John Henry

"The board is preparing for the discharge commission " - the board of the K.St.V. Arminia in the winter semester 1898/99, right: Johannes Henry as senior

Johannes Baptist Henry (born June 18, 1876 in Bonn ; † September 2, 1958 ibid) was a German lawyer and politician (Center Party).

Education

Henry began studying law at the University of Bonn in 1896 . There he entered the K.St.V. Arminia , who he headed twice as a senior, later for many years as a Philistine senior . In 1897 he studied for one semester at the University of Munich , where he worked at K.St.V. Saxonia became active. In 1901 he passed the first state examination and in 1906 the second state examination.

Managing Director of KV

Henry settled in Bonn as a lawyer. In 1919 he took over the management of the Cartel Association of Catholic German Student Associations (KV), which he, re-elected several times, held until 1932. He was succeeded by Paul Franken . During this time Henry was far beyond the mere organizational management of the association, its spiritual leader. After the loss of the First World War , the tradition of many clubs was interrupted. The KV was on a completely insecure financial basis and soon had to survive inflation . Henry overcame the difficulties and even set up an employment agency for the cartel brothers affected by unemployment, which was transferred to the later resistance fighter Josef Wirmer . The first edition of the well-known manual “Fuchs und Bursch, a manual for old and young KVers” dates back to 1929 on his initiative. Henry broke with the "small German" attitude of the association and promoted the establishment of cartel associations at Austrian universities. The Philistine was brought together by him in a separate organization. The creation of committees for specific technical tasks followed. The great constitutional reform of the KV of 1928 must be seen as Henry's work. In particular, it included joint general assemblies of the Philisterium and Aktivitas and a uniform financial constitution.

Political activity

Henry developed political activity as chairman of the Bonn Center Party (from 1907). In 1912 he was already a city councilor in Bonn's city council and in 1914 chairman of the city council faction of the Center Party. He resigned both offices on July 21, 1933 because he did not want to be made henchmen for the National Socialist parliamentary group. The First World War interrupted his political career. Henry worked in the war economy from 1914 to 1915 and was a soldier in 1916. Even during the Weimar years he was a staunch opponent of the National Socialists . In 1917 he became a member of the Reichstag for Bonn, but in 1919 he refused to run again in favor of a representative of the workforce in order to be able to devote himself entirely to local politics. The staunch opponent of the National Socialists was monitored during the “Third Reich”, and Henry's apartment and law firm were repeatedly searched by the Gestapo . In the process, important files from the corporation student, especially large parts of the KV and Arminen archives, were confiscated and lost. On August 22, 1944, after the assassination attempt on Hitler as part of the Gewitter campaign, he was arrested a day later in the Cologne Gestapo prison EL-DE-Haus and from there with other former Reichstag deputies and politicians from democratic parties (including Konrad Adenauer , Josef Baumhoff , Thomas Eßer , Otto Gerig , Peter Knab , Peter Paffenholz , Joseph Roth , Peter Schlack , and Hubert Peffeköver) were transferred to the labor education camp in the exhibition halls in Cologne-Deutz, the Cologne exhibition center . After the Second World War , on September 21, 1945, he was one of the founders of the CDU in Bonn, of which he became first chairman and remained until 1950. He headed the CDU parliamentary group until 1946.

Honors

Henry was the first KVer - later only Chancellor Wilhelm Marx received this honor - the honorary title created especially for him, "Association Elder of KV". In 1951 he and Konrad Adenauer became an honorary citizen of the city of Bonn, which named a street after him. On June 17, 1954, he received the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st Class. Henry is buried as an honorary citizen of the city in the historic Old Bonn Cemetery. His grave is the memorial of K.St.V. Arminia. His extensive estate is in the Bonn City Archives and in the KV archives.

literature

• Josef Niesen : Bonn Personal Lexicon. 3rd, improved and enlarged edition. Bouvier, Bonn 2011, ISBN 978-3-416-03352-7 .
• Johannes Laitenberger: Johannes Henry, founder of the CDU in Bonn. In: Stephan Eisel and Johannes Laitenberger (eds.) For Bonn, For Germany, For Europe. 50 years of the CDU in Bonn. Bonn 1995, pp. 65-72, ISBN 3-416-02570-9 .
• Wolfgang Löhr: Johannes Henry (1876-1958) estate. Holdings KV 3 in the archive of the Cartel Association of Catholic German Student Associations (KV) in the Mönchengladbach City Archives, Würzburg, Schernfeld 1988.
• Martin Luible: Johannes Henry. Life and work. Association elder of the KV. Munich-Pasing 1958.
• To the resignation of the association manager. Academic Monthly Bulletin 1932, No. 8, ISSN  0002-3000 .

Web links

• Biography of Johann Baptist Henry . In: Heinrich Best : database of the members of the Reichstag of the Empire 1867/71 to 1918 (Biorab - Kaiserreich)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Schenkelberg, Lothar: To serve Bonn is both an honor and a joy. Bonn, Bonner Geschichtswerkstatt , 2014, ISBN 978-3-9806609-7-6 , p. 114.
2. ^ Johannes-Henry-Strasse in the Bonn street cadastre
3. ↑ Office of the Federal President