Franz Driver

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Franz Clemens Titus Driver (born January 4, 1863 in Friesoythe , † July 22, 1943 in Oldenburg ) was a German lawyer and politician ( center ).

Life and work

Driver comes from a respected family of lawyers from the Oldenburger Münsterland , which has been proven since the 16th century . He was the second son of the Friesoyther magistrate Franz Adam Philipp Driver (1813–1903) and his wife Sophia Bernhardine nee. Cordes (1825-1896). His older brother was Marcell Driver (1852-1912) , member of the Oldenburg state parliament . After attending high school in Vechta (1875-1881), he studied at the universities of Strasbourg , Heidelberg , Berlin and Goettingen jurisprudence , graduating with the doctorate from. In 1885 and 1889 he passed the two legal state exams and entered the Oldenburg state service in May 1890 . He was initially an official auditor in the government of the Oldenburg exclave Principality of Lübeck in Eutin , became an unskilled worker at the Ministry of Finance in Oldenburg in 1895 and came to the Cloppenburg office in 1897 . From 1900 to 1906 he served as governor in Varel and from 1900 he was also a member of the commission that made preparations for the introduction of administrative jurisdiction . In 1906 he was appointed full-time member of the Higher Administrative Court, of which he was a member until 1919.

In 1908, the proven civil servant Driver was scheduled to be the regional president of the Principality of Lübeck, but Prime Minister Wilhelm Friedrich Willich refused to appoint Driver because of his Catholic denomination. Thereupon Driver's older brother Marcel attacked the head of government so sharply that he resigned the following year. Shortly before that, Driver was already politically active himself and was a member of the Oldenburg state parliament from 1907 to 1919, in which he played a decisive role as a leading member of the center group, especially in matters of school policy.

After the end of the First World War and the outbreak of the November Revolution, he joined the board of directors as a representative of his party on November 11, 1918, which served as the provisional government until June 17, 1919. Driver was elected to the constituent state parliament in February 1919, played a key role in the negotiations on the new constitution and was also a member of the Kuhnt cabinet . On June 21, 1919, he became Minister of Finance and Trade in the newly formed Tantzen government and, in 1920, also took over the Ministry of Justice. According to the provisions of the constitution, he resigned his mandate in the state parliament when he was appointed. After the resignation of the Tantzen government on April 17, 1923, Driver was re-elected to the state parliament and in April 1924 appointed President of the Higher Administrative Court, which he presided over until July 31, 1925. During this time he played a leading role in the deliberations on the reform of the government, in which his Center Party played a key role. There was a political stalemate in the state parliament, as neither the left ( SPD , DPP ) nor the right ( DNVP , DVP ) could form a government without the center, but the government was not ready to join forces with either group, but a large one Coalition from the SPD to the DVP. In this, the center claimed the office of Prime Minister, for which Driver was intended. Since there was no majority for this, the way out was the formation of a civil servants' cabinet under Upper Government Councilor Eugen von Finckh , which was initially only to function as a transitional government. Negotiations between the parties on the establishment of a parliamentary government subsequently failed due to the fundamental dilemma that politically viable coalitions (SPD, DDP) did not have a majority, while the grand coalition sought by the center hardly had a majority due to the incompatibility of the political goals of its members would have been able to work. When the center and the DDP agreed in the spring of 1925 to form a minority cabinet that the SPD should tolerate, Finckh refused to give way to such a government and dissolved parliament. The election in May 1925 did not result in a clear majority. The center, under the leadership of Driver, now swiveled to the right and agreed with the two bourgeois parties DVP and DNVP, which are united in the state bloc, on the continuation of the supposedly apolitical Finckh government, which, however, has been restructured and given a quasi-parliamentary look. As a representative of the center, Driver joined this cabinet Finckh II and took over the ministries of the interior, trade and industry as well as agriculture.

After Finckh's death in July 1930, Driver was the Centre's candidate for Prime Minister. When, in November 1930, the SPD, DDP and the center finally agreed to form a government under his leadership, he renounced the candidacy out of an injured sense of honor because he had been personally attacked in the state parliament. At the suggestion of the new Prime Minister Cassebohm (1872–1951) he was then confirmed in his previous departments and belonged to the cabinet until June 1932. After the National Socialists took over government , Driver retired and withdrew from political life.

family

Driver was married to Margaretha geb. Wreesmann (1865-1892). After her death on February 2, 1895, he married Elisabeth Heydorn (1872–1945), who came from Holstein , the daughter of the secret building officer Wilhelm Heydorn (1839–1910) and Elisabeth b. Feldmann. From these two marriages there were two sons and two daughters. Elisabeth (* 1891) married the Oldenburg ministerial advisor Wilhelm Ostendorf (1885–1975), Franz Paul (* 1904) later became Federal Railway Director in Hanover.

See also

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Driver, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Driver, Franz Clemens Titus (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and politician (center)
DATE OF BIRTH January 4, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Friesoythe
DATE OF DEATH July 22, 1943
Place of death Oldenburg