Franz Hange

Franz Hange (born August 19, 1921 - October 5, 2011 ) was a German journalist and ministerial official who played a crucial role in connection with the West German capital issue in 1949 ( Bonn or Frankfurt am Main ).

Life

Hange was from 1945 to 1948 the correspondent of the German Press Service (DPD) in Cologne and from 1949 chief correspondent of the German Press Agency (dpa) in Bonn. In May 1949 the vote on the capital question in the Parliamentary Council was due. At first it didn't look good for Bonn, which was favored by Konrad Adenauer and many CDU MPs. The SPD stuck to Frankfurt am Main, the Hessian MPs of the CDU were also in favor of their local metropolis. In a secret test vote, Bonn received only 21 out of 27 votes. The Lord Mayor of Frankfurt, Walter Kolb , had already recorded a speech of thanks on Radio Frankfurt (later the Hessischer Rundfunk ).

Immediately before the vote on May 10, 1949, Konrad Adenauer presented the CDU MPs with a "confidential report" from the press agency dpd . It said that at a board meeting of the SPD in Cologne in the morning the SPD chairman Kurt Schumacher was pleased that there would be a “certain defeat” of the conservatives in the capital city vote. That was enough for a change of mood among the Hessian CDU MPs. The official vote that followed was 33 to 29 in favor of Bonn.

Adenauer had not told his MPs that the alleged agency report he had read had never been published. The CDU-affiliated journalist Hange had typed the fictitious "message" into the telex together with Heinrich Böx , giving it an official appearance, but not sending it to the dpd headquarters. But it did get to Adenauer, who used it for his own purposes and thus achieved the majority he wanted for Bonn.

Bonn has now been appointed the "provisional seat of the federal organs".

Hange shouldn't hurt his commitment at the time. From 1965 to 1969 he was a consultant in the Federal Chancellery , after the change of government in 1969 he went to the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government and became head of the service there from 1982 when Helmut Kohl (CDU) became Chancellor . In 1989, Hange received the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany .

Hange lived in Oedingen near Remagen .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ SPIEGEL article - One day
2. ↑ Thin blanket . In: Der Spiegel . No. 45 , 1969 ( online ).
3. ↑ Entry  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the Oedingen homepage  

literature

• Thomas Ramge : The Great Political Scandals - Another History of the Federal Republic of Germany . Düsseldorf 2004, p. 10ff. ISBN 978-3-593-37069-9 .