Mix, Erich

Lawyer, Lord Mayor

Born: 27.06.1898 in Labuhnken (West Prussia)

died: 09.04.1971 in Wiesbaden

Mix is one of the few Lord Mayors in Germany who held this office both during the Nazi era and in the Federal Republic. He was married to Erna Mix, née Thiem. After graduating from high school in 1916, Mix took part in the First World War as an infantryman and airplane pilot. He then studied law and political science in Berlin and Greifswald.

He joined the NSDAP in 1931. In 1931 he became 2nd mayor in Stolp (Pomerania), in 1933 mayor in Stettin (Pomerania), in 1934 in Tilsit (East Prussia). From 1937-45 he was Lord Mayor of Wiesbaden. From 1939 onwards, he only held the office formally, as he was drafted into the air force and granted leave from his duties as Lord Mayor. From 1944 onwards, Mix was a colonel in the reserve. Mayor Felix Piékarski, a fanatical National Socialist, took over the official duties in Wiesbaden during this time. Mix was already a member of the SS in 1933, but temporarily resigned in 1934 because he had been appointed head of the district office for local politics. In 1939, he rejoined the SS as Obersturmbannführer and was promoted to Standartenführer in 1944. Mix was in contact with Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, who wanted to appoint him head of the city of Berlin, but then refrained from doing so.

After the war, Mix was imprisoned by the Americans in Darmstadt. In 1946, a Darmstadt court judged him to be "incriminated, level II". The appeals court, a Wiesbaden court, only classified him as "less incriminated, level III", and after a probation period of six months he was considered a "follower, level IV". In his dissertation, Wiesbaden historian Philipp Kratz showed that Mix was responsible for the expropriation of Wiesbaden Jews in 1937 and 1938 and, after the war, was again responsible for the restitution of Jewish property as an expert witness before the Restitution Chamber.

Mix joined the FDP, from 1952-54 he was a city councillor, and in 1953/54 he was head of the city council. In 1954, a coalition of FDP and CDU elected him Lord Mayor. He held the office until 1960, when a new party constellation elected Georg Buch as Lord Mayor. Mix's NSDAP term of office saw the inauguration of the new fountain colonnade with rotunda at the Kurhaus and the redesigned theater colonnade, while his FDP term of office saw the opening of the Rhein-Main-Hallen in 1957. Mix was a member of the Hessian state parliament from 1958-66, chairman of the FDP state parliamentary group from 1961-63 and later vice president of the state parliament. For a time, he was also district chairman of the German Red Cross.