Fritz Theodor Kuhnen
Fritz Theodor Kuhnen (born June 5, 1879 in Borbeck , † September 25, 1947 in Püttlingen ) was a German politician (center).
Live and act
After attending elementary school in Borbeck, Kuhnen completed a three-year gardening apprenticeship and subsequently worked in several horticultural businesses and in agriculture. During the traveling years from 1895 to 1900, he expanded his specialist knowledge in Cologne, Bonn, Koblenz and Mainz. As a member of the Kolping Movement, he found the Christian workers' organization. In 1902 he married. He then worked (until 1910) as a miner in various mines in Essen, Mülheim and Oberhausen .
From 1900 Kuhnen was a member of the union of Christian miners in Germany. Between 1910 and 1912 he was the district manager of the trade union in Bochum . Subsequently, the district management of the miners' trade union Southwest for the Saar region, Lorraine and the western Palatinate was transferred to him. During this time Kuhnen also participated in the establishment of the International Christian Miners' Union, on whose board he was accepted.
At the latest after the First World War (after the Saar was separated from the German Reich), Kuhnen began to become more politically active. As a member of the Center Party , he sought to establish a connection with the trade union. He was also a member of the Saarbrücken city council from 1920 to 1932. In August 1930 Kuhnen was elected to the main board of the organization at the general assembly of the Christian Miners' Union in Aachen . Since the establishment of the Saar Committee for the international government commission, Kuhnen has also been a member of it and of the Saar delegation (expert commission) for representing miners' concerns at the League of Nations in Geneva.
From September 1930 until 1933 Kuhnen was a member of the 5th to 8th Reichstag of the Weimar Republic as a member of the Reichstag election . During his time as a member of parliament he got to know the dangerous machinations of the National Socialists and, along with his friends, was convinced of the rapid failure of the Nazi government. Kuhnen therefore voted (faithful to the faction), among other things, for the adoption of the Enabling Act of March 1933, which formed the legal basis for the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship.
In the referendum battle for the reintegration of the Saar area to Germany, Kuhnen campaigned for the preservation of the temporary "status quo" because his experiences in the Reichstag as a member of the parliament had made him aware of a dangerous and undemocratic development. Despite all the admonitions, he found no followers and after the lost vote had to leave the Saar region in a hurry to avoid the brown captors.
On February 18, 1935, Kuhnen emigrated to Luxembourg in the most modest of circumstances . When German troops marched in in June 1940, Kuhnen was arrested by the Gestapo and held in custody in Trier. In November 1940 the trial began before the special political court in Cologne with the charges: violation of the treachery law, accusation of sedition and insulting leading figures of the Reich government. Verdict: 18 months of solitary confinement in Wittlich prison. Released in December 1942 after severe damage to health as a result of punishment and inhumane conditions. He was arrested again in June 1943 and detained without trial in the closed forensic facility of the sanatorium in Ettelbrück. In October 1944 he moved to his daughter in Eisenach, where he suffered the end of the Nazi regime. In 1947 he returned terminally ill to Saarland, where he died on September 25th.
literature
- Essen heads - who was what? , Essen 1985.
Individual evidence
Web links
- Fritz Theodor Kuhnen in the database of members of the Reichstag
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kuhnen, Fritz Theodor |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German politician (center), MdR |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 5, 1879 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Borbeck |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 25, 1947 |
| Place of death | Püttlingen |