Eugene Leibfried

Eugen Leibfried (center) next to Adalbert Seifriz (1967)

Eugen Leibfried (* 16th April 1897 in Guttenbach today Neckargerach ; † 12. October 1978 in Eberbach ) was a German politician of the CDU .

Life and work

Leibfried attended elementary and technical school and then worked in his parents' farm. During the First World War he volunteered as a soldier in the Imperial Navy , where he served on minesweepers and became a chief mate. After the war he worked in the cooperative business before taking over his parents' business in 1924. After the National Socialists came to power , he was removed from his office as part of the coordination process . At the beginning of the Second World War he was drafted into the Navy on September 3, 1939 as a senior mate . Mostly stationed in Wilhelmshaven and Gdingen , at that time Gotenhafen, he was transferred to San Michele during the last phase of the war , where he experienced the end of the war as a lieutenant captain . Only through the intervention of American troops did he avoid a mass shooting by marauding Italian partisans.

After the Second World War, Leibfried became Vice President of the Baden agricultural Raiffeisen cooperative. He was also active in the professional association of farmers in Baden-Württemberg.

politics

Leibfried was a member of the German People's Party during the Weimar Republic . From 1928 until the seizure of power of the Nazis in 1933, he was mayor of his home town Guttenbach.

After 1945 he joined the CDU and in 1946 became a member of the district council of the district of Mosbach . In 1949 he was elected to the first German Bundestag as the direct representative of what was then the Sinsheim constituency. In the 1953 election he was able to maintain the direct mandate. Because of his ministerial activities in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Leibfried resigned from his position as a member of the Bundestag on June 21, 1956.

On October 7, 1953, the Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg Gebhard Müller brought him into his cabinet as Minister for Food, Agriculture and Forests . Three years later he moved into the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg , to which he was a member until 1972. He also exercised his ministerial office under Prime Minister Kurt Georg Kiesinger and Hans Filbinger and did not leave office until June 12, 1968.

The political focus of his work in the Bundestag was initially on agricultural and social policy. He was involved in the laws on equalization of burdens , provisions for war victims , child benefits and in the regulation of pensions for farmers. As Minister of Agriculture of Baden-Württemberg, he began to tailor the agricultural policy to the regionally different circumstances of Baden-Württemberg agriculture within the framework of Bonn and Brussels. Among other things, the Green Plan , the General Fruit Plan and the systematic reorganization of viticulture and wine management were launched. Locally and structurally disadvantaged agricultural areas were z. B. included in the Black Forest and the Alb program. As part of the main focus on upgrading agriculture in Baden-Württemberg (“Green Plan”), the farm sizes (up to then 70 percent of farms had less than 5 hectares and 98 percent less than 20 hectares) were specifically increased. This led to a massive increase in food production and sales revenues, but also to the closure of unprofitable businesses. The land consolidation (250,000 hectares) and the resettlement policy (4,500 farms) that were necessary due to the sometimes uneconomical narrowness of many farms were also carried out within this framework planning for agricultural structures . Other focal points were the milk market regulation, the law on the exercise of a profession in agriculture, agricultural advisory services and the old age benefits law for agriculture.

Awards

Leibfried received the Federal Cross of Merit with a star and shoulder ribbon in 1962 and the Baden-Württemberg Medal of Merit in 1975 .

literature

• Rudolf Vierhaus , Ludolf Herbst (eds.), Bruno Jahn (collaborators): Biographical manual of the members of the German Bundestag. 1949-2002. Vol. 1: A-M. KG Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-23782-0 , p. 491.
• Clemens Seiterich: “Traces of my life”. Turbulent times for Baden's farmers. Badischer Landwirtschafts-Verlag, Freiburg (Breisgau) 2001, ISBN 3-980-18183-9 .