Josef Jakob (politician)

Josef Jakob (born January 28, 1896 in Hagen am Teutoburger Wald , † January 28, 1953 in Bocholt ) was the workers' secretary of the Catholic Labor Movement (KAB), a politician of the German Center Party , resistance fighter against National Socialism and victims of National Socialism and, after 1945, a Christian politician Democratic Party (CDP), the Center Party and later the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU).

Life

Jakob worked as a workers secretary for the Catholic Workers' Movement (KAB) in Bocholt, where he was managing director of the non-profit building cooperative Heimstätte.

In May 1928 he was elected for the Center Party as a member of the Prussian state parliament, to which he belonged until 1932 and again from February 9, 1933 until the end of the fourth legislative period. In parliament he represented constituency 17 (Westphalia-North).

After the National Socialists came to power , Jakob was arrested by the Gestapo on November 9, 1933 and imprisoned in Recklinghausen until December 24 . When the KAB was banned, he also lost his position as a workers' secretary. He was arrested again on July 11, 1935. He was in contact with Bernhard Letterhaus , but was able to evade further arrest after the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 .

From 1948 to 1949 Jakob was a member of the Economic Council of the Bizone for North Rhine-Westphalia . He joined the CDU on March 3, 1949.

1896-1932

In the first years of Jacob's life, the family moved more frequently due to the father's changing job opportunities, which for Jakob involved numerous school changes until the family settled permanently in Neubeckum in 1912 . Josef Jakob began an apprenticeship as a plumber there and became a member of the Catholic workers' association in Neubeckum.

When his father died in 1914, as the oldest of seven siblings, he broke off his apprenticeship to take over his father's work in a cement works so that the family could stay in the company flat . In 1915 he was appointed as an infantryman for military service confiscated. In 1919 he returned to British prisoners of war back to Neubeckum and continued to work in the cement factory. He became chairman of the local cartel of the Christian trade union , attended various training courses of the union and stood out for his eloquence.

Josef Jakob and Elisabeth Bensmann shortly before their wedding in 1922

In 1922 he became workers secretary of the Catholic Workers' Movement (KAB) of the western Münsterland , based in Bocholt , where he worked with Nikolaus Groß , Bernhard Letterhaus and Otto Müller . Also in 1922 he married Elisabeth Bensmann. The couple had seven children by 1941. His wife supported him in his political work. In 1923 Jakob became a city ​​councilor for the Center Party in Bocholt. As co-founder and managing director of the Bocholt building cooperative "Heimstätte", which was founded in 1927, he campaigned for affordable housing for workers.

Josef Jakob at a meeting of the Catholic Workers' International in Utrecht in 1931, 3rd row 3rd v. Right

In 1928 he became a member of the Center Party in the Prussian state parliament . Together with his friend Bernhard Letterhaus , he fought against the emerging fascism in his speeches and lectures in the state parliament as well as in his other activities and positions. In 1928 he became a co-founder of the Catholic Workers' International. In 1932 he was not re-elected to the Prussian state parliament due to a new distribution of seats to the detriment of the Center Party, but moved up in February 1933.

1933-1944

As KAB secretary, Jakob organized large-scale Catholic pilgrimages, which were also directed against National Socialist ideas and the seizure of power by Adolf Hitler. After other center deputies in Bocholt's city council had turned to the NSDAP as interns , Jakob resigned his mandate.

Jakob was arrested for the first time by the Gestapo during the Saint Martin's move in Bocholt in 1933 . His wife Elisabeth spoke to Bishop von Galen for the release of her husband. Von Galen had a long professional relationship with Josef Jakob through joint events and visits. At the end of December, Jakob was released from custody with diabetes acquired from the poor prison conditions in the Gestapo prison in Recklinghausen .

In 1934 Jakob had to go to Bad Mergentheim for a longer stay because of diabetes . During this time Nikolaus Groß represented him in Westmünsterland as KAB secretary and lived in the house of the Jakob family in Bocholt. After his return, Jakob continued his fight against National Socialism and against the ban on double membership.

In June 1935 he was arrested for the second time by the Gestapo and imprisoned in the Recklinghausen Gestapo prison. The reason given for the detention was high treason . Jakob is said to have smuggled papers from Friedrich Muckermann, who was well known to him, from the Netherlands to the German Empire . Because he was denied insulin in prison , he suffered shock . He was then anonymously deposited at the back entrance of a hospital, where he was found and given medical attention. At the end of September, the arrest warrant was lifted.

When the KAB was banned, Jakob became unemployed and tried to earn a living by selling insurance and painting himself. In 1936 he got a small job in the district church office. During this time, the family of seven was supported by the Capuchins and the KAB Association President Otto Müller . Jakob remained politically active, u. a. about the Kettelerhaus district in Cologne, which was part of the Cologne district and was in contact with the Kreisau district .

Through his political connections, Jakob was increasingly involved in the planning for Operation Valkyrie , the so-called Stauffenberg assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 on Hitler. If the attack had been successful, Jakob would have been designated as Prussian State Secretary. After the attempt was unsuccessful, the Gestapo wanted to arrest Jakob and, like Groß and Letterhaus, also hang in Plötzensee . This did not happen because Jakob's doctor put him into a diabetic coma to protect himself , so that the Gestapo officers had the impression that Jakob was dying. After hours of observation, they left the house. The coma ended and Jakob went into hiding until the end of the war.

1945-1953

Recognition as persecuted by the Nazi regime of 1947

Josef Jakob around 1946/1947

Newspaper report 1953 about the award of the Federal Cross of Merit to Josef Jakob

Jacob's wife Elisabeth was killed in the bombing raid on Bocholt in March 1945, while he and the children survived. The 18-year-old daughter Maria broke off her education and took over the household and the care of the younger siblings.

In May 1945 Jakob co-founded the new Christian-Democratic Party CDP, which later became part of the CDU and advocated Christian socialism and the nationalization of central areas of society. At the same time he campaigned for the re-establishment of the Center Party in Bocholt. In the local elections of 1946 the center received 20%, the CDU 36%. In the local elections in October 1948, the center received more votes than the CDU, which was attributed to Jacob's popularity.

In February 1948 Jakob was elected to the second Frankfurt Economic Council as Bocholt's city councilor for the Center Party until September 1949 . Here he worked with his KAB friend Bernhard Winkelheide . As a secretary, Jakob belonged to the Presidium of the Economic Council and worked in the committees Food - Agriculture - Forests, Labor and Political Examination. In July 1951, Jakob joined the CDU and built the social committees and the so-called workers' wing of the CDU.

In September Jakob married his second wife Hedwig Kötter.

At the end of 1952 he was re-elected to the Bocholt city council. The diabetes disease led to long hospital stays in the summer and at Christmas. On January 5, 1953, Federal President Theodor Heuss awarded him the Federal Cross of Merit in the hospital for his upright posture during the National Socialist era .

On his 57th birthday, January 28, 1953, Jakob died in the hospital in Bocholt.

Religion, politics and resistance of Josef Jakobs - a classification

Josef Jakob was a Catholic Christian. From this he derived his political commitment, among other things, for affordable housing, good working conditions and workers' participation.

He was able to give impressive speeches and was a leading figure in the Christian and political life of Bocholt and the KAB Westmünsterland.

The life of Jesus was his model. Since the official Catholic Church did not necessarily have the interests of the poor and workers in mind, but above all Pope Pius XI . and later Pope Pius XII. While pursuing power-political and property-preserving calculations as well as the struggle against socialism (circular Quadragesimo Anno and the Reich Concordat ), Jakob often got into an internal conflict. Just as Catholic Christians fared in the resistance against fascism as a whole, so did Josef Jakob in the fight for the preservation of the KAB and against National Socialism, which he leads without practical support from his church.

Josef Jakob around 1952

The arrests and imprisonment as well as his lack of means due to unemployment or the state cancellation of child benefits did not prevent him from making his protest against fascism clear. This was particularly evident in the many everyday acts of resistance that often fell back on the entire family. So no swastika flag was hung up, the children did not wear brown shirts or BDM jackets, people with Jewish stars were not shown off the sidewalk but greeted. In addition, he often had secret meetings of the Kettelerhaus circle held in his house and took part in the background in the preparations for the Stauffenberg assassination attempt on Hitler .

After the Second World War , Jakob first learned that his application for recognition as a politically persecuted person had been rejected. Only with massive objection and with the help of numerous certifications by his doctor was he recognized as a politically persecuted person, although his fate under National Socialism was publicly known.

Jakob also made the experience that former members of the center who had served the Nazis were given decisive posts again. Jacob opposed their political path. He aggressively re-founded the center in Bocholt in order to be able to actively implement his political ideas without the old center opportunists, and accepted isolation in the process.

Jakob had hoped that after the war his positions as a resistance fighter would be in greater demand than ever and that as an upright anti-Nazi he would be able to implement his positions socially. But he had to experience that forces determined social events that had behaved opportunistically during National Socialism and who had come through this time as followers without major losses. Many upright resistance members experienced this after the end of the war. Like Josef Jakob, they had suffered mentally, physically and materially and were now destitute and not healthy enough to be consistently politically active.

literature

• Ansgar Münsterjohann, Ursula Münsterjohan (Ed.): Josef, you did more than I did. Josef Jakob - a Catholic workers secretary in the resistance against National Socialism. Gerhard Schepper Verlag, Münster 2018, ISBN 978-3-9809542-3-5 (further references here).
• Ernst Kienast (edit.): Handbook for the Prussian Landtag. Edition for the 3rd electoral term. R. v. Decker's Verlag (G. Schenck), Berlin 1928, p. 539.
• Jacob, Joseph . In: Martin Schumacher (Ed.): MdB - The People's Representation 1946–1972. - [Ibach to Jutzi] (=  KGParl online publications ). Commission for the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties e. V., Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-00-020703-7 , pp. 559 , urn : nbn: de: 101: 1-2014070812574 ( kgparl.de [PDF; 146 kB ; accessed on June 19, 2017]).
• Josef Niebur: The debate is about victory or downfall - the workers' secretary Josef Jakob and his resistance to National Socialism. In: Unser Bocholt, magazine for culture and home care, 1994, issue 2, pp. 3-19.
• Bocholter-Borkener Volksblatt
• Gisela Schwarze: A region undergoing democratic development. The administrative district of Münster , Patmos-Verlag, Ostfildern 1984. ISBN 3-590-18123-0

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ansgar Münsterjohann, Ursula Münsterjohan (ed.): Josef, you achieved more than I did. Josef Jakob - a Catholic workers secretary in the resistance against National Socialism. 2018, p. 54 ff.
2. ↑ Ansgar Münsterjohann, Ursula Münsterjohan (ed.): Josef, you achieved more than I did. Josef Jakob - a Catholic workers secretary in the resistance against National Socialism. 2018, p. 61 ff.
3. ↑ Ansgar Münsterjohann, Ursula Münsterjohan (ed.): Josef, you achieved more than I did. Josef Jakob - a Catholic workers secretary in the resistance against National Socialism. 2018, p. 85.
4. ↑ Ansgar Münsterjohann, Ursula Münsterjohan (ed.): Josef, you achieved more than I did. Josef Jakob - a Catholic workers secretary in the resistance against National Socialism. 2018, p. 86 ff.
5. ↑ Ansgar Münsterjohann, Ursula Münsterjohan (ed.): Josef, you achieved more than I did. Josef Jakob - a Catholic workers secretary in the resistance against National Socialism. 2018, p. 90.
6. ↑ Ansgar Münsterjohann, Ursula Münsterjohan (ed.): Josef, you achieved more than I did. Josef Jakob - a Catholic workers secretary in the resistance against National Socialism. 2018, p. 106 ff.