Joseph Kraus (politician)

Joseph Kraus (born November 10, 1877 in Frankenthal (Palatinate) , † November 24, 1939 in Bad Kösen ) was a German politician .

Life

Born as the son of an industrialist, Kraus studied mechanical engineering at the technical universities of Darmstadt and Munich after attending secondary school . During his studies in 1895 he became a member of the Darmstadt fraternity Germania . After completing his studies, he worked in Memel from 1908 , first in his father's plywood factory Luisenhof, then from 1910 in his own at Schmelz. In the First World War , the two factories had to be closed. They were later sold to a Dutch consortium. Kraus became a member of the supervisory board and general representative in Memel. After the Memel Chamber of Commerce and Industry was founded, he became its first vice-president and was its first president from 1920 to 1926. From 1920 to 1923 he was recognized by the French occupying power in Memel as executive vice-president of the State Council. In 1924 he became consul of the Royal Netherlands . In 1925 he was involved in the founding of the Memelland People's Party (MVP) and one of its leading functionaries. He was elected to the Memelland Landtag and was President of the Landtag from 1925 to 1926. Due to major changes in his company, he had to leave Memel in October 1933. In 1933 he founded a lock plate factory in Bad Kösen. On November 22, 1939, he had an accident in a car near Apolda and died two days later.

literature

• Mads Ole Balling : From Reval to Bucharest - Statistical-Biographical Handbook of the Parliamentarians of the German Minorities in East Central and Southeastern Europe 1919-1945, Volume 2, 2nd edition . Copenhagen 1991, ISBN 87-983829-5-0 , pp. 709 .
• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Volume 3: I-L. Winter, Heidelberg 1999, ISBN 3-8253-0865-0 , p. 162.