Heinrich Kreil

Heinrich Johann Kreil around 1932

Heinrich Johann Kreil (born November 4, 1885 in Munich , † December 10, 1967 in Berlin ) was a German trade unionist and politician ( center , CDU ).

Life

After attending primary school, Kreil completed an apprenticeship as a mechanic and then worked in the profession he had learned. He has been active in the Christian trade union since the time of the German Empire , was a city councilor in 1919 and from 1907 to 1920 managing director of the Christian metal workers 'association of Dortmund and then until 1933 trade union secretary of the Christian metal workers' association in Berlin-Treptow . In addition, he was a member of the board of the Central Working Group until 1924 . From March 1915 to December 1917 he took part in the First World War as a soldier in Infantry Regiment No. 57 and was deployed on the Western Front.

Kreil joined the Center Party in 1904, which he also belonged to during the Weimar Republic . He was a member of the Provisional Reich Economic Council from 1920 to 1933 , and in March 1933 he was elected to the Prussian state parliament. In addition, from 1920 to 1923 he was deputy chairman of the Metallwirtschaftsbund, from 1927 to 1933 a member of the board of directors of the Reichsanstalt für Arbeitsvermittlung and unemployment insurance, and from 1932 a member of the supervisory board of the Berlin Civil Service Association. Furthermore, he was a councilor in the Reich Insurance Office .

After the seizure of power of the Nazis he was from all union positions because of "political unreliability" by the German Labor Front dismissed. From 1933 to 1944 he was the owner of a trading shop for tobacco products.

Heinrich Kreil was conscripted into the Wehrmacht in 1944 at the age of 58 and was a Soviet prisoner of war from April 1945 to August 1945 .

After being a prisoner of war , he joined the CDU in the same year and from June 1946 to January 1948 was head of the social policy department (together with Eduard Bernoth ) on the central board of the CDU and chairman of the CDU district association in Berlin-Treptow (today Treptow-Köpenick ) . In addition, from August 1945 to March 1948 he served as head of the German administration for labor and social welfare. In 1948, under pressure from the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD), he was dismissed for not attending the People's Congress . He had to leave the Soviet occupation zone (SBZ) and fled to West Berlin .

Kreil took part as one of three representatives of the UGO alongside Fritz Heinemann and Karl Lehrer at the 9th Interzonal Conference in Enzisweiler (near Lindau ) in August 1948 , which was canceled after a short time because the representatives of the FDGB were not ready to Let representatives of the UGO participate in the deliberations. On February 17, 1949 he resigned as chairman of the social policy committee of the regional association. From 1948 to 1953 he was a managing board member and deputy chairman of the DGB in Berlin (West) . In 1950 he again took over the chairmanship of the social policy committee of the regional association to help shape the "social task of the CDU in the sense of the Oberhausen resolutions of the CDU / CSU in Germany ".

From September 1952 until his resignation on November 24, 1953, he was chairman of the Berlin State Insurance Institute, which was incorporated into the German Pension Insurance Berlin-Brandenburg . At that time the politician Fritz Grantze took over his deputy .

After the death of Berlin's Governing Mayor Ernst Reuter ( SPD ), the CDU politician Walther Schreiber was elected as his successor on October 22, 1953, who in turn proposed Kreil for the office of Senator for Labor and Social Affairs, whereupon Kreil was nominated by the state committee and dated House of Representatives of Berlin was elected. He took office on November 24, 1953.

Theresia, Heinrich and daughter Theresia Kreil 1955 (from left to right)

After the SPD had won an absolute majority in the December 1954 elections , Otto Suhr formed a grand coalition so that Kreil could remain in office. In the election he gained a seat in the Berlin House of Representatives, which he had to give up on January 3, 1955 due to his membership in the Senate . On January 26, 1955, Ernst Benda moved up for him. From January 16, 1954 to January 22, 1955 he was a deputy member of the Federal Council . On April 26 and 27, 1955, Kreil was, along with Heinrich Lübke , Konrad Adenauer , Ludwig Erhard and several deputies from the state governments of the individual federal states , participants in the 29th meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economics. The long-term development plan for Berlin was on the agenda there. The meeting was held in the Schöneberg Town Hall and in the Bundeshaus in Berlin.

On January 12, 1957, he resigned from the office of Senator for Labor and Social Affairs after more than 3 years for health reasons. His successor was his former colleague Eduard Bernoth . Until his resignation from the Senate, he was a full member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Agency for Employment and Unemployment Insurance .

Heinrich Kreil was married to Theresia Lowitsch (* July 5, 1888; † January 12, 1970), with whom he had a daughter named Theresia (* August 10, 1913; † September 17, 2007) and a son named Heinrich Maximilian Kreil (* May 22, 1916 - December 5, 1944). His wife was a 2nd cousin of the painter August Macke . His son Maximilian was a fighter pilot in Jagdgeschwader 301 “ Wilde Sau ” and was shot down on December 5, 1944 in a dogfight with a North American P-51 during World War II . He died as a result of the crash with his Fw 190 and has been resting on the war cemetery of the city cemetery in Prenzlau ever since . Most recently he had the rank of lieutenant .

Kreil himself was buried in the cemetery of the St. Matthias parish in Berlin-Tempelhof together with his wife, daughter and grandson.

Honors

• June 1, 1957: Large Cross of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany

See also

• Senate Schreiber - Senate Suhr
• List of members of the Landtag (Free State of Prussia) (5th electoral term)
• List of members of the Berlin House of Representatives (2nd electoral term)

literature

• Werner Breunig, Siegfried Heimann , Andreas Herbst : Biographical Handbook of Berlin City Councilors and Members of Parliament 1946–1963 (=  series of publications by the Berlin State Archives . Volume 14 ). Landesarchiv Berlin , Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-9803303-4-3 , p. 153 f . (331 pages).
• Martin Broszat , Gerhard Braas, Hermann Weber (eds.): SBZ manual. State administrations, parties, social organizations and their executives in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany 1945–1949. Oldenbourg, Munich 1993 (2nd edition), ISBN 3-486-55262-7 , p. 955.
• German Trade Union Federation (Ed.): Berlin Trade Union History from 1945 to 1950 FDGB UGO DGB , Berlin 1971, p. 52, p. 133, p. 136 f., P. 185, p. 251 ff, p. 257, p. 272 , P. 281.
• Ernst Kienast (Ed.): Handbook for the Prussian Landtag , edition for the 5th electoral period, Berlin 1933, p. 350.

Web links

• Heinrich Kreil in the online version of the Reich Chancellery Edition Files. Weimar Republic