Hermann Schäfer (politician, 1892)

Schäfer presenting the new cabinet (1953).

Hermann Rudolf Schäfer (born April 6, 1892 in Remscheid , † May 26, 1966 in Bad Godesberg ) was a German politician ( DDP , FDP , Free People's Party , DP ). From 1953 to 1956 he was Federal Minister .

education and profession

After high school in 1910 the manufacturer's son Shepherd completed a study of political science and economics and the newspaper customer in Leipzig and Heidelberg , which he in 1914 with the graduation to the Dr. phil. and a dissertation on "The Press of the German Labor Movement". During his studies he became a member of the SBV Nordalbingia Leipzig in 1910 and of the Schwarzburgbund - connection Hercynia Heidelberg in 1911 . He worked as an editor for a short time and then took part in the First World War as a soldier from 1914 to 1918 . After his release from captivity in 1920, he served as managing director until 1934, later as executive board member of the Association of Executive Employees (Vela). From 1935 he was then employed by the Hanseatische Ersatzkasse from 1826; In 1946 he became its head. During the Second World War he was Captain of the Reserve at the General Plenipotentiary for Technical Communications (GBN) in Berlin .

Political party

Schäfer had already become a member of the left-liberal Progressive People's Party before the First World War . Released from captivity, he joined the German Democratic Party ( DDP ) in 1920 , of which he was a member of the Reich Executive Committee from 1925 to 1932.

After the end of the Second World War , Schäfer took part in the founding of the Free Democrats party in September 1945 , which was to become the Hamburg regional association of the FDP . In 1946 he was elected deputy chairman of the FDP regional association in Hamburg. In 1947 he was elected deputy chairman of the FDP in the British zone of occupation. From 1950 to 1955 he was Deputy Federal Chairman of the FDP; He was a member of the FDP federal executive from 1949 to 1955. Although he was considered an exponent of the left wing, he resigned from the FDP on February 23, 1956 with the so-called Euler Group , which was otherwise attributed to the right wing of the party, and became a co-founder of the FVP , which joined forces after just one year the DP united. In 1961 he returned to the FDP.

MP

Schäfer was a member of the Cologne city ​​council from 1925 to 1932 and was chairman of the DDP parliamentary group there from 1929. From 1947 he was a member of the Zone Advisory Council for the British Zone of Occupation and in 1948/49 of the Parliamentary Council and its Vice-President. In this capacity he drafted the Basic Law on May 23, 1949 together with Konrad Adenauer and Adolph Schönfelder ; the constitutional document therefore bears his signature.

Schäfer headed the Commission of the Parliamentary Council, which was supposed to examine which of the four applicant cities ( Bonn , Frankfurt am Main , Kassel or Stuttgart ) should receive the provisional seat of the federal bodies. The Commission proposed to the Parliamentary Council to choose between Bonn and Frankfurt, Kassel and Stuttgart were found unsuitable.

From 1949 to 1957 Schäfer was a member of the German Bundestag and from 1949 to 1953 its vice-president . Schäfer was also a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 1950 to 1953 . He was also chairman of the FDP parliamentary group from September 12, 1949 to January 10, 1951 and from May 6, 1952 to 1953 , in the meantime its deputy chairman.

On February 23, 1956, Schäfer left the FDP parliamentary group together with the so-called "Euler Group" and initially belonged to the Bundestag as a non-attached member . On March 15, 1956 he became a member of the "Democratic Working Group" formed by the Euler Group, which renamed itself to "FVP Bundestag faction" on June 26, 1956, and finally to the DP / FVP faction on March 14, 1957 with the DP educated.

Hermann Schäfer entered the Bundestag in 1949 via the Hamburg state list and in 1953 as a directly elected member of the Hamburg IV constituency .

Public offices

Hermann Schäfer (1st row on the far left) in the Adenauer II cabinet

From October 20, 1953 to October 16, 1956, Schäfer served as Federal Minister for Special Tasks in the Federal Government led by Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer .

In 1957, Schäfer was appointed federal commissioner for questions relating to white-collar workers and the liberal professions.

Other engagement

From 1962 to 1967 he was a member of the Advisory Board of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation . From 1964 to 1966, Schäfer was chairman of the Society for Freedom - Friends and Supporters of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation .

Honors

• 1956: Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

See also

• Cabinet Adenauer II

literature

• Jürgen Frölich : Hermann Schäfer (1892–1966), Federal Minister. In: Portal Rhenish History .
• Rudolf Vierhaus , Ludolf Herbst (eds.), Bruno Jahn (collaborators): Biographical manual of the members of the German Bundestag. 1949-2002. Vol. 2: N-Z. Attachment. KG Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-23782-0 , p. 723.

Web links

Commons : Hermann Schäfer (politician)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Hermann Schäfer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Hermann Schäfer in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• Hermann Schäfer in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hermann Goebel (ed.): Directory of members of the Schwarzburgbund. 8th edition, Frankfurt am Main 1930, p. 124, no. 2661.