Kajo Schommer

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Karl Josef "Kajo" Schommer (born March 11, 1940 in Kall ; † July 8, 2007 in Cologne ) was a German politician ( CDU ) from 1990 to 2002 Saxon Minister of State for Economics and Labor .

Life

As the son of a dairy director in Kall (Eifel), Schommer studied after graduating from the Emil Fischer High School in Euskirchen in 1959 - he was a pupil at Steinfeld Monastery  - and trained as a reserve officer at the Air Force at the University of Cologne and the University of World Trade Vienna . After graduating with a degree in business administration in 1967, he initially worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Business Administration and Market Research and at the Institute for Agricultural Policy and Market Studies at the University of Cologne. In the course of his doctorate as Dr. agr. pol. in Cologne 1973, he switched to the Federal Institute for Dairy Research in Kiel.

In 1974 he became a consultant at the State Ministry for Economics and Transport in Schleswig-Holstein . In 1982 Schommer became city treasurer and department head for economy, transport and real estate in the city of Neumünster . Four years later he became mayor .

On October 14, 1990 he was appointed Minister of State for Economics and Labor by the Saxon Prime Minister Kurt Biedenkopf . He was a member of its three cabinets until May 2002. Then he was honorary professor for start-up management at the Technical University of Chemnitz .

On July 8, 2007, he succumbed to prostate cancer in Cologne .

politics

During Schommer's tenure, Saxony developed into a prosperous business location in Eastern Germany. Thanks to skillful business development ( Leipziger Messe ) and settlement bonuses, many internationally significant large companies settled in Saxony, including VW , Infineon (now Qimonda ), AMD Saxony and BMW . At the same time, as Minister of Transport, Schommer pushed various infrastructure projects in Saxony, such as the A 17 motorway , the rolling road Dresden - Lovosice, the Waldschlößchenbrücke , the Leipzig City Tunnel , the airport expansion and the German unity transport projects relevant for Saxony .

Together with his political foster father Biedenkopf, Schommer was considered to be an advocate of “ lighthouse politics”, that is, spatially concentrated support for strong business locations. Thanks to the renovation and funding projects such as “Atlas”, “Zeus” and “Herkules”, which were developed under his leadership in the Ministry of Economics, GDR companies that were declared dead by the Treuhandanstalt were able to survive. Other of his economically liberal ideas, such as the case of the shop closing law , only became reality after his tenure. He was also considered a critic of the Treuhandanstalt's policy and the Hartz concept .

Private engagement

During his time in Kiel Schommer was one of the initiators of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival .

After the death of his wife Gabriele in 2003, he continued her commitment to the child protection association and its children's home in Ullersdorf , his Saxon place of residence.

From 2003 to 2006, Kajo Schommer was chairman of the board of the Görlitz Capital of Culture - Zgorzelec 2010 e. V. and was committed to the application as a European city. Görlitz-Zgorzelec was second behind Essen (Ruhr area). Since May 2006, Kajo Schommer has also been an active member of the Förderverein Kulturstadt Görlitz-Zgorzelec e. V.

Hobby pianist Schommer was a founding member of the Forum Tiberius - International Forum for Culture and Economy in Dresden. Here, too, he was involved in promoting the next generation of musicians, he initiated the opera singing competition at the Dresden Semperoper and the Kajo-Schommer piano award .

Schommer was a member of the Catholic student associations KaV Norica Wien in the ÖCV as well as KDStV Chursachsen Dresden and KDSt.V. Rappoltstein (Strasbourg) Cologne in the CV .

Preliminary investigation

An investigation was underway against Schommer for aiding and abetting embezzlement in a particularly serious case. The background to this is an as yet unsettled consultancy contract with Grüner Punkt . Schommer signed it two weeks after his resignation as Saxon minister in May 2002. He received a fee of 600,000 euros, but no adequate consideration had been agreed. After the investigation became known, the investigating public prosecutor was transferred to the Saxon anti-corruption unit "INES".

On August 17, 2006, the Dresden public prosecutor brought charges against Schommer for embezzlement in a particularly serious case as well as corruption in connection with the QMF subsidy affair . At the beginning of July 2007, Schommer rejected the allegations in a letter to the public prosecutor.

honors and awards

Web links

Commons : Kajo Schommer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The lighthouse keeper leaves. Saxon newspaper. July 9, 2007
  2. ↑ The news portal for Saxony | sz-online. Retrieved March 24, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Schommer, Kajo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schommer, Karl Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (CDU)
DATE OF BIRTH March 11, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Call
DATE OF DEATH July 8, 2007
Place of death Cologne