Heinz Kühn

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Heinz Kühn, 1966

Heinz Kühn (born February 18, 1912 in Cologne ; † March 12, 1992 there ) was a German journalist and politician ( SPD ) and from 1966 to 1978 the fifth Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia . During his term of office, the structural change in the Ruhr area and the expansion of higher education began. With the general introduction of the comprehensive school, he failed. Kühn's cabinets have always been supported by an SPD-FDP coalition. They were considered a model for the social-liberal coalition in Bonn in 1969 .

Kühn was already active in the SPD and in the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold during the Weimar Republic . He lived in exile during National Socialism. In addition to national politics, he was also a member of the European Parliament. In 1978 he became the federal government's first commissioner for foreigners .

Youth, school days, studies

Heinz Kühn's youth was born on the one hand by his social democratic father, the carpenter Hubert Kühn, and on the other hand by his Catholic mother Elisabeth, nee. Lutes, coined. His mother enforced baptism and a Catholic education as well as attending a Catholic elementary school . The Kühn family lived in Cologne-Mülheim on the right bank of the Rhine and were able to enable Heinz to attend the Reform Realgymnasium there in Adamsstrasse, which later became the Rhein-Gymnasium , which he left with the secondary school leaving certificate in 1928.

The relocation of the family to a “red settlement” in Cologne-Mauenheim made the ideological formation dominated by the father since 1926. In 1928 Kühn joined the Red Falcons , a youth organization of the SPD , and quickly rose to head a Falken school group. He later succeeded in becoming a leading SAJ functionary in the Upper Rhine region . After his 18th birthday, he also joined the SPD parent party.

At Easter 1931 Kühn passed the Abitur examination at the secondary school in Cologne-Kalk . In the summer semester of 1931 he began studying political science and economics at the University of Cologne . He belonged to the social democratic association of socialist students. Many of this group switched to the left-wing spin-off SAP in autumn 1931 , including Kühn's best friend. Kühn himself took a different path and joined the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold , which had set itself the goal of protecting the Weimar Republic from its enemies from right and left. As the district leader of the youth organization Jungbanner, Kühn was involved in massive disputes with the SA and SS of the NSDAP and was in contact with the Red Fighters resistance group .

Kühn's distance from SAP turned into sympathy under the impression that Hitler came to power in 1933. However, he did not formally leave the SPD and did not become a member of SAP.

In exile

Due to persecution pressure from the political police, SA and SS, he left Cologne. In 1933 he met his future wife Marianne (1914–2005), whom he married in 1939. On May 5, 1933, Kühn went into exile with his wife - initially in the Saar area; the next stop for the emigrants was Kühn's grandparents' residence in Královec . Then they moved to Brussels via Prague . When the Germans invaded and occupied Belgium in World War II, the Kühns were again in distress, as the Gestapo continued to want them as enemies of the state . Kühn's wife went into hiding in Brussels, while Kühn fled to Ghent , where he lived for three years in the house of an opposition Belgian. During this time Kühn was able to continue working politically; so he wrote in underground magazines.

New beginning in Cologne after 1945

After returning to Germany, he first worked as a journalist and soon also as a politician. From 1946 to 1950 he worked as an editor for the Rheinische Zeitung . At the end of the 1950s, Heinz Kühn was chairman of the NWRV , the television broadcaster of the Northwest German Broadcasting Corporation . Kühn first lived with his family in a four-room apartment in Cologne-Buchforst until they had a single-family house built in Cologne-Dellbrück on Roteichenweg in 1958 , in which Marianne opened her naive art painting in 1979 and also had exhibitions there until she was old organized.

Political career

Kühn began his parliamentary career in 1948, when he replaced Willi Eichler in the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia , to which he was a member until 1954, on March 27 . From 1953 to April 9, 1963 he was a member of the German Bundestag . There he was from 1953 to 1957 deputy chairman of the committee for questions of the press, radio and film and then until 1961 of the committee for cultural policy and journalism.

At times Kühn was also a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Assembly of the Western European Union , where he headed the Socialist Group from 1959 to 1963.

In July 1962 Kühn returned to the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament as leader of the SPD parliamentary group, to which he was a member until 1978. Also in 1962 he became chairman of the SPD district of Middle Rhine, and in 1970 first state chairman of the SPD in North Rhine-Westphalia . Within the SPD, Kühn was one of the proponents of majority voting .

After his time as a member of the state parliament, he remained politically active as a member of the European Parliament (1979 to 1984). He was also deputy chairman of the administrative board of the WDR.

On his 70th birthday, his party friend and successor in office, Johannes Rau , gave him the name of the Heinz Kühn Foundation , which was founded in 1982 and whose aim is to promote talented young journalists from Germany and abroad. Kühn himself was also a member of the foundation's board of trustees.

In June 1983, after the death of Alfred Nau, he took over the chairmanship of the SPD-affiliated Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), of which he had been deputy chairman since 1970. On December 4, 1987, he had to resign from the chair for health reasons, but kept an office at the FES headquarters in Bonn until his death.

Public offices

From 1966 to 1978 he served as the successor to Franz Meyers ( CDU ) as Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia . He was elected with the help of the FDP and thus founded the country's second social-liberal coalition , which also acted as a model at the federal level. After the formation of the grand coalition at federal level, Meyers had dismissed the FDP state ministers and proposed a grand coalition to the SPD at state level as well. The Social Democrats, however, chose the Liberals as partners.

One of the political decisions and problems of Heinz Kühn's 12-year term in office was the redevelopment of the Ruhr area , in which he, his cabinet and the state's economy were able to achieve considerable success. Other main tasks were a school reform (on the dispute about the comprehensive school, see Minister of Education Jürgen Girgensohn ) and the administrative reform (see regional reform in North Rhine-Westphalia ). From November 1, 1971 to October 31, 1972, Kühn was also President of the Federal Council .

In the last few years of his office as Prime Minister, critics noted increasingly clear resignation and signs of weak leadership. The circumstances of the resignation of the Landesbank boss Ludwig Poullain , which also affected Kühn's political responsibility, became a heavy burden in the spring of 1978 . In addition there was the referendum against the cooperative school ("Koop-Schule"). Kühn originally wanted to remain in office until 1980, but resigned for health reasons at the end of June 1978 with effect from September 20, 1978.

In November 1978 he was appointed by the federal government as the commissioner for foreigners and held this office until autumn 1980.

Kühn died in 1992 at the age of 80 and was buried in Cologne's Ostfriedhof (Hall 29).

Honors

Heinz Kühn Medal

The Middle Rhine region of the SPD state association in North Rhine-Westphalia has been awarding the Heinz Kühn Medal every year since March 30, 1992 on the following basis:

“On the occasion of the anniversary of Heinz Kühn's death, the SPD district executive donates the Heinz Kühn Medal every year. It is intended to honor individuals and groups who are particularly committed to the coexistence of Germans and foreigners. These activities should be characterized by exemplary individual initiatives and stand out in a future-oriented way from the framework of normal foreign work. The Heinz Kühn Medal can also be awarded to non-members. "

In 1978, Heinz Kühn first appointed a foreigners commissioner in North Rhine-Westphalia ( Kühn memorandum ).

In 2008, the Heinz Kühn Medal went to Hans-Gerd Ervens, Irene Westphal and the Musikforum Wesseling eV.

Publications

  • Resistance and Emigration. The years 1928–1945. Hamburg 1980, ISBN 3-455-08842-2 .
  • Konrad Adenauer and Kurt Schumacher as political speakers. In: Bernd Rede , Klaus Lompe , Rudolf von Thadden : Idea and pragmatics in political decision-making. Alfred Kubel on his 75th birthday. Bonn 1984, pp. 81-93.
  • The art of political speech. Düsseldorf 1985.

literature

  • Dieter Düding: Heinz Kühn 1912–1992. A political biography (= Düsseldorfer Schriften zur Neueren Landesgeschichte and the history of North Rhine-Westphalia, Volume 61). Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2002, ISBN 3-89861-072-1 .
  • Dieter Düding: Heinz Kühn (1912–1992). In: Sven Gösmann (ed.): Our Prime Ministers in North Rhine-Westphalia. Nine portraits from Rudolf Amelunxen to Jürgen Rüttgers. Droste, Düsseldorf 2008, pp. 126-153, ISBN 978-3-7700-1292-3 , pp. 126-153.
  • The cabinet minutes of the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia 1966 to 1970 (sixth electoral period) (= publications of the state archive of North Rhine-Westphalia, 8). Edited by Christoph Nonn, Wilfried Reininghaus and Wolf-Rüdiger Schleidgen, included. u. edit by Andreas Pilger, Siegburg 2006, ISBN 3-87710-361-8 .
  • The cabinet minutes of the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia 1970 to 1975 (seventh electoral period) (= publications of the state archive of North Rhine-Westphalia, 27). Edited by Frank Michael Bischoff, Christoph Nonn and Wilfried Reininghaus, included. u. edit by Martin Schlemmer, Düsseldorf 2009, ISBN 978-3-9805419-7-8 .

See also

Web links

Wikiquote: Heinz Kühn  - Quotes
Commons : Heinz Kühn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ↑ Press release on the 88th of the NRW-SPD ( Memento from March 31, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed July 2011)
  2. ↑ Tobias Christ: Where Cologne celebrities lived, Heinz Kühn in Kölner Stadtanzeiger 23/24. July 2011 (real estate part)
  3. ↑ Reference to ard.de: Chronicle of the year 1982 , accessed on October 8, 2019
  4. ↑ on the founding history of the HKS ( Memento from September 28, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Better in the South Seas . In: Der Spiegel . No. 27 , 1978 ( online - July 3, 1978 ).
  6. ↑ Kühn tomb. In: knerger.de. Retrieved October 7, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Merit holders since 1986. State Chancellery of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, accessed on March 11, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Kühn, Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD), Member of the State Parliament and Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Member of the Bundestag, MEP
DATE OF BIRTH February 18, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH March 12, 1992
Place of death Cologne