Hans Merten

Hans Merten (born September 1, 1908 in Wiesbaden ; † December 12, 1967 in Bad Godesberg ) was a German SPD politician .

Life and work

Hans Merten, the son of a liberal elementary school teacher, studied Protestant theology at the universities of Marburg and Berlin after attending the humanistic grammar school in Wiesbaden . As a pastor he was active in the Inner Mission and in churches. He was vicar in Dillenburg and Usingen , third pastor at the Evangelical Johannis Abbey in Berlin-Spandau , parish pastor of the workers ' congregation in Güstebiese on the Oder and from 1939 pastor of the workers' congregation in Mörfelden .

At the Second World War , he participated as a minister from the 1939th He was wounded three times in the war and received both Iron Crosses. His last rank was that of artillery sergeant major.

In January 1945 he was taken prisoner by the Soviets at the Baranov bridgehead on the Vistula. After fleeing and hospital stays, he was at the end of the war in American captivity in Frankfurt am Main, where he worked as a "prisoner-of-war pastor". At the end of 1945 he was released from captivity.

After 1945 Merten looked after prisoners of war, internees and returnees on behalf of the Evangelical Relief Organization. In 1947 he was appointed chairman of the Hessian state working group for prisoner-of-war issues.

In 1949 he became head of the office of the West German states for questions about prisoners of war and returnees, and after the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany he became a consultant in the Federal Ministry for displaced persons, refugees and war victims .

He was married to his wife Marianne.

MP

Merten belonged to the German Bundestag since 23 April 1951, when he in the constituency Waldeck for the deceased FDP -Abgeordneten Karl Rüdiger was nachgewählt, until his death in 1967. While he was still elected to parliament in 1953 via the Hessian state list of the SPD, he was able to win the Gießen constituency directly in the subsequent federal elections . First he made a name for himself as a group spokesman for prisoner-of-war issues. From 1957 to November 15, 1963 he was deputy chairman of the Bundestag Committee on Defense .

In connection with the " Spiegel Affair " of autumn 1962, Hans Merten was suspected of having passed confidential minutes from the Defense Committee on Gerhard Jahn to Spiegel. In December 1963 the Bundestag lifted its immunity, but the preliminary investigation was closed in November 1964.

From March 12, 1965 until his death, Merten was also a member of the European Parliament .

literature

• Walter Henkels : 99 Bonn heads , reviewed and supplemented edition, Fischer-Bücherei, Frankfurt am Main 1965, p. 178ff.
• Rudolf Vierhaus , Ludolf Herbst (eds.), Bruno Jahn (collaborators): Biographical manual of the members of the German Bundestag. 1949-2002. Vol. 1: A-M. KG Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-23782-0 , p. 557.

Web links

• Hans Merten in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
• Merten, Hans. Hessian biography. (As of June 12, 2020). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).