Heinrich Hirtsiefer

Heinrich Hirtsiefer (born April 26, 1876 in Essen , † May 15, 1941 in Berlin ) was a German social politician , member of the German Center Party and Deputy Prime Minister of Prussia. He died as a result of his imprisonment in a concentration camp .

Bust of Heinrich Hirtsiefer in Essen

Life

The son of a Catholic working-class family completed an apprenticeship as a locksmith after attending elementary school and the commercial training school and started working as a locksmith at the Krupp company in 1891 . Between 1895 and 1897 he did his military service. On August 1, 1904, he became district manager of the Christian-social metalworkers' association for the Rheinisch-Westfälische industrial area and, in 1920, association secretary of the general association. At the turn of the century Heinrich Hirtsiefer became a member of the Center Party. Between March 15, 1915 and April 1917, he served as a soldier in the First World War .

He was an honorary member of the KDSt.V. Rappoltstein to Cologne and KDSt.V. Borusso-Saxonia Berlin in the CV .

Political career

From January 1, 1907 to May 1924, he held a mandate as a city ​​councilor in his hometown of Essen . He also took part in the Prussian state constitutional assembly between 1919 and 1921. From 1921 until 1933 he was a member of the Prussian state parliament . During this time he was also Minister for People's Welfare in Prussia . He held this office until March 25, 1933. In the electoral term from April 5, 1925 to April 20, 1932, he was Deputy Prime Minister. On June 7, 1932, Hirtsiefer was entrusted with the management of official business by the Prussian Prime Minister Otto Braun , who resigned for health reasons. Due to the so-called Prussian strike of Chancellor Franz von Papen , he was removed from office by the Deputy Reich Commissioner for Prussia Franz Bracht . However, he did not officially resign until March 1933. On September 11, 1933, he was arrested by the SA and SS in Essen. Shortly thereafter, he was briefly released on the condition never to return to his hometown. This was followed by another arrest in Essen. There they hung a sign on him with the inscription “I am the hungry Hirtsiefer”, and he was first taken through the city to mock the public and then taken into protective custody. Then he was first taken to the Kemna concentration camp in Wuppertal - Beyenburg , and later to the Börgermoor concentration camp in Emsland . When he was released on October 12, 1933, he was ordered not to return to Essen and therefore went to Berlin.

In addition to his political activities, he was one of the co-founders of the Berlin Winter Aid from autumn 1930 and since 1920 the association secretary of Christian metal workers. During the Weimar Republic , Hirtsiefer belonged to the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold organization for the protection of the republic .

Honors

• Hirtsieferzeile in Berlin-Neukölln
• Hirtsiefer-Siedlung, housing and building cooperative in the north-west of Essen, designed by Theodor Suhnel
• Hirtsieferstrasse in Essen-Altendorf
• Hirtsieferstraße in Cologne-Holweide
• Honorary doctorate from the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn , the University of Breslau and the Technical University in Graz .
• Bearer of the Iron Cross 2nd class , Decoration of Honor 1st Class of the German Red Cross, Large Decoration of Honor on Ribbon for Services to the Republic of Austria and the Grand Cross of the Papal Order of St. Gregorius .
• In 1999, the Catholic Church accepted Heinrich Hirtsiefer as a witness of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century .

literature

• Max Abraham: Judah mad. A rabbi in the concentration camp. Teplitz 1934.
• Baldur Hermans : Heinrich Hirtsiefer (1876–1941) - a Christian-social companion - hated and persecuted . In: ders. (Ed.): Revisions to Nikolaus Groß and Heinrich Hirtsiefer . Nikolaus Groß-Haus-Verein, Essen and Niederwenigern 2015, pp. 53–67.
• Vera Bücker: Heinrich Hirtsiefer. In: Hugo Maier (Ed.): Who's Who of social work. Lambertus, Freiburg i. Br., 1998, ISBN 3-7841-1036-3 , pp. 254f.
• Essen heads - who was what? Richard Bracht Verlag, Essen 1985, ISBN 3-87034-037-1 .
• Eckhard Hansen, Florian Tennstedt (Eds.) U. a .: Biographical lexicon on the history of German social policy from 1871 to 1945 . Volume 2: Social politicians in the Weimar Republic and during National Socialism 1919 to 1945. Kassel University Press, Kassel 2018, ISBN 978-3-7376-0474-1 , p. 81 f. ( Online , PDF; 3.9 MB).
• Helmut Moll (Ed. On behalf of the German Bishops' Conference): Witnesses for Christ. The German martyrology of the 20th century. Paderborn et al. 1999, 7th revised and updated edition 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , pp. 214-218.
• Friedrich J. Ortwein: Heinrich Hirtsiefer, Prussian State Minister for Welfare. In: Rappoltstein Chronik 1905-2005.
• Ludwig Rosenberg , Bernhard Tacke : The way to the unified union . Edited by the DGB Federal Board. Printing: satz + druck gmbh, Düsseldorf 1977.
• Friedrich Zunkel:  Hirtsiefer, Heinrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 241 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Heinrich Hirtsiefer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Heinrich Hirtsiefer in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• Heinrich Hirtsiefer in the online version of the Reich Chancellery Files Edition . Weimar Republic

Footnotes

1. ↑ Wolfgang Langhoff : The Moorsoldaten. 13 months concentration camp. 5th edition. Verlag Neuer Weg, Stuttgart 1982, pp. 212-216: The delivery of Hirtsiefers.