Karl Ratz

Karl Eduard Heinrich Ratz (born July 9, 1897 in Kiel ; † September 30, 1961 there ) was a German politician ( SPD ). He was president from 1946 to 1954 and first vice-president of the state parliament of Schleswig-Holstein from 1954 to 1958 .

Life and work

After attending primary school , Karl Ratz completed an apprenticeship as a typesetter in Kiel. From 1916 to 1917 he was a soldier in the First World War . In 1918 he worked as a calculator for the Schleswig-Holsteinische Volks-Zeitung .

From 1929 to 1933 he worked as a commercial clerk in his training company. After the National Socialists “came to power ” in 1933, he was arrested several times and taken into “ protective custody ” until he was finally released from prison in 1935 after a year in prison. Afterwards Ratz worked again as a typesetter and typesetter in Kiel, but was arrested again in 1939 and held in the Sachsenhausen and Neuengamme concentration camps until 1941 . After his release he was again a commercial clerk until he took over the management of the Kiel print shop in August 1945 after the end of the Second World War . In April 1946, Ratz received the license from the British occupying forces for the Schleswig-Holsteinische Volks-Zeitung (VZ) and was ultimately its publishing director. The VZ was also printed in the Kiel print shop .

Karl Ratz was married and had one child.

politics

Ratz had already joined the working class youth in 1912 and also became a member of the SPD in 1915. From 1926 to 1928 he was chairman of the youth workers in Schleswig-Holstein and from 1925 to 1933 chairman of the SPD district of Kiel-Süd. Ratz belonged to the city ​​council from 1928 to 1933 and from 1951 to the council of Kiel.

In 1945 Ratz took part in the development of the SPD in the district of Kiel and in Schleswig-Holstein. After all, he was the SPD district chairman in Kiel and a member of the SPD executive committee of the Schleswig-Holstein state organization. From 1946 to 1958 he was a member of the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag and from December 2, 1946 to August 6, 1954, President of the Landtag. He was then elected on October 11, 1954 as First Vice President of the State Parliament.

Karl Ratz was an appointed member of the state parliament in 1946. 1947 and 1954, he has been directly elected representative of the constituency Kiel I (Firth) and Kiel-Nord and 1950 on the national list drawn into the parliament. On July 15, 1957, he was awarded the Great Federal Cross of Merit.

Web links

• Karl Ratz in the state parliament information system Schleswig-Holstein
• SPD history workshop Karl Ratz