Gustav Trunk

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Gustav Trunk around 1927

Josef Ludwig Gustav Trunk (born July 24, 1871 in Waldprechtsweier , † April 23, 1936 in Karlsruhe ) was a German lawyer and politician of the Center Party .

Origin, youth and first political activities

Gustav Trunk was one of four sons of the main teacher Valentin Magnus Trunk and his wife Sophie, nee Weber. The father came from a farming family in Hainstadt in the Odenwald , his mother from Kirrlach . Since the father was often transferred as a primary school teacher and wanted to spare his son the resulting repeated school changes, Gustav attended Lender's educational institution in Sasbach from 1883 , a Catholic boarding school, where the students did agricultural work on neighboring parishes in addition to teaching. Since this school only lasted as far as sub-secondary, Gustav switched to the grammar school in Rastatt in 1888 , where he passed the Abitur in 1893. He then studied law at the University of Heidelberg , where he became a member of the KDStV Arminia Heidelberg in the CV , in 1894/95 at the University of Berlin and then again in Heidelberg.

In 1897 he passed the first state examination in law and came to the Wolfach District Court as a legal intern . In the same year he married Emma Eppel from Baden-Baden . In 1898 the daughter Paula Karolina was born.

After graduating as Dr. iur. and the second state examination in law in the summer of 1900, Trunk established himself as a lawyer in Karlsruhe . The son Leo Josef Gustav was born here in 1900.

Trunk joined the Center Party because of his Catholic origins and influenced by his role model Franz Xaver Lender , and was elected its chairman in Karlsruhe. From 1911 to 1919 he was a member of the Karlsruhe city council.

During the First World War , Trunk served in the Landsturm Infantry Battalion XIV / 18 from 1915 to 1918 .

Political career after 1918

Gustav Trunk as a member of the Baden provisional government (seated, 2nd from left) in November 1918

After the revolution of 1918 in Baden , Trunk was elected a member of the Baden National Assembly in 1919 and a member of the Baden state parliament in 1920. In the Badische Provisional People's Government , a provisional all-party government formed in November 1918 , Trunk took over the post of Minister of Food for the center. His nomination was probably due to the fact that he had good relationships with the farmers' associations, which he had often represented as a lawyer.

After the new Baden constitution was passed on April 21, 1919, the National Assembly elected a new government in which Trunk took over the post of Justice Minister, which he subsequently held for more than ten years - an unusually long term of office under the circumstances at the time for a minister. During this time he was in office from August 14, 1920 to November 23, 1921 ( Cabinet Trunk I ), from November 23, 1925 to November 23, 1926 ( Cabinet Trunk II ) and from February 3 to November 23, 1927 ( Cabinet Trunk III ) as the annually elected President of Baden (head of government).

As Minister of Justice, Trunk initiated extensive reforms. He paid particular attention to reform of the penal system and welfare education .

The shock over the death of his wife Emma in February 1928 and increasing political disputes within the Center Party led Trunk to resign as Minister of Justice in November 1929. On June 2, 1930, he resigned his state parliament mandate, withdrew from active politics and was again active as a lawyer in Karlsruhe. In December 1931 he married Frieda Blos, who was ten years his junior.

After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Trunk was stripped of his ministerial pension at the end of March. He defended himself against this injustice and in March 1936 obtained the approval of a transitional allowance by the Reich Minister of Justice Franz Gürtner .

Kidney disease since 1935, Trunk died on April 23, 1936 of kidney failure . He is buried in the cemetery in Baden-Baden next to his first wife.

Honors

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Technical University of Karlsruhe in 1925, Trunk received one of the ten anniversary medals awarded. The University of Freiburg awarded him an honorary doctorate in law in 1926 .

literature

  • Gerhard Kaller: Article Trunk, Josef Ludwig Gustav . In: Baden biographies. New episode. Volume 3, 1990, pp. 273-274.
  • Gerhard Kaller: Baden 1918-1933. In: Klaus Schwabe (Ed.): The governments of the German medium and small states 1815-1933. (Büdinger Research on Social History 1980 / German Leadership Strata in Modern Times Volume 14). Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard 1983, pp. 145-162; on Trunk pp. 151–152.
  • Otto Wild: President Dr. hc Gustav Trunk and the coup in Baden 1918. In: Der Sasbacher 1976, pp. 76–85.

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