Bernhard Winkelheide

Bernhard Winkelheide on an election poster for the 1957 federal election

Bernhard Winkelheide (* 4. May 1908 in Recklinghausen , † 25. November 1988 in Waltrop ) was a German politician of the CDU .

family

Winkelheide was born on May 4, 1908, the third child of his parents Ernst and Theresia Winkelheide in the Recklinghauser district of König Ludwig. His father was a master shipper at the König Ludwig colliery . “Our apartment was simple, like all colliery apartments. There was poverty, ”said Winkelheide about his childhood. He was sensitized to social issues through experiences during his school days, when he saw how working-class children were excluded from attending school. Winkelheide had been married to Magdalene Biermann since April 17, 1936 and had two children.

Life and work

Winkelheide, who was a trained machine fitter, became involved in the Catholic labor movement early on . From 1929 he worked as a district youth leader for the Catholic Werkjugend in the diocese of Münster . The National Socialists soon put an end to his work, which shaped his political and social awareness even more. During this time, Nikolaus Groß and Clemens August Graf von Galen, among others, had a decisive influence on him . From 1935 he was a representative of the publishing house. From 1940 on, Winkelheide took part in World War II as a soldier and was taken prisoner by the Soviets, from which he was released in 1946.

After the war Winkelheide worked as a diocesan workers secretary and was also active in voluntary functions for the Catholic workers' movement. He founded the Christian trade union federation Recklinghausen with others as well as the home folk college " Gottfried Könzgen " of the KAB / CAJ , the family pedagogical institute in Haltern am See and the housing cooperative Ketteler in Recklinghausen and was from 1965 to 1972 chairman of the Catholic labor movement (KAB) Cologne and then its honorary chairman. From 1964 to 1968 Winkelheide was deputy chairman of the Central Committee of German Catholics .

MP

Winkelheide was a member of the Economic Council of the Bizone in 1948/49 . He was a member of the German Bundestag from its first election in 1949 to 1972. In the federal elections of 1949, 1953 and 1957 he won the direct mandate in the constituency of Recklinghausen-Stadt . In 1961 , 1965 and 1969 he entered parliament via the CDU's state list in North Rhine-Westphalia. From 1965 to 1969 he was chairman of the workers' group in the CDU / CSU parliamentary group.

In addition to his party colleague Peter Horn, Winkelheide is one of the pioneers of the Child Allowance Act , which came into force in 1955, and the equalization of family burdens . Even after his death, he still enjoys great respect for his contribution to the introduction of child benefit. In his hometown of Recklinghausen he is called the "father of child benefit".

Awards

He was the bearer of the Great Town Plaque of the city of Recklinghausen, the bearer of the Great Federal Cross of Merit with Star, the Paulus Plaque of the Diocese of Münster and the Commander's Cross of the Order of Gregory .

memories

On the occasion of his 100th birthday, he was remembered in a ceremony organized by the CDU and KAB in the large conference room of the town hall in Recklinghausen. The then State Labor Minister Karl-Josef Laumann took the main speech . The festive service took place in the provost church of St. Peter.

Publications

• Records and memories. In: Members of the German Bundestag. Records and Recollections , Volume 8, Boppard am Rhein, 1990, pages 229 to 251

literature

• Ludwig Rosenberg / Bernhard Tacke : The way to the unified union . Edited by the DGB Federal Board. Printing: satz + druck gmbh, Düsseldorf 1977
• Thomas Nikolaus Raabe: Bernhard Winkelheide - a biographical study on the relationship between the Catholic labor movement and politics. Munich 1990.
• Günther Mees: Bernhard Winkelheide. Hammer blow and blocks of houses . In: Ders: People with a profile. Pioneer for the present from the diocese of Münster . Butzon and Bercker, Kevelaer 1990. ISBN 3-7666-9703-X . Pp. 101-111.
• Wolfgang Schroeder : Trade union policy between DGB, Catholicism and CDU. 1945 to 1960. Bund-Verlag 1990, ISBN 3-7663-2148-X (especially Chapter IV. On the KAB)
• Rudolf Vierhaus , Ludolf Herbst (eds.), Bruno Jahn (collaborators): Biographical manual of the members of the German Bundestag. 1949-2002. Vol. 2: N-Z. Attachment. KG Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-23782-0 , pp. 960-961.

Web links

Commons : Bernhard Winkelheide  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Bernhard Winkelheide in the catalog of the German National Library