Fritz Ulrich

This article deals with the editor and politician Fritz Ulrich. For other people see Fritz Ullrich .

Fritz Ulrich (around 1933)

Fritz Ulrich (born February 12, 1888 in Schwaikheim / Württemberg ; † October 7, 1969 in Stuttgart-Sillenbuch ; actually Friedrich Ulrich ) was a German editor , wine grower and politician ( SPD ). He joined the SPD in 1906 and was a member of the Württemberg state parliament from 1919 to 1933 and also a member of the Reichstag from 1930 to 1933. From 1912 to 1933 he was also editor-in-chief at Heilbronner Neckar-Echo . In the era of National Socialism, he was professionally and politically sidelined and hired himself as a tax advisor and wine grower. In 1945 he became Minister of the Interior of the French-occupied part of Württemberg, a little later Minister of the Interior of Württemberg-Baden and from 1952 to 1956 Minister of the Interior of the newly established state of Baden-Württemberg . He was a member of the Baden-Württemberg state parliament until 1968 and was the state chairman of the Baden-Württemberg SPD for four years.

Life

Ulrich was born as the ninth of ten children of railway line worker Carl Friedrich Ulrich. His mother Christine Friedericke looked after the children and ran a small farm that helped feed the large family. Two of Ulrich's brothers died of diphtheria in childhood ; his oldest brother went to America at the age of 17 before Fritz Ulrich was born , where he died of pneumonia at the age of 30.

After seven years of attending elementary school, Ulrich learned the profession of typesetter and printer in Marbach am Neckar for four years after his confirmation, from the age of 14 . He began to be interested in politics when he was still at school. On site he carried out the Stuttgart SPD newspaper Schwäbische Tagwacht , to which his older brothers had also subscribed. During his apprenticeship, he contacted the local SPD, which provided him with political reading material. After completing his apprenticeship, Ulrich first moved to Pfullingen as a journeyman , then in 1906 to Waiblingen and became a member of the Association of German Book Printers , a predecessor organization of what would later become the IG Druck und Papier . At the age of 18 he also joined the SPD, and on January 6, 1907, at an election meeting in Schwaikheim, he met the SPD candidate Wilhelm Keil , with whom he had a friendship for decades. Shortly afterwards Ulrich became one of the co-founders of the Schwaikheim SPD local association, and also in 1907 he took over the chairmanship of the Waiblinger local branch of the book printers' association. From this time he also appeared as a speaker at party and trade union events.

In October 1908 Ulrich was drafted into the military and completed a two-year service with the Ulm Pioneers, which he finished as a private . At Keil's suggestion, the SPD state executive appointed him in 1911 as an apprentice to the editorial office of the Swabian Tagwacht in Stuttgart. From October 1, 1911, he was delegated for one year as local editor for the Reutlinger Free Press , a head journal of the Swabian Tagwacht. He performed at over 90 conventions that year. He let grow his distinctive goatee , for which he has since been known , “in order to appear more respectful” . After the Reutlingen year, at the urging of the SPD state executive, he moved to Neckar-Echo in Heilbronn , the city that became his “second home”, as editor , later editor-in-chief . In addition to Neckar-Echo, Heilbronn owned three other daily newspapers, including the liberal Neckar-Zeitung with its editor-in-chief Theodor Heuss as its fiercest competitor . On September 30, 1913, Ulrich married the director Berta Winter (1887–1976), whom he had met during his time in Reutlingen. The son Hermann and daughter Doris emerged from the marriage.

Ulrich experienced the First World War as a non-commissioned officer, sergeant and finally a spear of a pioneer company. In 1917 he was allowed to return to Heilbronn shortly to continue the Neckar-Echo, but after several articles that were not acceptable to the authorities and five warnings he had to return to military service. Except for a scratch on his head from falling rocks, he was unharmed during four years of war. After the end of the war, Ulrich started working again at Neckar-Echo, in the following years as the sole editor.

Ulrich's political career began in 1919 as a Heilbronn member of the state constitutional assembly for Württemberg , to which the 30-year-old Ulrich, who was popular thanks to his speeches and press articles, was the youngest member. He was a member of the Württemberg Landtag as a Heilbronn member from 1920 to January 1931 and again from 1932 to 1933. From 1930 he was also a member of the German Reichstag for three years . In addition to his mandates and work at Neckar-Echo, he took care of the SPD party work on site in Heilbronn, which also developed into a stronghold of social democracy due to Ulrich's work.

On March 15, 1933, Ulrich was arrested from a session of the state parliament and after protests by all parliamentary groups except the NSDAP, he was released on the same day, but arrested again in Frankfurt that same month and imprisoned for 14 days. In April 1933 he was taken into “ protective custody ” and spent a month in Heilbronn prison before he was transferred to the Heuberg concentration camp in May , which he was not able to leave until October 1933 despite numerous petitions from his wife Berta. Ulrich lost his seats in the Landtag and Reichstag, and after the Neckar Echoes were banned in March 1933, he was dismissed from his position as editor.

Ulrich's wife Berta began to tailor, later ran a textile business and thus helped to keep the family afloat financially. Since he was considered an enemy of the state by those in power and could no longer work as an editor, Ulrich, who had been chairman of the finance committee in the state parliament, began to work as a tax advisor and accountant. Since this was not enough to support the family, Ulrich earned his living as a vine gardener and broom host in Heilbronn. In Ulrichs Weinberghütte in Gewann Ried between Heilbronn and Weinsberg , Ulrich met social democrats friends such as Wilhelm Keil, Paul Löbe , Adam Remmele , Erich Roßmann , Georg Schöpflin and Carl Severing , until the meetings of the Heilbronn National Socialists around district leader Richard Drauz were banned. On August 22, 1944, Ulrich was arrested again in connection with the assassination attempt on Hitler and was sent to the Dachau concentration camp as a “protective prisoner” for four months . At the end of November 1944 he returned home "physically and mentally defeated" and saw his son Hermann again, who was on home leave and shortly before the devastating air raid on Heilbronn on December 4, 1944, which also destroyed Ulrich's house at Friedhofstrasse 21, went back to the front in Hungary. He fell as an officer on January 12, 1945 at the age of 22. The request made by the son at this last meeting to be healthy again and to become politically active in order to “fight for peace, justice and freedom” was Fritz Ulrich's legacy and obligation.

Since April 12, 1945 Heilbronn was in the hands of the Americans. On May 8, Ulrich and the former managing director of Neckar-Echoes, Knapper, asked the American military government for a license to allow Neckar-Echoes to appear again from June 1st. The application was rejected because the Americans did not want to admit any newspapers bound by party politics, and Ulrich remained a Weingärtner. At the end of May 1945, Wilhelm Keil asked Ulrich to take a leading position in rebuilding the administration. Ulrich initially refused because he saw little chance for a new state due to the uncertain situation, but then gave in to the insistence of old party friends and on June 13, 1945, the French governor general of Stuttgart became state director for home affairs with responsibility for the French occupied part of Württemberg. After the redefinition of the American and French occupation zones, the whole of North Württemberg including Stuttgart was an American zone of occupation, and in July the State Director for Interior Ulrich was given responsibility for the internal administration of this area. After the proclamation of the state of Württemberg-Baden on September 19, 1945, Ulrich was finally appointed Minister of the Interior by the American occupying forces on September 22 .

Since the elections in 1946, Ulrich was again a member of the Heilbronn constituency in the state parliament of Württemberg-Baden , but lived in Stuttgart. Ulrich had initially campaigned for the restoration of Württemberg within its old borders, but then relied on the idea of ​​a united south-west state. After the formation of the state of Baden-Württemberg in 1952, Ulrich was one of the leading members of the state constitutional assembly and continued to hold the office of interior minister under Prime Minister Reinhold Maier . His successor Gebhard Müller also brought him into his cabinet as Minister of the Interior. For health reasons, however, he was no longer available for this office after the end of the 1956 legislative period. During his term of office, among other things, the municipal and district regulations for Baden-Württemberg were law, financial equalization was regulated, a democratic police force was established and the Lake Constance water supply was founded. After resigning as Minister of the Interior, Ulrich remained a member of the constituency of Heilbronn-Stadt in the Baden-Württemberg state parliament (until 1968) and was also the senior president there. Ulrich served the SPD as a member of the Control Commission until 1966 and as its chairman for the last four years. He made speeches well into old age. In 1969 he died in his home in Stuttgart-Sillenbuch. His wife Berta survived him by seven years and died in 1976.

Prizes and awards

• The constitutional medal of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg in gold was given to him in 1956 as a "gift" because he generally rejected medals and decorations.
• In 1953 Fritz Ulrich was made an honorary citizen by his place of birth Schwaikheim and his “second home” Heilbronn.
• A hall and a street in Schwaikheim, a path in Stuttgart-Möhringen as well as a street and the Fritz Ulrich School in Heilbronn are named after Ulrich .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Fritz Ulrich: From my life. In: Wengerter and Minister (see literature), p. 14
2. ↑ ^{a b} Fritz Ulrich: From my life. In: Wengerter and Minister (see literature), p. 18
3. ^ Illustration of the house in the Heilbronn city archive

literature

• Wengerter and Minister. Fritz Ulrich. From Benjamin to age president. Schwäbische Tagwacht publishing house, Stuttgart 1968
• Simon M. Haag: The "millennial" Wengerter. Fritz Ulrich (1888–1969). In: Christhard Schrenk (Ed.): Heilbronner Köpfe II. Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 1999, ISBN 3-928990-70-5 ( Small series of the Heilbronn Archives. Volume 45), pp. 173–190
• Frank Raberg : Biographical handbook of the Württemberg state parliament members 1815-1933 . On behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-17-016604-2 , p. 936 .

Web links

• More information about Fritz Ulrich at the Heimatverein Schwaikheim
• Fritz Ulrich in the database of members of the Reichstag