Press releases

On August 1, 1901, Dr. Max Mendelson became the first director of the newly founded Statistical Office of the City of Aachen. In just under fourteen years, he rebuilt the agency from the ground up—until he was killed in action during World War I.

Born in 1875 in Wetzendorf, in what is now Saxony-Anhalt, Mendelson studied economics and law in Halle and earned his doctorate (Dr. phil.).

In 1898, he joined the Aachen Chamber of Commerce as an assistant, before the city appointed him director of its new Statistical Office in 1901. He devoted himself to establishing the office with great dedication. His responsibilities included compiling all municipal statistics, preparing the annual administrative report, and handling the voter rolls and all tasks related to elections for the Reichstag, the state parliament, and the city council.

At the heart of the project was data collection: the occupational and business censuses, as well as the population and housing censuses. In 1901, for the first time, a survey was conducted in Aachen on the career choices of students after elementary school. Mendelson sought out assistants early on to help with these tasks; the number of staff fluctuated between five and twelve.

Beyond Aachen, he was active in the Association of German City Statisticians and was, among other things, a co-author of the 1910 Statistical Yearbook of German Cities. Contemporaries highlight his tireless enthusiasm for his work; indeed, he often worked on reports late into the night. However, many of the publications from his tenure were lost when the office was destroyed twice during World War II.

In addition to his direct duties in office, he taught at the Higher Commercial School and gave numerous lectures, for example on the relationship between mortality and weather (1903), on the housing problem (1905), and on the significance of statistics for the social sciences, legislation, and administration (1905). His interests extended beyond statistics, as evidenced by a 1912 lecture he gave at the Aachen Historical Society on “David Hansemann and His Significance for Aachen.”

Called up at the outbreak of war, Mendelson ultimately served as a captain, was awarded the Iron Cross, and died on May 18, 1915, in a field hospital in Russia after suffering severe wounds. After his remains were transferred to Aachen, he was buried at the Waldfriedhof, where his grave of honor can still be found today, not far from the Bismarck Tower. His duties were taken over by Gustav Elfert, who had been working at the office as a research assistant since 1910.

Sources: Statistical Yearbook and Aachen City Archives

125 Years – A Journey Through the Statistics
: The Statistics Office team is celebrating this anniversary year—in keeping with its mission—with a journey through many interesting and curious facts, figures, and data about the Imperial City. Topics range from population trends and changes in land area to attendance figures for Alemannia’s home games. Through August 2027, the City of Aachen will publish additional installments of this series at regular intervals on aachen.de/statistik.