Anton Höfle

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Anton Höfle, around 1920

Anton Höfle (born October 19, 1882 in Otterbach , Pfalz , † April 20, 1925 in Berlin ) was a German trade unionist and politician ( center ).

Life and work

Anton Höfle, 1925

After graduating from the Humanistic Gymnasium in Kaiserslautern , Höfle studied law and political science in Munich and Erlangen . In Munich he became a member of the Catholic student association KDStV Aenania Munich in the CV . From 1903 he was a research associate at the Munich Chamber of Commerce and Industry and completed his studies in 1907 with the first state examination in law and with a doctorate in Dr. phil. From 1908 to 1914 he was employed as a consultant for medium-sized, salaried and civil servant issues at the central office of the People's Association for Catholic Germany in Munich-Gladbach .

Höfle was involved in the Christian trade union , was director of the German Association of Technicians from 1914 to 1919 and director of the German Association of Officials from 1919/1920 . He then became director of the General Association of German Civil Service Unions.

Political life

Höfle was a member of the Center Party and was elected to the Reichstag for the first time in June 1920 . In parliament he represented the constituencies of Westphalia- North and Thuringia .

On August 13, 1923, Höfle was appointed Reich Minister of the Post to the government led by Chancellor Gustav Stresemann and was also a member of the subsequent government led by Chancellor Wilhelm Marx . On November 30, 1923, he also took over the provisional management of the Reich Ministry for the occupied territories .

Barmat scandal

Anton Höfle is buried in the Lichterfelde park cemetery

During his tenure as Reich Minister, Höfle had granted the Barmat brothers a loan of 34.6 million Reichsmarks , which they could not repay , without having previously given sufficient securities . After this became public ( Barmat scandal ), Höfle increasingly came under criticism from the opposition parliamentary groups. He then resigned as Reich Minister on January 15, 1925, and resigned his mandate in the Reichstag on February 9, 1925. He was then taken into custody, as a result of which he ultimately died. According to Fritz Hartung , he died of a sleeping pill overdose. The Prussian state parliament set up a committee of inquiry to clarify the circumstances of death. The famous Berlin defense attorney Max Alsberg made sharp accusations against the judiciary in a well-received lecture, he criticized Höfle's treatment in pre-trial detention and thus triggered a public debate about the conditions in pre-trial detention, which was subsequently reformed.

In 1960, Wolfgang Luderer shot the crime thriller Der Fall Hoefle on German television .

Works

  • Compass for women in the trade , 1913
  • Authorities address book , 1922 ff.

literature

  • Victor Schiff : The Höfle tragedy. Story of a judicial murder. Publishing house for social science, Berlin 1925.
  • Christoph Albrecht-Heider: “I look forward to further developments with calm”. The case of the Post Minister Anton Höfle. In: The archive. Communication history magazine. Issue 3/2017, pp. 34–37, ISSN 1611-0838.
  • Christoph Albrecht-Heider: Business with state loans. The Barmat scandal. In: The archive. Communication history magazine. Issue 3/2017, pp. 38–39, ISSN 1611-0838.
  • Karin Jaspers / Wilfried Reinighaus: Westphalian-Lippian candidates in the January elections in 1919. A biographical documentation , Münster: Aschendorff 2020 (Publications of the Historical Commission for Westphalia - New Series; 52), ISBN 9783402151365 , p. 92f.

Web links

Commons : Anton Höfle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jurist under four realms, Cologne, Berlin, Bonn, Munich 1971, p. 67 f.
personal data
SURNAME Höfle, Anton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German trade unionists and politicians (center), MdR, Reichsminister
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Otterbach
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 1925
Place of death Berlin