Georg Diederichs

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Georg Diederichs, 1969

Georg Diederichs (* 2 September 1900 in Northeim ; † 19th June 1983 in Laatzen ) was a German SPD - politicians , Lower Saxony Landtag , Minister of Social Affairs and Prime Minister and one of the fathers of the Basic Law . At the time of National Socialism he spent over a year in prison and in a concentration camp ( Esterwegen ) as a resistance fighter .

Life

School and study

Diederichs in Couleur as a student in Göttingen (1922)

Georg Diederichs was born on September 2, 1900 as the son of a conservative pharmacist family. His older brother was the future federal judge Rudolf Diederichs . In 1918 Diederichs passed his Abitur in Goslar and completed a two-year apprenticeship as a pharmacist in his father's pharmacy. From 1922 he studied political science and economics as well as pharmacy in Göttingen . During his studies he joined the Corps Hercynia (today Corps Teutonia-Hercynia Göttingen), a student association in the Kösener Seniors Convents Association (KSCV). From this time he wore three slits from 19 lengths clearly visible on his face. He passed his pharmaceutical state examination in 1924 and became a qualified economist in 1926.

First political engagement and life in the "Third Reich"

In the same year he began his political activities as a member of the German Democratic Party (DDP) and became a member of the republican protection organization Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold , but switched to the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in 1930. During the time of the Third Reich, he supported like-minded fellow students and corps students materially and organisationally and was accused by the state of "unauthorized continuation of the party". He spent a year in Fuhlsbüttel prison ; He was then interned in the Esterwegen concentration camp for several months . It was thanks to the efforts of his employer at the time that Diederichs was released from the concentration camp. Then he moved to Berlin. From 1939 to 1945 he was a soldier in the Wehrmacht , including three years on the Eastern Front. He served as a soldier in the medical service. His highest rank was that of a sergeant.

Political beginnings in the post-war period

After the war he was appointed mayor of his native Northeim by the British occupying forces in October 1945. At that time the position was still connected with the office of administrative director. When the functions of mayor and city director were separated in January 1946, Diederichs decided on the honorary position of mayor. However, he soon turned to state politics and was elected as a member of the Lower Saxony state parliament in 1947.

Work in the Parliamentary Council

Grave in Northeim

From 1948 to 1949 he was a member of the constituent body, the Parliamentary Council , involved in drafting the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany . He was elected to this body by the Lower Saxony state parliament. Diederichs acted as deputy chairman of the committees for electoral law issues and the occupation statute. He participated in the first electoral law for the Bundestag election and made a significant contribution to the compromise proposal for a personalized proportional representation system on the controversial question of electoral law .

In Lower Saxony state politics

Diederichs (center) at a plenary session of the Federal Council in Bonn, 1962

Since a state parliament mandate was not a full-time job at the time, he decided in 1950 to lease the Ratsapotheke in Hanover and to pursue his trained work as a pharmacist in addition to the mandate. As his political offices became increasingly important and numerous over time, he gave up the pharmacy.

From 1947 to 1955 he acted as deputy chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the Lower Saxony state parliament. From 1952 to 1955 Diederichs was chairman of the committee for internal administration and had a decisive influence on the redesign of the Lower Saxony municipal constitution. From 1955 he was Vice President of the State Parliament. In 1957 he became Lower Saxony's Minister of Social Affairs and from December 29, 1961 to July 8, 1970, he was Prime Minister of Lower Saxony . During the 1950s he was one of the clear opponents of nuclear energy in the SPD.

It is thanks to the decisive work of Diederich that the Concordat between the Catholic Church and the State of Lower Saxony came about in 1965 , which was particularly controversial in his own party.

His outstanding services can be found in the expansion of the education system and structural improvements in rural communities. Diederichs was still in old age President of the Red Cross in Lower Saxony. Georg Diederichs died in Laatzen in 1983. His grave is in Northeim's city cemetery.

Awards and honors

literature

  • Dirk Böttcher , Klaus Mlynek , Waldemar R. Röhrbein , Hugo Thielen : Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2002, ISBN 3-87706-706-9 , p. 95.
  • Sigmar Gabriel : Georg Diederichs - A man of the first hour in building democracy after 1945. In: Northeimer Jahrbuch 2000. P. 124-131.
  • Gisela Notz / Christl Wickert : The successful constitution. Berlin 2009, p. 66.
  • Barbara Simon : Member of Parliament in Lower Saxony 1946–1994. Biographical manual. Edited by the President of the Lower Saxony State Parliament. Lower Saxony State Parliament, Hanover 1996, p. 72.
  • Frauke Schulz: Georg Diederichs: The state stepfather. In: Teresa Nentwig, Frauke Schulz, Franz Walter and Christian Werwarth (ed.): The Prime Ministers of the State of Lower Saxony: State fathers and state managers. Political leadership from Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf to Christian Wulf , Hahnsche Buchhandlung Hannover, Hannover 2012, pp. 94 to 119, ISBN 978-3-7752-6165-4

See also

Others

A secondary school in Clausthal-Zellerfeld was named after Georg Diederichs until the beginning of the 2009/2010 school year . On the occasion of the 21st anniversary of his death, on June 22, 2004, a Göttingen memorial plaque was unveiled for him at the house of the Corps Teutonia-Hercynia by his widow Karin-Rut Diederichs.

His saying “If the big shot is to be successful, both wings must swing”, which alludes to the left and right wing of the party, is often quoted.

Georg Diederichs was often called "Schorse" in the vernacular.

Diederichs was enthusiastic about the physicist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg , whose aphorisms he liked very much.

Web links

Commons : Georg Diederichs  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Manfred Blänkner / Axel Bernd Kunze [ed.]: Red flags, colorful ribbons. 2016 p. 117.
  2. ↑ Notz / Wickert: The successful constitution. 2009 p. 66.
  3. ↑ Eva-Maria Stoya: Politics calling, pharmacy rather a hobby. Social democrat, resistance fighter, concentration camp prisoner, member of the Lower Saxony state parliament, prime minister and one of the fathers of the Basic Law: the pharmacist Georg Diederichs (1900–1983). In: diepta.de. November 1, 2017, accessed February 23, 2020 .
  4. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB).
  5. ↑ Göttingen City Archives: memorial plaques .
  6. ↑ http://www.stadtarchiv.goettingen.de/lösungen/diederichs.htm .
  7. ^ SPD Lower Saxony: My fair Daddy . In: Der Spiegel . No. 47 , 1969, p. 128 ( online - 17 November 1969 ). Quote: "... since the end of 1961 acting Prime Minister Dr. Georg ('Schorse') Diederichs ... "
  8. ↑ Dancing dolls . In: Der Spiegel . No. 24 , 1970, pp. 33 ( Online - June 8, 1970 ). Quote: "... a grand coalition under the leadership of the former pharmacist Georg ('Schorse') Diederichs."
personal data
SURNAME Diederichs, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD), MdL
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd September 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Northeim , Germany
DATE OF DEATH June 19, 1983
Place of death Hanover , Germany