Erich Meinike

Erich Meinike (born November 27, 1929 in Duisburg ; † August 21, 2018 ) was a German politician ( SPD , Die Linke ) and from 1969 to 1983 a member of the Bundestag of the SPD.

family

Erich Meinike came from a family of politicians from Oberhausen . His father Wilhelm Meinicke was a member of the SPD state parliament in North Rhine-Westphalia .

job

After elementary school and middle school, graduated from 1946 to 1952 with an apprenticeship as a high-level municipal service, then second administrative examination. 1963 to 1966 studies at the VWA Oberhausen with diploma examination. From 1946 Meinike worked for the city of Oberhausen, most recently as head of the social welfare office, and was then also politically active as a pensioner.

politics

Meinike has been a member of the SPD since 1947 and has worked in various functions in the party, most recently from 1968–1978 as chairman of the SPD sub-district of Oberhausen. Meinike was involved in the socialist youth Die Falken at an early age , from which he was temporarily excluded because of active support for the Easter March movement, but was later taken back.

In 1969 he was elected for the first time as the successor to the mayor and long-time member of the Bundestag Luise Albertz as a direct candidate for the SPD in the constituency of Oberhausen and represented this constituency (85 and 86) from the 6th to the 9th electoral term (1969-1983).

Meinike together with the SPD members of the Bundestag Manfred Coppik , Karl-Heinz Hansen and Dieter Lattmann made a name for themselves with their opposition to the policies of Chancellor Helmut Schmidt . From this the nickname " gang of four " results for these MPs. Meinike was particularly committed to anti-terrorism legislation, lowering property taxes and arms policy. He advocated a more active policy in Germany and, for example, met on August 5, 1973 together with the SPD MPs Karl-Heinz Hansen, Harald B. Schäfer , Dieter Schinzel , Karl-Heinz Walkhoff and the deputy state chairman of the Hamburg FDP , Gerhard Weber , and the deputy chairman of the DKP , Herbert Mies , for a working lunch with representatives of the FDJ - faction of the people's chamber , led by Egon Krenz and Erich Honecker .

Due to his internal opposition to the SPD party leadership, Meinike was no longer put up as a candidate for the Bundestag in 1983.

He left the SPD in 1999 after 52 years of membership. Quote Meinike: "I'm quite some time with the political development of the SPD dissatisfied, but the specific reason for the exit has been that the SPD to NATO - air strikes against Yugoslavia has agreed and also supported the deployment of German soldiers. For me that was and is the most serious wrong decision by the SPD after 1945 and also the grossest violation of its party program ”. In the meantime Meinike had joined the PDS in Oberhausen and represented it at the municipal level. In an appeal in 2005, Coppik, Hansen and Meinike spoke out in favor of a merger of WASG and PDS. Meinike was a member of the party Die Linke, which emerged from this union. In March 2008 he was appointed to the party's council of elders as a representative for North Rhine-Westphalia together with Werner Böwing.

literature

• Meinike, Erich I want to report on the anger - The SPD MP wrote down his experiences from ten years of the Bundestag (from: Hope, Doubt, Vote - 14 MPs report) specifically: 05/1980

• Signs of progress: Luise Albertz, Willy Brandt, Heinz Kühn, Hans-Otto Bäumer and Erich Meinike on the location and goals of the Social Democratic Party of Germany . Ed .: Board of the SPD Oberhausen, Oberhausen 1969.

• Member's biography in the “Official Handbook of the German Bundestag”, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th electoral period

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Erich Meinike's memorial page. Retrieved September 2, 2018 .