Hermann Heukamp

Hermann Heukamp (born May 5, 1886 in Cloppenburg ; † February 11, 1966 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German Roman Catholic politician ( Center Party , non-party).

Weimar Republic

He graduated from high school in 1906 at the Georgianum Gymnasium (Lingen) . After studying and doing a doctorate in political science and law in Münster, he first entered the judicial service. During the First World War, the lawyer drew attention to himself from 1916 to the end of 1918 at the Commander-in-Chief East as head of the Department of Food and Agriculture, so that in 1919 he was appointed to the Reich Ministry of Food. In 1919/20 he temporarily moved to the Reich Ministry of Economics. In 1924, as a young, unmarried employee, he was put into temporary retirement as part of the downsizing. Heukamp then leased the Teistungenburg estate in the Thuringian part of the Eichsfeld. In 1926 he was called back to the Reich Ministry of Agriculture as a ministerial director . 1929 Reich Food Minister appointed him Hermann Dietrich for Secretary of State . In July 1932, following the resignation of the Brüning cabinet, Heukamp was retired by the new Papen government for political reasons and replaced by Fritz Mussehl . Heukamp was considered non-party, but, according to his own later statements, belonged to the Center Party as a member. Heukamp then worked in the agricultural sector of the Catholic Eichsfeld, some years as the owner of a dairy. He took over the management of the "Eichsfeld Farmers' Association", which is close to the center, and held numerous positions in the agricultural cooperative system in Eichsfeld. However, he lost these offices in the course of the consolidation of power by the National Socialists. That is why the lawyer returned to Berlin at the end of 1933 and built up a flourishing law firm. In 1936 he was prohibited from legally representing Jews and foreigners. Convened in 1939, he worked as an expert on nutritional issues in the conquered east until 1943. Health problems led to his discharge from the Wehrmacht and to his return to Berlin, which he left shortly before the end of the war to settle in Eichsfeld.

After the Second World War

In April 1945 the Americans appointed him Lord Mayor of Nordhausen and District Administrator of the Grafschaft Hohenstein district . With her withdrawal and the handover of the region to the Soviets in July 1945, Heukamp went to the West on the advice of the American commander. In Münster , the agricultural specialist immediately became a member of the Westphalian provincial government. From August 1946 to January 1947, Heukamp served as Minister for Food, Agriculture and Forestry in the first North Rhine-Westphalian state government appointed by the British occupation authorities. He was considered close to the center. After his work in politics and in numerous agricultural associations, Heukamp was in severe health problems. After his convalescence, Heukamp worked for five years as managing director of the Ruhr Associations in Essen. On August 28, 1956, the North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Fritz Steinhoff presented him with the Great Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition of his lifetime achievement. Because of his poor health, he moved to Freiburg im Breisgau, which was more climatically favorable to him.

Heukamp was an honorary member of the AV Zollern Münster and the KDSt.V. Borusso-Saxonia Berlin in the CV .

literature

• Bernd Haunfelder : North Rhine-Westphalia - country and people. 1946-2006. A biographical manual. Aschendorff, Münster 2006, ISBN 3-402-06615-7 , p. 213.
• Helmut Lensing: Hermann Heukamp (1886–1966) - lawyer and Minister for Food, Agriculture and Forests in North Rhine-Westphalia, in: Maria Anna Zumholz / Michael Hirschfeld / Klaus Deux (eds.), Biographies and pictures from 575 years of Cloppenburg city history, Münster 2011, pp. 225-229.

Web links

• Hermann Heukamp in the online version of the Reich Chancellery Edition Files. Weimar Republic
• Hermann Heukamp at the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament