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Rudolph Heinrich von Beckerath


born January 20, 1863 in Krefeld, died May 13, 1945 in Wiesbaden, was a German lawyer and civil servant.


Father: Gerhard Benjamin von Beckerath (1827-1871)
Mother: Mathilde Emilie Seyffardt


Rudolf von Beckerath was born the son of the merchant and manufacturer Gerhard Benjamin von Beckerath. After attending high school in Krefeld, he studied law at the University of Bonn and the University of Berlin and received his doctorate. legal PhD. On June 5, 1888, von Beckerath, who was a Mennonite, married Elisabeth Georgine born Wilhelmi (born February 4, 1865). Together they had a daughter.


In 1881/1882 he served as a one-year volunteer with the 1st Rhenish Hussar Regiment No. 7. In September 1902 he left the Landwehr cavalry as a cavalry captain.

In 1890 he passed the second state examination in law and then worked as a government assessor in Trier until 1897. In 1898 he was appointed district administrator of the Dill district, after which he was district administrator of the district of Hanau from 1902 to 1909.


From 1905 to 1909 he was a member of the municipal parliament in Kassel.


In 1909 von Beckerath succeeded Count Kurd von Berg-Schönfeld as police chief of the Hanover police department. In this position he was in contact with the most important local personalities, such as "Major General Voigt as representative of the garrisons" in Hanover, the District President Fritz von Felsen and Hanoverian senators and city school boards.


After the First World War and the November Revolution, von Beckerath recognized on November 9, 1918 "[...] the authority of the Workers' and Soldiers' Council [... and] assured him of the loyalty of the security police". But that was only due to the circumstances: he also acted in the Weimar Republic...


“[...] conservative in the general sense of the word. During his almost 20 years as chief of police in Hanover, he never dealt with party politics. After the overthrow, endeavored to preserve the proven principles of the Prussian administration in the face of the ruling parties' desire for reorganization."


In connection with the investigation of the murders of the mass murderer Fritz Haarmann, von Beckerath ordered in 1925 “[...] a major search operation for Pentecost. The water level of the Leine was lowered and the river was systematically searched” where, among other things, human bones were found.


On April 1, 1928, von Beckerath retired when he reached retirement age. He was followed by Erwin Barth (SPD).


In 1943 von Beckerath moved from Hanover to Halle (Saale). Most recently he lived in Frankfurt-Höchst. Shortly after the end of the Second World War he died in a hospital in Wiesbaden.

 

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