Horst Werner Franke

Horst Werner Franke (also called Thomas Franke) (born June 6, 1932 in Liegnitz ; † December 20, 2004 in Windhorst ) was a German educator and Senator from Bremen ( SPD ).

biography

education and profession

In 1946, after being expelled from Silesia, Franke was a farm worker in Lower Saxony. He then completed an apprenticeship as a mechanic until 1951 and moved to Bremen in the same year. Here he worked in various large companies. Since 1954 he attended evening grammar school and graduated from high school. He then studied German , history and political science at the University of Münster and the University of Marburg . He completed his studies in 1959 with the state examination for teaching and entered the Bremen school service. Most recently, he worked as a senior teacher at a Bremen grammar school .

politics

In 1960 Franke joined the Education and Science Union (GEW) and in 1961 the SPD. On October 13, 1967, he was elected to the Bremen citizenship and belonged to it until his election to the Senate in 1975. He was a member of the deputation for general schools and was an influential politician in terms of educational policy. From 1971 to 1975 he was deputy chairman of the SPD parliamentary group. At the time of the school and student unrest he was a dominant representative of his party.

In 1975 Franke became Senator for Science and Art in the Senate of Hans Koschnick (SPD), a new Senate area that was previously headed by Senator Moritz Thape (SPD). He was able to balance the great tensions in the founding of the University of Bremen and was successfully committed to a scientific and technical orientation of the university. From 1983 he also took over the education department as the successor to Senator Horst von Hassel . He held both offices until 1990. He introduced the step school and all-day schools in the Bremen school system and sought to expand comprehensive schools at the expense of classic grammar schools.

In 1986 he was President of the Conference of Ministers of Education .

After his time in the Senate, he left Bremen and moved to Windhorst. He appeared as a critical commentator on television and wrote many comments for the taz , in which he a. a. attacked the school policy of the grand coalition (SPD / CDU). But he also wrote on various other mostly Bremen topics. As a politician, as well as a commentator, he appeared critical, spirited and sometimes polarizing.

Franke was married. He died after a long illness.

See also

• Senate Koschnick III , Senate Koschnick IV, Senate Koschnick V , Senate Wedemeier I , Senate Wedemeier II
• List of education senators from Bremen

Literature and Sources

• Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . Volume: supplementary volume . A – Z. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2008, ISBN 978-3-86108-986-5 .
• Senate press office