Lanz, Friedrich Wilhelm

Lawyer, Lord Mayor

born: 04.06.1829 in Oberlahnstein

died: 07.05.1882 in Neesbach near Hünfeld

Lanz studied law in Heidelberg from 1847-51. In 1854 he joined the Nassau civil service, initially working as a military auditor (court martial councillor) and was taken on as a government assessor in the general civil service.

When Mayor Heinrich Fischer retired in 1868, Lanz was elected as his successor and confirmed by the Prussian government in August 1868. Three years after taking office, Kaiser Wilhelm I awarded him the title of "Lord Mayor". This made him the first Lord Mayor of the city of Wiesbaden. After a 12-year term of office, he was elected a second time.

Important urban development projects were realized under his aegis. These included the purchase of the estate of Chief Forestry Councillor Carl-Reinhard Dern in 1868 and the establishment of the former manor house as the town hall, the completion of the synagogue on Michelsberg in 1869, the demolition of the clock tower in 1873, the first horse-drawn tramway in Wiesbaden (the eleventh in Germany) in 1875 and the construction of the Bergkirche in 1877-79. The founding of the municipal spa office under Ferdinand Hey'l as municipal spa director heralded a beneficial development in the spa industry. The town took over the entire spa establishment from the Prussian state for 300,000 marks. In 1876, Lanz also initiated the designs for the construction of a new town hall. In April 1882, the first "Congress for Internal Medicine" was held in Wiesbaden.

Lanz was buried in the Old Cemetery. Lanzstraße commemorates this important city leader.