Carl Spiecker

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Carl Spiecker in 1948 at the Rittersturz conference

Carl Spiecker (born January 7, 1888 in Mönchengladbach ; † November 16, 1953 in Königstein im Taunus ) was a German journalist and politician ( Center Party , CDU ).

Life

From 1912 to 1916 Spiecker was parliamentary correspondent for various central newspapers. In the anniversary edition of the newspaper: “Bürgerblatt für den Niederrhein”, published in Emmerich am Rhein, from 1925 you can read: The newspaper had a Catholic tendency until then (year unknown), but politically it did not yet have that Character of a definite central organ that it has today (1925) ... The first editor to head the paper in this sense was Dr. Carl Spiecker, who later became director of “Germania”. From 1917 to 1919 he worked as a journalist for the news department of the Foreign Office .

From February 1920, Spiecker headed the "Organization Spiecker" as the representative of the State Commissioner for the Monitoring of Public Order in Wroclaw, which supported the German side in the disputes about the state affiliation of Upper Silesia , including the press as well as self-protection and espionage organizations such as the Special Police of Upper Silesia Self-protection . Among the groups that were under Spiecker, was among the "Organization Heinz", one of Heinz Oskar Hauenstein -led volunteer corps , which in Upper Silesia in numerous lynchings was involved. In 1928, Hauenstein stated in court proceedings that his organization had murdered numerous “German traitors” in agreement with Spiecker. Spiecker denied Hauenstein's information in court; a preliminary investigation against Spiecker for incitement to murder was closed in September 1929.

In 1922 Spiecker took over the management of the Germania center organ . From December 4, 1923 to January 16, 1925 he was head of the press department of the Reich government. He resigned from this office at the same time as the resignation of the Marx II cabinet . He then resigned from the civil service to set up the Reich Service of the German Press, an extensive correspondence service.

In 1928 he became a board member of the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold and the "Association of Republican Press" . In 1930/31 he was under Heinrich Brüning's special representative of the Reich for the fight against National Socialism . He tried to persuade the Strasser wing to split up in order to split up the NSDAP , but the project failed.

In 1933 Spiecker was dismissed from the civil service because of “political unreliability” (Section 4 of the Professional Civil Servants Act) and emigrated to France , later England , the USA and Canada . From abroad he tried to inform the German population about National Socialism through radio speeches in German.

In 1937, while in exile in Paris, Spiecker founded the German Freedom Party , an association of bourgeois democratic forces that wanted to suggest a strong German opposition to the NSDAP abroad by issuing freedom letters.

Spiecker returned to Germany in 1945 and took part in the re-establishment of the Center Party , of which he became second chairman in 1946. In May 1946 he received the license for the Rhein-Ruhr-Zeitung , on April 20, 1947 he became a member of the state parliament in North Rhine-Westphalia and a member of the Economic Council of the Bizone and the Zone Advisory Council of the British Zone of Occupation. In the Imshausen company he met well-known personalities from all occupation zones in order to reach an understanding about the reorganization of Germany. After the state election on April 20, 1947 , Spiecker became a member of the first elected state parliament; on July 2, 1947 , he resigned from the state parliament to join the newly formed bizonal economic council in Frankfurt for North Rhine-Westphalia . Since September 1, 1947 he was the representative of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia on the executive council of the economic council; in the restructuring of the organization of the United Economic Area, he came to the Landerat of the Economic Council .

In December 1948 he became federal chairman of the center. Since he operated the merger of the center and CDU , he had to resign at the federal party congress in Oberhausen on January 31, 1949 and was expelled from the party. As a result, he joined the CDU. From April 5, 1948 until his death he was Minister for Federal Affairs of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (initially under different official titles) in the Arnold I cabinets and (until his death on November 16, 1953) in Arnold II .

literature

Manuscripts of the broadcast speeches are kept in the State Archive of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland Department , where they form the RWN 0026 inventory.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ Stefan Zwicker: "National Martyrs": Albert Leo Schlageter and Julius Fučík. Hero cult, propaganda and culture of remembrance. Schöningh, Paderborn 2006, ISBN 978-3-506-72936-1 , p. 48.
  2. ↑ Bernhard Sauer: "Traitors were shot in large numbers here ." The Fememorde in Oberschlesien 1921. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft 2006 (54), ISSN  0044-2828 , pp. 644-662, here p. 656.
  3. ^ Sauer, Verräter , p. 659
  4. ^ A b c Joachim Horn: Between Bonn and Düsseldorf. North Rhine-Westphalia and the Federal Council until 1953 . In: Geschichte im Westen 1/1987, p. 43.
personal data
SURNAME Spiecker, Carl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist and politician (center, CDU), MdL
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Mönchengladbach
DATE OF DEATH November 16, 1953
Place of death Königstein im Taunus