Moritz Thape

Moritz Thape (born February 19, 1920 in Zurich ; † November 8, 2019 in Bremen ) was a German journalist and politician ( SPD ). He was Senator and Mayor of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen .

biography

Family, education and work

Thape grew up in a social democratic home. His father was the politician Ernst Thape (SPD), who because of his political statements in the First World War in Switzerland was forced to emigrate, then in Magdeburg worked, and from 1939 to 1945 in the Buchenwald concentration camp was imprisoned.

Thape attended elementary and high school in Magdeburg. He trained as a machine fitter and attended an engineering school, which he had to leave in 1940 after comments critical of the regime. He was a soldier in World War II and was seriously wounded in 1944.

After the war he was the editor of the Volksblatt Halle in Halle an der Saale from 1945 and from 1946 the country editor of Neues Deutschland .

In 1948 he became editor of the Westfälische Rundschau . He then worked as a newspaper editor in various cities. From 1955 to 1965 he was editor and chief editor of the SPD party newspaper in Bremen , the Bremer Bürger-Zeitung .

Thape was married and had a son. He lived in Bremen- Huchting .

politics

Thape joined the SPD as early as July 1945. Because of the compulsory merger of the SPD with the KPD to form the SED in the Soviet occupation zone, he and his father moved to the western occupation zones in 1948. Thape was a member of the SPD local association Huchting-Grolland.

Thape was elected to Bremen's citizenship for the SPD in 1959.

On July 20, 1965, he succeeded Senator Willy Dehnkamp (SPD) in the Senate of Dehnkamp as Senator for Education. In the Senate of Hans Koschnick (SPD) his area of responsibility expanded and he became Senator for Education, Science and Art. His responsibilities included the establishment of the University of Bremen , the introduction and strengthening of comprehensive schools “as a school for all children”, the introduction of the school-based orientation level and the construction of the German Maritime Museum .

Culture

During his tenure as Senator for Culture, there was also a dispute with the artistic director of the Bremen theater, Kurt Hübner , the founder of the Bremen style of modern theater. Falling audience numbers and the differences between politics and theater with regard to financial resources and the program meant that Thape in 1971, without democratic legitimation, questioned Hübner's contract extension several times, until Hübner resigned from his office after the 1972/1973 season. Thape followed in 1979 as Senator for Education Horst von Hassel (SPD) and Horst Werner Franke (SPD) as Senator for Science .

On November 7, 1979 Thape became Deputy President of the Senate and Bremen Mayor and Senator for Finance in the Senate of Koschnick. Together with Koschnick, he ended his 20 years of service in the Bremen government on September 17, 1985 . He was succeeded as finance senator by Claus Grobecker (SPD) and as mayor by Henning Scherf (SPD). Thape was then again a member of the Bremen citizenship until 1987.

From 1962 to 1972 he was also the SPD state chairman in Bremen. In this period of deepening conflict coincided with the politically powerful SPD party chairman and Bremen DGB boss Richard Boljahn that eventually - not only because of the land affair - had to resign 1969th

Honors

2011: Honorary citizen of the University of Bremen

Individual evidence

↑ At the age of 99: Former Bremen Senator Moritz Thape has died. In: Weser Courier . November 10, 2019, accessed November 10, 2019 .

personal data
SURNAME	Thape, Moritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German journalist and politician (SPD)
DATE OF BIRTH	February 19, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH	Zurich
DATE OF DEATH	November 8, 2019
Place of death	Bremen

[1] At the age of 99: Former Bremen Senator Moritz Thape has died. In: Weser Courier . November 10, 2019, accessed November 10, 2019 .