Emil Berger (politician)

Emil Friedrich Berger (born March 13, 1865 in Burkersdorf , † after 1943) was a German consumer cooperative, politician and member of the Hamburg citizenship .

Life and politics

After primary school, which he attended from 1871 to 1879, Emil Berger attended the higher private school until 1880 (without the “one-year-old” ). He did a commercial apprenticeship and worked in the textile industry. He then completed his military service for two years in Infantry Regiment No. 104 in Chemnitz . Until 1896 he was a member of the supervisory board, from 1896 a full-time cashier and later also a member of the board of directors of the general consumer association in Chemnitz. With the establishment of the Chemnitz warehouse by the Großeinkaufs-Gesellschaft Deutscher Consumvereine (GEG) on October 1, 1902, Berger joined the GEG as administrator of the warehouse. In Chemnitz he was a city councilor from 1899 to 1908.

In 1908 Berger was appointed to the main office of the GEG in Hamburg as a senior civil servant and was appointed authorized signatory at the general assembly of the GEG in 1908 . He was first deputy managing director until he was elected managing director at the general assembly of the GEG in Bremen in 1914. As a social democrat, he replaced the politically neutral businessman Ernst August Scherling . The banking department, which was important for the financing of the socialist consumer cooperative movement, was subordinate to him, and he was also responsible for the GEG's cash and bookkeeping. With this change in the management of the GEG, the socialist orientation of the GEG was also completed. Berger remained managing director until his retirement in 1930. When he left, he was elected to the GEG supervisory board. During his time as managing director, Berger was also a member of the consumer cooperative training committee and a member of the supervisory board of the union-consumer cooperative insurance company Volksfürsorge und Eigenhilfe.

Berger belonged to the Hamburg Parliament from 1919 to 1921 for the SPD . In 1943 he moved back to Colditz in Saxony.

Web links and literature

• Heinrich Kaufmann : The large purchasing company of German consumer associations mb H. GEG. For the 25th anniversary 1894 - 1919. Hamburg 1919, in particular page 233 f
• Heinrich Kaufmann: Festschrift for the 25th anniversary of the Central Association of German Consumer Associations . Published on behalf of the board and committee of the Central Association of German Consumer Associations, printed by the Verlaggesellschaft deutscher Konsumvereine mbH, Hamburg 1928, in particular pages 316 f
• Wilhelm Fischer: 60 years versus 60 years of service to consumers. 1894 - 1954. Festschrift Hamburg 1954, especially pages 88 ff
• Emil Berger's biography . In: Wilhelm H. Schröder : Social Democratic Parliamentarians in the German Reich and Landtag 1876–1933 (BIOSOP)
• Ursula Büttner : Political new beginning in difficult times. Election and work of the first democratic citizenship 1919–21, State Center for Political Education Hamburg, Hamburg 1994, p. 110.