Karl Hauss

Karl Hauss as a member of the Reichstag in 1912

Karl Hauss (French: Charles Hauss ) (born January 3, 1871 in Brumath near Strasbourg ; † January 30, 1925 in Strasbourg) was a German politician ( Alsace-Lorraine Center Party ) and State Secretary in the Ministry for Alsace-Lorraine of the German Empire .

education and profession

Karl Hauss was the son of a day laborer. After completing primary school, he came to Strasbourg, where he attended various Catholic schools, most recently the episcopal grammar school. From 1885 to 1888 he attended the Africa School in Clermont-Ferrand. After graduating from school, he did a banking apprenticeship and did his military service in 1890/91. Then he worked for the Reichseisenbahnen in Alsace-Lorraine.

Political and journalistic work

In the 1893 Reichstag elections , he supported the center candidate Müller-Simonis as a speaker. He caused a sensation with the public complaint against Police President Feichter, who had banned the Catholic student association "Fedelta". Due to the media coverage, Feichter was fired. Karl Hauss also lost his job on the railroad. From 1894 to 1900, Karl Hauss worked for Elsässer , the largest Catholic daily newspaper in Alsace. In 1900 he became editor-in-chief of Delsor's " Alsatian People's Messenger ". In 1895 he was elected 2nd secretary of the electoral association of the Catholic People's Party.

Member of the state parliament

From 1903 to 1911 he was a member of the regional committee of the realm of Alsace-Lorraine. With the creation of the Landtag of the Reichsland Alsace-Lorraine in 1911, he was elected to the Landtag and became the parliamentary group leader of the Alsace-Lorraine Center Party. From 1906 he was secretary of the Alsace-Lorraine Center Party.

Member of the Reichstag and the Zabern affair

From 1898 to 1903, Hauss was a member of the Reichstag as a member of the Alsace-Lorraine constituency 9 (Strasbourg-Land) . From 1907 to 1912 he represented the constituency of Alsace-Lorraine 4 (Gebweiler) in the Reichstag. From 1912 to 1918 he was a member of the Alsatian Center Party and a member of the constituency of Alsace-Lorraine 10 (Haguenau-Weißenburg). Hauss rejected the 1911 constitution for the Reichsland Alsace-Lorraine. In the conflicts between the center party of the Reich and that in Alsace-Lorraine, he advocated cooperation.

During the Zabern affair ( Affaire de Saverne ), a domestic political crisis that occurred in the German Empire at the end of 1913 because a Prussian lieutenant insulted the population in Zabern ( Saverne ) in Alsace , Hauss and two other members of the Reichstag demanded that a Reichstag debate be held the militaristic structures of German society and the position of the Reich leadership in relation to Kaiser Wilhelm II . The affair not only weighed heavily on the relationship between the realm of Alsace-Lorraine and the rest of the German Empire, it also led to a considerable loss of reputation for the emperor.

Promotion to State Secretary for Alsace-Lorraine

In October 1918 he succeeded Georg von Tschammer and Quaritz as the last State Secretary in the Ministry for Alsace-Lorraine . His attempt to achieve a majority in the state parliament for his government failed. By accepting the mandate to form a government, he set himself in opposition to his own parliamentary group, which excluded him from the parliamentary group after his appointment. Even before a sovereign Alsace-Lorraine was proclaimed after the end of the First World War on November 12, 1918, he resigned on November 10, 1918.

The new French rulers summoned him to a Commission de Triage , but did not impose any penalties.

Karl Hauss then withdrew from politics. He is the author of numerous plays.

literature

Hermann Hiery : Reichstag elections in the Reichsland. A contribution to the regional history of Alsace-Lorraine and the electoral history of the German Empire 1871–1918 (= contributions to the history of parliamentarism and political parties. 80). Droste, Düsseldorf 1986, ISBN 3-7700-5132-7 , pp. 455-456, (also: Freiburg (Breisgau), University, dissertation, 1984).

Bernd Haunfelder : Member of the Reichstag for the Center Party from 1871 to 1933. Biographical handbook and historical photographs . Düsseldorf 1999, ISBN 3-7700-5223-4 .
Walther Killy , Rudolf Vierhaus (ed.): German Biographical Encyclopedia . Volume 4: Gies - Hessel. Saur, Munich et al. 1996, ISBN 3-598-23164-4 .

Web links

Hauß, Karl in the database of members of the Reichstag
Karl Hauss biography . In: Heinrich Best : database of the members of the Reichstag of the Empire 1867/71 to 1918 (Biorab - Kaiserreich)

Individual evidence

^ Carl-Wilhelm Reibel: Handbook of the Reichstag elections 1890-1918. Alliances, results, candidates (= manuals on the history of parliamentarism and political parties. 15, 2). Half volume 2. Droste, Düsseldorf 2007, ISBN 978-3-7700-5284-4 , pp. 1515–1517, pp. 1531–1538.

personal data
SURNAME	Hauss, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Hauss, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German politician (center), MdR, State Secretary
DATE OF BIRTH	January 3, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH	Brumath near Strasbourg
DATE OF DEATH	January 30, 1925
Place of death	Strasbourg

[1] Carl-Wilhelm Reibel: Handbook of the Reichstag elections 1890-1918. Alliances, results, candidates (= manuals on the history of parliamentarism and political parties. 15, 2). Half volume 2. Droste, Düsseldorf 2007, ISBN 978-3-7700-5284-4 , pp. 1515–1517, pp. 1531–1538.