Heinrich Weiss (politician, 1893)

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Heinrich Weiss (1963)

Heinrich Weiss (also white ; born August 2, 1893 in Sindlingen ; † November 5, 1966 in Frankfurt-Höchst ) was a German trade unionist , politician ( SPD ) and entrepreneur .

Weiss belonged to the state assembly that advised the constitution and was a member of the Hessian state parliament from 1946 to 1966 and a multiple member of the federal assembly . Already in 1928 a member of the district council of the newly formed Main-Taunus-Kreis , he was also a member of the political district organs and the city ​​council of Hofheim am Taunus for a long time after the Second World War , so that many referred to him as the "father of the district ".

Professional and entrepreneurial activity

Heinrich Weiss attended elementary and vocational school in Sindlingen. He then completed an apprenticeship as a mechanic and worked in various companies. In 1907, at the age of 14, he joined the German Metalworkers' Association . In the evening school he continued his education in mechanical engineering .

From 1913 to 1918 he did military service and was seriously wounded in the First World War . After his recovery, Weiss worked for Krupp AG in Essen and after the end of the war moved to the Nied Reichsbahn repair shop . In 1919 Weiss became a member of the works council and in 1923 finally chairman of the works council . From 1926 he was chairman of the district works council of the Reichsbahndirektion Frankfurt , Kassel and Darmstadt . In 1927 he became a member of the Union of Railway Workers in Germany , where he was a union employee from 1930 .

After the seizure of power of the Nazis and the dissolution of unions Weiss was fired and unemployed. In September 1933 he founded a shop for bicycles and household goods in Marxheim (Taunus) . From 1934 to 1942 he made his house at Klarastraße 3 in Marxheim available to Catholic nuns for living purposes.

After the Second World War , Weiss received a contract from Adam Opel AG in 1946 for the sale and repair of motor vehicles. Even washing machines were sold and repaired. Weiss made the missing parts himself. He forged plowshares for the farmers and manufactured harrows and other equipment so that the fields in Marxheim could be tilled properly again.

In 1947 Esso AG gave him a small tank with a pump to sell petrol . At the same time, a supply contract was concluded. In the beginning, he is said to have packed a 50-liter barrel on a handcart and filled it up to bring the gasoline to the four people who owned a car in Marxheim. A barn was built to repair the cars and motorcycles and the gas station was enlarged. In order to be able to train apprentices, he prepared for his master craftsman examination in evening school. After passing the examination to become a master craftsman for the motor vehicle and gas station trade, he founded a repair workshop for bicycles and motorcycles with an attached Esso street gas station in Marxheimer Bahnstrasse in 1948 . For this purpose, the workshop was expanded and the barn was demolished in order to build a massive workshop building. After the company in Marxheim no longer offered sufficient space, the foundation stone for a new Opel car dealership was laid in 1964 on a 10,000 m² property in the neighboring town of Kriftel , and the company relocated there in 1966.

In 1951, Weiss, in cooperation with Esso AG, opened the "Autohafen Main-Taunus" at the then Bundesstraße 40 , which is now the motorway service station of the Bundesautobahn 66 between the Weilbach and Hattersheim am Main junctions . In 1956, on the initiative of Weiss, the Esso gas station "Taunusblick" was opened in Hofheimer Elisabethenstrasse.

Political activity and persecution

Weiss joined the SPD in 1914 at the beginning of the First World War . For this he had been active in local politics since 1918 and in 1919 became an honorary alderman of the then still independent community of Marxheim (Taunus) . From 1928 to 1929 and from 1931 to the dissolution by the National Socialists in 1933, he was also a member of the district council of the Main-Taunus district .

As a social democrat and trade unionist, he was under constant surveillance by the Gestapo and was repeatedly taken into “ protective custody ” for four to six weeks . Namely in May / June 1933, in August / September 1940, in August / September 1943 and most recently as a result of the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 during the " Operation Grid " on August 22, 1944. That he was released on September 4, 1944 and not in a concentration camp came, he owed the circumstance likely that his only son recently on the Eastern Front fallen was.

After World War II he was in 1945 by the American military government as first district councilor and deputy district administrator Walter Weber used. After the first local elections in Hesse in 1946 , he was a member of the district council and city ​​councilor in Hofheim am Taunus and member of the board of the SPD sub-district until his death .

On December 1, 1946, Weiss was directly elected constituency member in the Hessian state parliament . In the 1st legislative period of the state parliament (1946–1950) he was chairman of the parliamentary committee for reparation . Weiss was a member of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Federal Assemblies for the election of the German Federal President in 1954 , 1959 and 1964 .

After almost five legislative terms, Weiss resigned his parliamentary mandate in August 1966 for health reasons. He died on November 5, 1966 at the age of 73 after an operation in the Frankfurt-Höchst City Clinic .

Further memberships

Honors

On March 20, 1959, Weiss was awarded the Great Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for special and great help to the general public and many individual citizens affected by suffering . Regardless of religious and political convictions, he is said to have helped everyone who suffered from injustice .

Willy Brandt personally honored him in 1964 for 50 years of SPD party membership and his services to the party.

In 1983 the extension of Bahnstrasse was renamed Heinrich-Weiss-Strasse in his honor in Hofheim am Taunus .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Representatives of the citizens of the Main-Taunus-Kreis in the state parliament . In: District Administrator Dr. Valentin Jost (Ed.): Main-Taunus-Almanach 1967 + 1968 . 1968, p. 92 .
  2. ^ Gerhard Beier : Workers' Movement in Hessen (1834–1984) (=  The Hessen Library ). Insel Verlag, 1984, p. 595 .
personal data
SURNAME Weiss, Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES White, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German trade unionists, politicians (SPD) and entrepreneurs
DATE OF BIRTH August 2, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Sindlingen
DATE OF DEATH 5th November 1966
Place of death Frankfurt-Höchst