered by NSDAP mayor Felix Piékarski and the closure of the waterworks.

Together with Karl Stempelmann, who later became the director of the municipal utilities, Bücher reportedly contacted the Wehrmacht combat commander in Wiesbaden, Colonel Wilhelm Zierenberg, on March 27, 1945 and obtained a ban on the destruction of the water, gas and electricity works. This ban is said to have prevented acts of sabotage and attempted destruction and enabled the city to be handed over to the US Army without a fight.

As the combat commander in Wiesbaden was in command, Bücher acted in agreement with the last German leadership of the city. There is no evidence of an act of resistance in the narrower sense, especially as the Nazi leadership had already handed over control of the city to the Wehrmacht. The acts of sabotage mentioned in the report cannot be substantiated.

Christian Bücher managed the reconstruction of destroyed utility plants and pursued plans for the construction of reservoirs to produce drinking water in the upper Rheingau. He retired on March 31, 1948 after 45 years of service.

Christian Bücher died in Wiesbaden on November 18, 1949 and was buried in Wiesbaden's Südfriedhof cemetery. The ESWE event hall in Weidenbornstraße was named after him in 1990.

Due to his articulation of National Socialist ideology in a speech to the staff of the waterworks, his membership in various Nazi organizations, his overall responsibility as CEO of Wiesbadener Stadtwerke AG for the use of prisoners of war and the associated involvement in the deliberate harming of other people between 1933 and 1945, the Historical Commission appointed by the City Council in 2020 to review traffic areas, buildings and facilities named after people in the state capital of Wiesbaden recommended renaming Christian-Bücher-Straße. The Schierstein local advisory council followed the recommendation at its meeting on 13.03.2024 and renamed Christian-Bücher-Straße as Hafenstraße.

[This text was created by Klaus Kopp for the 2017 printed version of the Wiesbaden city lexicon and revised and supplemented by Dr. Katherine Lukat in 2024]