Carl Günther Ruland

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Carl Günther Ruland (born November 15, 1874 in Weimar ; † 1962 ) was a German lawyer and CDU politician in the GDR. He was one of the founders of the CDU in Leipzig and was a member of the Saxon state parliament and the German People's Council .

Life

Ruland was born the son of the privy councilor Carl Heinrich Ruland (1834-1907). After graduating from high school, he studied law in Geneva , Leipzig and Strasbourg . He passed the 1st state examination in 1899 in Colmar , Alsace , and passed the 2nd state examination with good after completing his legal traineeship in his native Jena . From December 1902 Ruland worked as a court assessor in the Thuringian civil service. In 1904 he was admitted to the bar at the Jena Higher Regional Court . Ruland was released as unfit for military service in World War I. Shortly after the founding of the German National People's Party (DNVP), Ruland joined this party in December 1918, of which he remained a member until it was dissolved.

From 1926 he was a member of the Thuringian State Justice Examination Office. On December 24th, 1927, Ruland was admitted to the bar at the Imperial Court of Leipzig , at which time there were only about 20 such lawyers across the country. This went hand in hand with the relocation of his office to Leipzig. Politically, Ruland avoided joining the NSDAP during the Nazi era. He was only a member of the National Socialist Lawyers ' Association and the National Socialist People's Welfare . On the occasion of his forty-year jubilee in the judiciary, the President of the Reichsgericht confirmed that he had an impeccable political attitude in 1939 and described Ruland as a capable, characterful and reliable lawyer. Nevertheless, Ruland had been in close contact with the resistance group around Carl Goerdeler since 1938 , without causing any inconvenience during the Nazi era.

After the liberation of Leipzig by the Americans, any political activity was initially forbidden, unlike in the Soviet-occupied areas. While Ludwig Kirsch founded the CVP in Chemnitz on June 15, 1945 and the CSV in Dresden on July 8th by a circle around Friedrich Koring , it was only after the Soviet occupation that the first considerations in Leipzig were to establish a Christian- to found a social party. In Leipzig, the party to be founded was initially called the Democratic Party of Germany (DPD), the call for which came from the historian Karl Buchheim . This appeal was signed on July 14, 1945, in addition to Buchheim, by Carl Günther Ruland and Paul Nowak from the more confessional camp as well as the four former liberal regional politicians Richard Pudor , Hans Reif , Hans Müller-Bernhardt and Wilhelm von Stoltzenberg . However, this appeal and the further building of the party was forbidden by the Soviet authorities, as they only allowed the bourgeois parties LDP and CDU, which were founded in Berlin, as the only ones across the zone and regional party foundations had to join one of both parties.

When it became clear that most of the DPD founders intended to join the LDP, Buchheim and Ruland announced their departure and initiated a founding meeting of the Leipzig CDU in Ruland's apartment on August 4, 1945. In addition to Ruland, Pater Aurelius Arkenau , Paul Nowak, Georg Schneider , Heinz Lohmann, Otto Gallus , Erika Hippler , Josef Rambo , Karl Buchheim and Anneliese Weisbender took part in this founding meeting. Despite the predominantly Catholic founding members, Ruland, a Protestant, was elected chairman of the Leipzig CDU. This was also done in order not to give the impression that the Center Party was being re-established. In addition, the Leipzig area was more evangelical. After the registration of the Leipzig CDU on August 24, 1945, Ruland officially acted as chairman of the Leipzig district association of the CDU, which also recognized the leadership claim of the state association in Dresden under Hugo Hickmann without discussion . As a result, unlike Kirsch or Hickmann, Ruland was more cautious in terms of party politics. Nevertheless, he led the Leipzig district association through his adaptability continuously until the spring of 1950.

In the state elections in October 1946 , he was elected as a member of the Saxon state parliament, in which he was senior president . In addition, from 1946 back in the judiciary, first as an assistant judge, then as a district judge and ultimately as director of the Leipzig district court . From 1946 he was a member of the extended zone board of the CDU, in which from 1949 he headed the justice department in the management group that has now been renamed the main board. In 1948 he was appointed President of the Dresden Higher Regional Court by the Saxon State Parliament ; in the absence of suitable legal staff, despite his CDU membership, Ruland could not be ignored.

In addition, the CDU sent him as a member of the 1st German People's Council. He continued this parliamentary activity in the 2nd German People's Council and the Provisional People's Chamber. In contrast to the usual division of powers, Ruland belonged to the legislature and the judiciary. In February 1950, however, Ruland was drawn into the maelstrom of the events surrounding Hugo Hickmann, who was ousted from his party offices at the end of January because of his SED-critical attitude. As a result of his solidarity with Hickmann, Ruland resigned his party office as Leipzig CDU district chairman on February 5, 1950, under increasing pressure. At the 10th meeting of the Provisional People's Chamber on February 8th, he also resigned from his People's Chamber mandate. A little later, he resigned from his state parliamentary mandate. Finally, as part of a major party purge in early June, the CDU state executive in Saxony excluded Ruland, Hugo Hickmann and the former state parliament member Arno Häntzschel from the CDU.

Ruland then fled with his household effects via West Berlin to Münster in Westphalia . There, at the age of 76, by cabinet decision of the North Rhine-Westphalian state government on June 12, 1950, he received a one-year appointment as an extraordinary administrative judge at the State Administrative Court of Münster . After that he worked there for some time as a research assistant.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Neue Zeit of February 7, 1950 p. 2
  2. ↑ Neues Deutschland, February 9, 1950, p. 2
  3. ↑ Neue Zeit of March 7, 1950, p. 2
  4. ↑ Neue Zeit of June 3, 1950, p. 2
personal data
SURNAME Ruland, Carl Günther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (DNVP, CDU), MdV
DATE OF BIRTH November 15, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Weimar
DATE OF DEATH 1962