Hagen
Christian Schmidt (71) passed away. The biologist, who holds a doctorate, has shaped everyday life in Hagen City Hall as a deputy for decades.
He was always considered pragmatic, interested in many things and always knew exactly how to deal with topics in a targeted way. Building unrealistic castles in the air and chasing wild utopias was never his thing. From 1991 to 2014, dr. Christian Schmidt, as a deputy councilor of the city of Hagen – who was re-elected by the council in 1999 and 2007 – significantly influenced the course of the city’s administration. Above all, he tried to bring environmental issues closer to the citizens of Hagen. A native of Cologne, who last lived in Schwerte, died on Thursday at the age of 71.
Schmidt originally studied biology, chemistry and oceanography at the universities of Cologne and Kiel, eventually earning his doctorate in 1978 in Kiel as a graduate biologist. He was then active in many different ways, for example as responsible manager for various research projects, he was a member of the Schwerte City Council from 1984 to 1990, he was a member of the environment and planning committee and a member of the Supervisory Board. of municipal works in Schwerte and started in February 1991 as a deputy in the newly established environmental department of the city of Hagen. In this role, he established structures at City Hall that the Environmental Protection Agency still benefits from today.
On the move on the international stage
Under the administration of the then mayor Jörg Dehm, he worked from July 2005 as the first deputy, and thus the direct representative of the head of administration, and was responsible for the departments for education, sports, youth and social affairs as well as for the environment administration. In the meantime, he temporarily managed the building administration. At the same time, he was the leader of various international projects on the EU stage, in the field of waste management he was involved in Hagen’s Russian partner city of Smolensk and on climate issues in Portmore, Jamaica. At his own request, dr. Schmidt left the city of Hagen in 2014 at the age of 64 after 23 years as deputy.
Environmental management in particular has always been an important topic for Schmidt, who took the leading position in Hagen City Hall on the Greens list. Accordingly, he also acted as full-time and part-time managing director of Hagener Entsorgungsbetrieb (HEB) and Hagener Umwelt-Invest (HUI GmbH). Among other things, he founded the “Yellow Bag” in Hagen, which also earned him a relevant nickname in politics.
Focus on environmental issues
In addition, for many years he was the part-time managing director of Hagen Economic Development GmbH with the associated technology center. In this role, early on for the city of Hagen, he developed intensive contacts with the then still dormant economic giant China, which in the meantime have all become muddy. He was instrumental in environmental issues in Hagen, such as recycling and waste separation, and for decades led projects in the areas of environmental protection, urban landscape maintenance, efficient traffic management and for a clean and green Hagen. The city of Hagen has repeatedly benefited from his extensive network with forward-looking projects.
At the same time, Schmidt was considered a clever strategist, who was often singled out for special tasks by the heads of the administration (Wilfried Horn, Peter Demnitz and Jörg Dehm) because of his creative approach, as a man who got tricky topics such as the spreadsheet derivatives affair. As a “man for all possibilities” he even put himself up for discussion as a possible candidate for mayor, which then failed due to the lack of party political roots. Schmidt, a father of two, is survived by his second wife.
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