Johannes Gorlas

Johannes Gorlas (born January 31, 1934 in Gelsenkirchen ) is a German chemical engineer, trade unionist and politician ( SPD ).

Life and work

After completing secondary school in 1951, Johannes Gorlas completed an apprenticeship as a chemical laboratory assistant at the AG for the Chemical Industry in Gelsenkirchen-Schalke and then studied at the Essen State Engineering School , chemistry department. From 1958 to 1975 he worked as a chemical engineer in the chemical laboratory of the Emschergenossenschaft in Essen. The main field of activity was the investigation of the diverse industrial wastewater of the Ruhr area. A special focus of his work was the application of the latest analysis methods such as gas chromatography and spectroscopy in water chemistry. As early as the early 1960s, phenols in coking plant wastewater were determined by gas chromatography in his laboratory . Until 1995 Gorlas was a member of the gas chromatography working group in the Society of German Chemists .

Johannes Gorlas was married to the teacher Gertrud Gorlas (* December 7, 1933 in Gelsenkirchen-Rotthausen; † April 27, 2002 in Essen). The couple has two children.

labor union

Gorlas has been a union member since 1952. For fifteen years he was a member of the Essen district board of the ÖTV trade union in the water management sector. From 1983 to 1989 he was the district chairman of the German Trade Union Federation ( DGB ) in Essen and, in connection with this function, chairman of the administrative committee of the Essen employment office and chairman of the vocational training committee of the Essen Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In addition, he was chairman of the DGB / VHS working group in Essen.

Political party

Gorlas, who came from a “dead Catholic family”, became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany ( SPD ) in 1957 - led by left-wing Catholic political positions and provided with a critical view of the party's history. A possible membership in the CDU was out of the question for him because of the rearmament policy he was pushing.

For several years Gorlas was a member of the SPD sub-district executive committee in Essen and the state committee of the NRW-SPD. In addition, he was chairman of the SPD-affiliated socialist education community in Essen.

Algeria solidarity

Since the mid-1950s, Johannes and Gertrud Gorlas have been committed to the National Liberation Front of Algeria ( Front de libération nationale , FLN). Long before the term porter was born for the FLN supporters, their apartment in Essen was an important place to go and overnight for FLN cadres and their basement was a depot for documents and files of the FLN. In addition, they organized political debates among friends and colleagues about the need for Algerian independence. This group of friends included Adolf Brock , Konrad Frielinghaus and Wolfgang Hindrichs .

MP

From May 28, 1975 to May 31, 1995, Johannes Gorlas was a member of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia . In the constituency of Essen-Steele , he always moved into the state parliament as a directly elected member. From 1985 to 1995 he was deputy chairman of the committee for environmental protection and spatial planning; from 1983 to 1985 spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group for food, agriculture, forestry and water management and from 1985 to 1995 parliamentary group speaker for agriculture, forestry, nature conservation and water management.

literature

• Claus Leggewie: The couple Gorlas and Werner Plum - Alternative (s) in Adenauer Germany , in: Claus Leggewie: Kofferträger. The Algeria Project of the Left in Adenauer Germany , Rotbuch Verlag, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-88022-286-X , pp. 34–56.

Web links

• Johannes Gorlas at the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia
• Reinhold Michels: Portrait of the week: Johannes Gorlas (SPD) , internal state parliament, 22nd year, issue 16 of October 8, 1991.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Reinhold Michels: Portrait of the week: Johannes Gorlas (SPD)
2. ↑ Claus Leggewie: Kofferträger , p. 53 ff.