Page 142 - Redditch People

Redditch People

Life and Times of Cllr. Walter J Stranz

Walter Stranz was a councillor in Redditch for more than 40 years, several times mayor,
and leader of the Labour group in both "government and opposition". His life was
interwoven with the development of the new town as overspill for nearby Birmingham.
Yet he arrived in the north Worcestershire town in 1948 almost by accident, seeking a
school that would give a young history teacher a permanent contract.

He had been born 24 years earlier in a working-class Berlin suburb, but his family fled to
Britain - not without difficulty - after Kristallnacht, the "night of the broken glass", the
systematic Nazi attack on Jewish Germans of 1938, when his lawyer father was interned
in a concentration camp for several weeks.

The family eventually settled in Watford, where Walter attended the boys' grammar
school and then read history at Durham University, graduating in 1946 while already
teaching maths in Watford.

After moving to Redditch, Walter was elected a councillor in 1952. This was despite a
campaign by an opponent who told electors not to vote for a "German communist".

During the first of three mayoral stints, in 1962, he married Betty Hawley, who had just
graduated from Leeds University and had been head girl at the school where he taught.
Press photographers met the newly married couple to get a picture of the leader of
Redditch council marrying his former pupil. Betty became a perfect foil in a partnership
known as "Bet and Wal" to a wide circle of friends, not only locally but also further afield
in France and Germany through town-twinning and exchange programmes.

Walter moved from teaching history to become senior lecturer in environmental studies
at Bordesley College of Education in 1965. The teacher training college became part of
Birmingham Polytechnic in 1978 when Walter joined its school of planning, of which he
was made head in 1983. He had, he said, turned his hobby into a career and, from 1989
to 1992, was chair of the Town and Country Planning Association.

Walter remained a practical politician, believing the purpose of planning was to serve
people. He refused national honours but in 1994 was made the first freeman of the
borough of Redditch, and was delighted this gave him the right to drive sheep over the
town bridge.

The Guardian Wednesday 19th October 2005

Walter Stranz

Walter Stranz, who has died aged 81, was a councillor in Redditch for more than 40 years,
several times mayor, and leader of the Labour group in both "government and
opposition". His life was interwoven with the development of the new town as overspill
for nearby Birmingham. Yet he arrived in the north Worcestershire town in 1948 almost
by accident, seeking a school that would give a young history teacher a permanent
contract.

He had been born 24 years earlier in a working-class Berlin suburb, but his family fled to
Britain - not without difficulty - after Kristallnacht, the "night of the broken glass", the
systematic Nazi attack on Jewish Germans of 1938, when his lawyer father was interned
in a concentration camp for several weeks.

Page: 142 © RLHS 2015