Friedrich Middelhauve

Friedrich Middelhauve (born November 17, 1896 in Siegen , Westphalia , † July 14, 1966 in Bad Mergentheim , Baden-Württemberg ) was a German publisher and politician of the FDP .

Life and work

After studying German literature, history and art history, Middelhauves received his doctorate in 1921. phil. at the University of Cologne . He then worked initially as an independent bookseller in Leverkusen and from 1922 as a publisher. In 1924 he founded a printing company in Opladen . In 1938 he took over a paper processing plant in Cologne .

Friedrich Middelhauve was the founder and owner of the eponymous publishing house in 1947, which was the first to publish the works of Heinrich Böll . His daughter Gertraud later ran this publishing house under her name. With Westdeutscher Verlag , Middelhauve also founded one of the leading social science publishers in Germany (merged with VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften in 2004, today Springer VS ). He was a member of the general assembly of the Solingen Chamber of Commerce and Industry .

Middelhauve was married to Bertha and had three children: Friedrich Middelhauve jun., Gertraud Middelhauve and Mechthild Ruf geb. Middelhauve.

Party activity

Friedrich Middelhauve was a member of the German State Party (DDP) during the Weimar Republic . He was not politically active during National Socialism .

In 1945 Middelhauve first founded the German rebuilding party in Opladen . However, he soon transferred it to the FDP and quickly became one of the leading figures in the Rhineland along with Franz Blücher , Hermann Höpker-Aschoff and Erich Mende . From 1947 to 1956 he was the successor to Gustav Altenhain as the state chairman in North Rhine-Westphalia . From 1952 to 1956 he was also deputy federal chairman and from 1950 to 1956 a member of the FDP federal executive committee . He was also vice-president of the German group of the Liberal World Union , later the Liberal International.

Through Ernst Achenbach, Middelhauve had close contact with the right-wing extremist group around Werner Naumann , who planned an inner-party overthrow but was overthrown by the British in early 1953. With Achenbach and various former National Socialists, Middelhauve also designed the German program , which failed in the vote at the FDP federal party conference in Bad Ems in 1952 due to the rejection of the regional associations of Hamburg , Bremen and Baden-Württemberg .

After the coup, the so-called Young Turks ( Wolfgang Döring , Hans Wolfgang Rubin , Walter Scheel and Willi Weyer ) in 1956, after consultation with Thomas Dehler the CDU -Ministerpräsidenten Karl Arnold with a constructive vote of no confidence peeled off and by the SPD -Politiker Fritz Steinhoff replaced , Middelhauve, who was considered the foster father of the Young Turks within the party , resigned from his position as state chairman and withdrew from politics two years later when his state parliament mandate expired. In contrast to the so-called ministerial wing around August-Martin Euler , he remained a party member until his death.

From 1962 until his death he was a member of the Advisory Board of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation .

MP

Before 1933, Middelhauve was deputy chairman of the Düsseldorf-Süd constituency and chairman of the Rhein-Wupper district association of the German State Party. From 1946 to 1958 Middelhauve was a member of the state parliament . In 1946/47 he was also a city councilor in Leverkusen . From 1949 to October 17, 1950 and from 1953 to September 10, 1954 Middelhauve was also a member of the German Bundestag .

Public offices

From 1954 to 1956 Middelhauve was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economics and Transport in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The Middelhauve estate is kept in the State Archive of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland Department, and forms part RWN 0172 there.

literature

Kristian Buchna: National Collection on the Rhine and Ruhr. Friedrich Middelhauve and the North Rhine-Westphalian FDP 1945–1953 , Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 3-486-59802-3 .
Karl Hax : Friedrich Middelhauve in memory . In: ZfbF 1966, pp. 613-615.
Friedrich Henning : Friedrich Middelhauve . In: Walter Först (ed.): Between Ruhrkampf and Reconstruction , Cologne / Berlin 1972, pp. 166–172.
Franz Menges: Middelhauve, Friedrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , p. 461 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Entry in the Leverkusen who's who
about Friedrich Middelhauve from Wolf Bierbach (PDF; 319 kB)
Friedrich Middelhauve at the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament

Individual evidence

↑ Christof Brauers: The FDP in Hamburg 1945 to 1953 , Martin Meidenbauer Verlagbuchhandlung, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-89975-569-5 , p. 281.
↑ Norbert Frei , Franka Maubach, Christina Morina and Maik TÄNDER: At the right time. Against the return of nationalism. Ullstein, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-550-20015-1 , p. 78 ff.
↑ Rolf Zundel : The legend of Heppenheim . In: Zeit Online , December 9, 1988.
↑ On this: see points 11 (2011), No. 1 .

personal data
SURNAME	Middelhauve, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German politician (DDP, FDP), Member of the Bundestag, Member of the Bundestag and publisher
DATE OF BIRTH	November 17, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH	Siegen , Westphalia
DATE OF DEATH	July 14, 1966
Place of death	Bad Mergentheim , Baden-Wuerttemberg

[1] Christof Brauers: The FDP in Hamburg 1945 to 1953 , Martin Meidenbauer Verlagbuchhandlung, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-89975-569-5 , p. 281.

[2] Norbert Frei , Franka Maubach, Christina Morina and Maik TÄNDER: At the right time. Against the return of nationalism. Ullstein, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-550-20015-1 , p. 78 ff.

[3] Rolf Zundel : The legend of Heppenheim . In: Zeit Online , December 9, 1988.

[4] On this: see points 11 (2011), No. 1 .