Darmstadt (dpa/lhe) – Former Darmstadt mayor Horst Knechtel is dead. As the city of Darmstadt announced on Thursday, Knechtel died on Wednesday at the age of 79. Darmstadt’s Lord Mayor Jochen Partsch (Greens) expressed his sincere condolences to Knechtel’s wife and family. “With Horst Knechtel, our city loses a clever person, a valuable discussion partner, an experienced and committed local politician and administrator,” explains Partsch.
Knechtel was “always a pillar of our municipal democracy and city society” in all his functions, as Darmstadt mayor, as a member of the magistrate and head of the city council, as headmaster and administrative employee. “With his enthusiasm for education and politics, with his far-sightedness and willingness to compromise, he shaped Darmstadt’s local politics far away from party lines for years, filled them with life and permanently changed the Darmstadt cityscape.
Knechtel was born on April 5, 1943 in Posen, Poland, and worked in various departments at the regional council in Darmstadt for eleven years. For 20 years he was state school director and manager of all seven Hessian administration seminars. He has held this position again since 2003. From 1976 to 2012, Knechtel was also chairman of the SPD local association Gervinus in Darmstadt and for decades a delegate at various party conferences of the SPD.
