Josef Schwalber

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Grave of Josef Schwalber in the forest cemetery in Dachau.

Josef Schwalber (born March 19, 1902 in Fürstenfeldbruck , † August 16, 1969 in Munich ) was a German lawyer and politician .

Life

Schwalber came from a strictly Catholic family of craftsmen, his father was a master rope maker. After attending the Latin school of the Benedictine Abbey in Scheyern and graduating from the Royal Humanistic Gymnasium in Freising, he studied law and economics in Munich from 1921. He became an active member of the Catholic student union Ottonia in the KV and was very committed to this union until his death.

After the first state examination in law in 1925, his doctorate with a dissertation on the Catholic social reformer Karl Freiherr von Vogelsang in 1927 and the assessor examination in 1928, Schwalber settled as a lawyer in Dachau. In 1933 Schwalber was held in so-called protective custody for a few days because he did not want to join the NSDAP . From 1943 to 1945 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht.

Schwalber died of a heart attack and his grave is in the forest cemetery in Dachau.

politics

Schwalber had already been active as a local politician in the BVP from 1929 to 1933 and immediately made himself available again in 1945. On August 18, 1945 Schwalber became 1st Mayor of Dachau and from 1947 District Administrator of the Dachau District. After he initially wanted to reactivate the BVP, but this turned out to be impossible, Schwalber joined the CSU and was elected to its state executive from 1947 to 1952. He belonged to the conservative old Bavarian wing.

From 1946 to 1950 Schwalber was a member of the Bavarian State Parliament . From 1947 to 1954 he was State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior, and from 1951 he was Minister of Culture and member of the cabinet of the Bavarian Prime Minister Hans Ehard . He was one of the participants in the Constitutional Convention on Herrenchiemsee from 10 to 23 August 1948, which on behalf of the Prime Ministers of the federal states (should) draft a constitution that could serve as a basis for the Parliamentary Council.

As a member of the Parliamentary Council , Schwalber fought uncompromisingly for a federal state with a strong Federal Council that had completely equal rights with the Bundestag. The CDU's positions on this were far too centralized for him, and in his opinion there was no clear commitment to the Christian conception of the state. Because of these differences, Schwalber even advocated the dissolution of the parliamentary group with the CDU. Before the final vote, Schwalber justified the rejection of the Basic Law by six of the eight members of the CSU on May 8, 1949 . In the daily newspaper Die Neue Zeitung he had stated in an article on September 21, 1948 (page 8): “Federalism is not a Bavarian state idea, it is a German problem. There is no point in retreating to the Bavarian pout. The fate of the whole of Germany is to be shaped today. "

After the CSU could not remain in government after the state elections in 1954, Schwalber became district administrator of the Dachau district again in 1957, but then resigned from this office for health reasons in 1963.

Honors

Schwalber received the Bavarian Order of Merit in 1959 , he was also the holder of the Great Federal Cross of Merit with a Star, the Papal New Year's Order and the Golden Ring of Honor of the City of Dachau (1969). The Realschule in Dachau bears his name.

literature

  • Oliver Braun in Buchheim / Kleinmann: Responsibility before God and people. Christian Democrats in the Parliamentary Council 1948/1949 Freiburg 2008 ISBN 978-3-451-29973-5 p. 330 ff

Web links

Commons : Josef Schwalber  - Collection of images, videos and audio files