Erwin Lange (politician)

Erwin Lange (born May 10, 1914 in Essen ; † October 30, 1991 there ) was a German SPD politician .

Life and work

After graduating from high school, Lange, who was of Protestant faith, began a commercial apprenticeship in 1930, which he broke off after a year. He then completed an apprenticeship as a typesetter and also worked in this profession. After his release from prison, Lange was drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1942 and was a soldier in Penal Battalion 999 until the end of the war . In 1947 he passed the master's examination and was manager of a printing company in Essen.

Political party

Lange joined the social democratic youth organization Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ) at the end of the 1920s . With their left wing he joined the SAPD in 1931 and headed the Essen group of the SAPD youth association SJVD . In 1932 he came into contact with the council communist Red Fighters , which he joined a little later. After the NSDAP came to power in 1933, he was temporarily head of the Red Fighters in Essen, but largely withdrew from active work in 1935. As part of the nationwide raids against the organization, he was arrested by the Gestapo in December 1936 and sentenced by the OLG Hamm in August 1937 to three and a half years in prison for preparing for high treason. He had to serve this in the moor labor camp. Lange joined the SPD in 1945.

MP

Lange was a member of the German Bundestag from its first election in 1949 to 1980. He was directly elected to parliament in 1949 and from 1961 in the Essen I constituency, and in 1953 and 1957 he entered the Bundestag via the state list. From 1957 to 1965 he was deputy chairman of the Bundestag committee for SME issues. From 1965 to 1969 he was a member of the Bundestag advisory board for trade agreements.

Lange belonged to Ludwig Erhard , Hermann Götz , Gerhard Schröder (all CDU ), Richard Jaeger , Franz Josef Strauss , Richard Stücklen (all CSU ), Erich Mende ( FDP , later CDU), R. Martin Schmidt and Herbert Wehner (both SPD) to the ten members who have been members of parliament without interruption for the first 25 years since the 1949 federal election. When he left parliament in 1980, he was one of seven members who had been in the Bundestag since the first legislative period .

From January 21, 1970 to 1984, Lange was also a member of the European Parliament , where he was Chairman of the Economic Committee from 1970 to 1975 and headed the Budget Committee from 1978 until he left after the second direct election to the European Parliament (1984). In the Parliamentary Assembly of NATO he headed the Economic Committee from 1977 to 1982.

Publications

• Lange, Erwin: Memories of 1949. In: Horst Ferdinand : Beginning in Bonn. Memories of the first German Bundestag. Freiburg im Breisgau, 1985, pages 122 to 134.

literature

• Schmidt, Ernst: Lights in the Dark. Essen 2003, Klartext-Verlag

Web links

• Entry on Erwin Lange (politician) in the European Parliament 's database of representatives