Christian Kloft

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Christian Kloft (born December 18, 1867 in Rothenbach , Westerwald , † April 28, 1938 in Essen ) was a German politician of the Center Party and a member of the Prussian state parliament until the National Socialists came to power .

Life

Kloft was the son of a master roofer who came to Essen with his wife from Hesse in the 1870s . Christian Kloft attended elementary school there. After an apprenticeship as a saddler and wandering around, Kloft began working in the core shop at Krupp in Essen at the age of 23 . He joined the Catholic labor movement and completed an apprenticeship at the Volksverein in Mönchengladbach in 1896 , which later enabled him to work full-time in the labor movement. In 1899 he became an alderman in the Essen city council for the Center Party. He was a member of this body without interruption until 1920. From 1920 he was an associate of the social department.

In addition, when the local cartel of Christian trade unions was founded in 1901, he was entrusted with the management of the union as chairman. In 1903 he also took over the position of full-time workers secretary . He was thus at the key point of the various workers' and trade unions, a kind of umbrella organization that was based in the Alfredushaus .

In addition to these activities, Kloft was a permanent employee of the "Volksfreund", a daily newspaper published for the Catholic workforce. In 1905, after the death of the previous director, he took over the editorial office.

Together with Heinrich Hirtsiefer , Kloft was a co-founder of today's Essen-Nord housing cooperative , which was founded in 1914 as Kleinhaussiedlung GmbH .

With his dual function as trade union secretary and member of the city council, Kloft has a high degree of influence on the social concerns of the workers in the prosperous industrial age around the turn of the century. For example, he was part of the committee around Mayor Erich Zweigert , which brought about the first reliable collective bargaining between employers and employees . The first collective agreements were in place in 1904 for the construction industry .

From 1919 Kloft belonged to the Constituent Prussian State Assembly (MdPrLV) and then (1921-1933) he was a member of the Prussian State Parliament (Landtag) for the Center Party in five legislative sessions. In addition, he kept his mandate as a salaried alderman of the city of Essen during this time (1920–1933). He died on April 28, 1938 in Essen and was buried in the Catholic cemetery on Helenenstrasse in Essen-Altendorf .

Honors

Memorial stone in Essen-Altendorf

Kloft was awarded the Cross of Merit and the Iron Cross on a white ribbon .

A memorial stone was set in honor of Heinrich Hirtsiefer, Christian Kloft and Heinrich Strunk on Hedwig-Dransfeld-Platz in Essen-Altendorf to honor the work of these three center politicians and trade unionists. A plaque on the stone bears the inscription: “In honor of the Altendorf citizens, Dr. Heinrich Hirtsiefer - Christian Kloft - Heinrich Strunck ”.

literature

  • Alfred Kalis: Festschrift for the 75th anniversary of the Catholic Workers Movement St. Mary's Assumption . Essen 1964, p. 103 f .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Contributions to the history of the city and monastery of Essen , page 134, publisher: Historischer Verein für Stadt und Stift Essen, 1958
  2. ^ The Federal Archives: Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic online
  3. ↑ a b c Erwin Dickhoff: Essen heads . Ed .: City of Essen - Historical Association for City and Monastery of Essen. Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8375-1231-1 .
  4. ^ Friedrich Lantermann: "Reports and Contributions" of the Department for Social and Universal Church Tasks, Episcopal General Vicariate Essen, Issue 29, Essen 1996
  5. ↑ Hirtsiefer settlement in the list of monuments of the city of Essen ; accessed on March 25, 2016
  6. ^ Contributions to the history of the city and monastery of Essen, 1958, pp. 25f
  7. ^ Herbert Hömig : The Prussian center in the Weimar Republic. Matthias Grünewald Verlag, Mainz 1979 (Publications of the Commission for Contemporary History, Series B: Research, Volume 28), ISBN 3-786-70784-7 . P. 301.
  8. ↑ Vera Bücker, Bernhard Nadorf, Markus Potthoff: Nikolaus Groß, workers leader, religious witness, resistance fighter; How should we stand before God and our people? Political and Social Catholicism in the Ruhr Area 1927–1949, p. 356
personal data
SURNAME Kloft, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician
DATE OF BIRTH December 18, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Rothenbach
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1938
Place of death eat