Arndt came from a family with a tradition of SPD membership. His father, Konrad Arndt, was a trade union secretary, and was imprisoned by the Nazis for a short while. In 1938 the senior Arndt was released from prison, after which he conscripted in the army to avoid persecution from the Gestapo. Konrad Arndt died in November 1940 under mysterious circumstances. Although he officially died in a car crash, there is some evidence suggesting he was murdered by the Gestapo.[1]
Rudi Arndt's mother, Anna Babette, was also a social democrat and local politician in Frankfurt. Her sister was murdered by the National Socialists in 1940.
Arndt had an elder brother named Günther. He was expelled from college for making comments critical of the Nazi regime, conscripted into the army and ordered to the Eastern Front. He did not return from soviet captivity until 1949.[1]
Arndt married 3 times, and had a son from his first marriage.
Activities in Nazi Germany
On 3 March 1944 Arndt applied for membership of the Nazi Party. His application was accepted in April 1944. In the last days of the Nazi regime he was a Hitler Youth leader and Flakhelfer.[2]
Career
After completing his Abitur, Arndt studied law at the Goethe University Frankfurt.[3] In 1952, he passed his first state examination, followed in 1960 by his second state examination. From 1953 he worked as an advisor for youth law and the federal youth plan in the Hesse Ministry of the Interior.
Arndt joined the SDP in 1945. Between 1948 and 1954, he was chairman of the Socialist Youth. In 1952 Arndt became a city councillor in Frankfurt, a position he held until 1956, when he was elected to the Landtag of Hesse. Arndt remained in the Landtag until 1972.
Arndt became the Economy and Transport Minister for Hesse in 1964, after the resignation of his predecessor Wilhelm Conrad.After the resignation of Georg August Zinn as Minister President in 1969, Arndt was considered as his successor, but the role ultimately went to Albert Osswald. In Osswald's new cabinet of 1970, Arndt became the Minister of Finance for Hesse.[4]
A banner reading "Save the Opera House". Arndt's plans to demolish the ruined Alte Oper were deeply controversial.
On 16 December 1971 Arndt was elected mayor of Frankfurt, following the death of incumbent Walter Möller. He started his term as mayor in 1972. Arndt earned the popular nickname Dynamit-Rudi ("Dynamite Rudi") for his enthusiasm for demolishing the remaining World War II ruins – in particular, his failed campaign to demolish the Alte Oper opera house.[5]
In the local elections of March 1977, the CDU won a landslide victory. As a result, CDU politician Walter Wallmann became the new Mayor of Frankfurt and Arndt became the opposition leader in the Hessen Landtag.
In his later years, Arndt worked as a lawyer. After German reunification in 1990, he volunteered for the SPD in Thuringia. He died unexpectedly during a river trip near Kiev in 2004.[6] Arndt is buried in the Frankfurt Main Cemetery.
