August sword

August Degen (born September 5, 1850 in Riemsloh / Melle district, † September 1, 1924 in Plankorth near Bawinkel / Lingen district) was a farmer, founder of a cooperative and agricultural functionary as well as a politician ( center ) and member of the Prussian House of Representatives .

life and work

After attending an agricultural school, the farmer's son married in 1880 on a farm in Plankorth in the Emsland district of Lingen. The new farmer immediately set about modernizing the farm and the entire agriculture of the region. In the year of his marriage, he founded the “Agricultural Association Bawinkel und Umgebung”, which he ran throughout his life, and introduced artificial fertilizers in the Emsland. To improve the supply of artificial fertilizers , he set up the Emsland's first agricultural consumer cooperative in Bawinkel on July 26, 1885 , which he headed until 1921. On November 22nd, 1885, the farmer from Plankort founded the savings and loan fund Bawinkel - since 1999 it has belonged to Volksbank Lingen - and took over the chairmanship. Since his first foundings flourished, Degen continually expanded the cooperative system in the following years. He founded: in 1887 a dairy cooperative for the utilization of milk yields, soon afterwards an egg utilization cooperative, from which the first agricultural poultry breeding and fattening establishment in the province of Hanover emerged in 1904, a cattle utilization cooperative in 1901 and a bull farming association in 1906.

The cooperatives, which initially had a large number of members and which flourished economically, drew wide circles, as foreign members soon split off and founded their own local cooperatives. In addition, the farmer promoted the Raiffeisen cooperative movement in the region through lectures . To increase sales of agricultural products, Degen campaigned for the construction of the Lingen-Berge railway , which was put into operation in 1904 and the farmer was on the board of directors. The exceptionally large number and the astonishingly good financial condition of the Bawinkler cooperatives made the village known far beyond the borders of the Emsland. With his diverse efforts, the farmer from Plankorth had achieved that Bawinkel had the reputation of being the “cooperative model village” of the province of Hanover. In 1920, the farmer was involved in founding the influential "Emsland Farmers 'Association", which joined the Union of Christian Farmers' Associations at the national level. He moved into the board.

Offices and honors

On December 22nd, 1888 Degen was accepted into the Hanover Agricultural Society. Since 1890 he sat on the supervisory board of the "Zentralgenossenschaft für Osnabrücker Landwirtschaftliche Konsumvereine eGmbH" (Zegeno). In 1905 he was appointed to the Hanover Chamber of Agriculture , in whose top management he moved up over time. He also became a member of the Reich Insurance Office. In 1903, the Prussian King awarded Degen the Order of the Red Eagle, 4th class, and in 1907 the title of “Economic Council”. For many years in the leading position of the “Agricultural Main Association for the Duchy of Arenberg-Meppen and the Counties Bentheim and Lingen”, a subdivision of the Chamber of Agriculture, the previous deputy chairman Degen advanced to become the first chairman of the main association in 1922.

In 1911 August Degen held the following offices: Deputy member of the Upper Replacement Commission II in the district of the 37th Infantry Brigade of the Kingdom of Prussia, member of the Chamber of Agriculture for the Province of Hanover, Deputy Chairman of the Main Agricultural Association for the Duchy of Arenberg-Meppen and the Counties of Bentheim and Lingen, member of the District committee for the district of Osnabrück, member of the appeal committee for income tax in the district, representative of agriculture and forestry in the waterway advisory board for the Dortmund-Ems Canal , deputy member of the district railway council in Hanover, member of the Hanover provincial parliament and member of the provincial committee.

Political activity

As early as 1880 Degen Plankorther became the mayor of the municipality, which he remained until 1900. Since 1888 he was a member of the district council and since 1892 a member of the district committee. From 1912 to 1919 Degen acted as 1st district deputy, making him the deputy of the Lingen district administrator. Since 1887 he has been involved in the election committee of the Emsland Center Party. The Lingen district council sent Degen as the most famous agrarian in the region to the Hanoverian provincial parliament in 1897 , where he was involved as a center member until his death. Thanks to the support of his application for the Prussian House of Representatives, which was probably unique in the whole of the empire, Degen represented the Lingen-Bentheim constituency in the Prussian House of Representatives from 1898 to 1903, as the first and only center man. The National Liberals wanted to prevent the National Socialist politician Hellmut von Gerlach from entering the Prussian House of Representatives with the support of the center that was becoming apparent. In 1915 Degen became the leader of the Center Party in the Lingen-Bentheim constituency. When the Emsland Center Party was reorganized after the end of the war, Degen took part in the founding of the " Center Association Emsland ", the party's regional leadership body, and represented the Lingen district on the board. He was also a member of the Provincial Board of the Center for the Province of Hanover.

literature

• Beatrix Herlemann : Biographical Lexicon of Lower Saxony Parliamentarians 1919–1945, 2004, ISBN 3-7752-6022-6 , p. 80.
• Alex Brüggemann, 1885–1985. Anniversary publication for the centenary of the Raiffeisen-Warengenossenschaft Bawinkel-Gersten. Edited by the goods cooperative Bawinkel-Gersten, Bawinkel 1985.
• 1885-1960. Anniversary font. Bawinkeler savings and loan fund e. G. mb H. in Bawinkel with branches in Brögbern and Osterbrock, Lingen 1960.
• Wilhelm Korte, 1901–1975 Raiffeisen cattle disposal Bawinkel, Chronicle of the Raiffeisen cattle conversion Bawinkel e .G .m .b .H., Bawinkel 1975.
• Helmut Lensing, August Degen - A pioneer of agriculture in the Emsland, in: Yearbook of the Emsländischen Heimatbund, Vol. 42/1996, Sögel 1995, pp. 288-305.
• Helmut Lensing, The elections to the Reichstag and the Prussian House of Representatives in Emsland and the Grafschaft Bentheim 1867 to 1918 - Party system and political conflict in the constituency of Ludwig Windthorst during the German Empire (Emsland / Bentheim. Contributions to history vol. 15), Sögel 1999.
• Helmut Lensing Art. Degen, August, in: Study Society for Emsländische Regionalgeschichte (Ed.), Emsländische Geschichte Vol. 8, Haselünne 2000, pp. 178-184.
• Walter Tenfelde, On the history of the parish Bawinkel (series of publications by the Heimatverein für das Lingener Land), Lingen 1982.
• Josef Traumann, organizational handbook for center voters. A basic compilation of the most important organizational regulations of the Center Party, Hildesheim 1925 (2nd expanded edition), pp. 105–106.
• Volksbank Bawinkel (ed.), 1885–1985. 100 years Volksbank Bawinkel eG, Ankum 1985.