Gustav-Adolf Gedat

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1953 election poster

Gustav-Adolf Gedat (born February 10, 1903 in Potsdam ; † April 6, 1971 in Bad Liebenzell ) was a German CDU politician .

Life and work

After graduating from high school in East Prussia , Gedat, who was Protestant , studied pedagogy at various universities in Germany and abroad. As early as 1918, he had been volunteering for the Free German youth movement, for which he later also worked full-time. In the 1930s he became Reich Secretary of the YMCA .

Gedat was enthusiastic about National Socialism and had an anti-Semitic attitude: “A new time, a new hope, a Führer has arisen! A people's community should be built on the basis of racial purity and ethnic consciousness. Foreign racial elements should be eliminated. The Nordic man alone should have the right. "Gedat welcomed the National Socialist regime as a kind of" strong disinfectant "to liberate Germany from" materialism "and declared in a 1935 address" God has ordered quite a few to be hunters over the Jewish people, to chase it and bring it to where God wants it! "

Despite this initially friendly attitude towards the regime, differences developed over time, as his goal was more the biblically based authoritarian rule of a "ruling class" and not the rule of a "master race", and he was not racially responsible for the "problem" with the Jews, but saw biblically founded. Because of these differences, he was banned from speaking and working by the National Socialists in 1938 (see the quote from 1934) and from then on worked as a hotel manager in Danzig until 1944 .

From 1945 to 1952 Gedat was General Secretary of the YMCA and member of the YMCA World Council in Geneva . He was deputy chairman of the evangelical Christian youth village organization in Germany and executive president of the German branch of "Christians in Responsibility" ( The Family ) as well as vice-president of the International Council for Christian Leadership in Washington, DC. He was also the founder in 1952 and chairman of the Society for the promotion of non-denominational, non-partisan and supranational cooperation in Bad Liebenzell .

In the 1950s, Gedat and Theodor Bovet supported homosexuals who fled to Switzerland from the Federal Republic before being arrested.

Political party

Gedat joined the CDU in 1953, shortly before he was nominated as a candidate for the Bundestag. He represented the constituency of Reutlingen in the German Bundestag , of which he was a member from 1953 to 1965.

Honors

Gedat became an honorary knight of the Order of St. John in 1954 . 1963 he was awarded the New York College the legal honorary doctorate and in 1964 received he was appointed Commendatore al Merito dell'Ordine delle Republica Italiana appointed. In 1965 he was accepted into the Pegnese Flower Order .

Publications

  • A Christian experiences the world's problems. An attempt at a popular introduction to world events in our day. Steinkopf, Stuttgart 1934.
  • That is also called life. Encounters on the go. Steinkopf, Stuttgart 1935.
  • Christianity - for the inferior? A presentation. Ostwerk-Verlag, Berlin 1937.
  • Wonder paths through a wonderland. A journey picture book. Steinkopf, Stuttgart 1939.
  • What will happen to this Africa? 2 volumes. Steinkopf, Stuttgart 1938–1952;
    • Volume 1: Experienced struggle for a continent. With a foreword by Colonial Secretary of State a. D. Dr. jur. hc Friedrich von Lindequist . 1938;
    • Volume 2: Reunion with a continent after 15 years. 1952.
  • They built to last. Wonderful buildings from all over the world. Kreuz-Verlag, Stuttgart 1951.

Quote

“A lot has changed in Germany in the years that I've been outside, a lot. A completely new one has dawned, a new time, a new hope, a leader has arisen. I have returned to the Third Reich and find old longings for a strong, proud fatherland fulfilled. Order reigns in the new Germany, tight leadership, unerring shaping of the future. A people's community should be built on the basis of racial purity and ethnic consciousness. German youth has this way to lead the elderly. It is the future, the way you live will be decisive for future generations of the German people. Foreign racial elements should be eliminated in this process. The Nordic man alone will have the right to help build the new Germany. Anyone who is different has no right and no ability to be a citizen in the new kingdom. "

- Gustav-Adolf Gedat : That too is called life , 1934 page 199

Web links

Commons : Gustav Adolf Gedat  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ That is also called life. JF Steinkopf, Stuttgart, 1935
  2. ^ North Rhine-Westphalia: SPD and DGB: spinnefeind . In: The time . No. 13/1958 ( online ).
  3. ↑ Jeff Sharlet: The Family. The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power. HarperCollins, New York NY 2008, ISBN 978-0-06-055979-3 , p. 164.
  4. ↑ Walter Euchner : God, Gedat and the Jews hunters. In: Die Zeit , June 4, 1965, No. 23.
  5. ↑ SPD and DGB: fiercely hostile. In: Die Zeit , March 27, 1958, No. 13.
  6. ↑ Jeff Sharlet interprets Gedat's turning away from Hitler with the disappearance of Gedat's hope that the Christian wing of National Socialism will finally prevail over the esoteric-pagan wing. (Jeff Sharlet: The Family. The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power. HarperCollins, New York NY 2008, ISBN 978-0-06-055979-3 , p. 164).
  7. ^ Schwulengeschichte.ch: Germany: §175-Flucht - Witnesses
  8. ↑ DNB
personal data
SURNAME Gedat, Gustav-Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (CDU), Member of the Bundestag
DATE OF BIRTH February 10, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Potsdam
DATE OF DEATH April 6, 1971
Place of death Bad Liebenzell