Karl Schiller

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Karl Schiller, 1969

Karl August Fritz Schiller (born April 24, 1911 in Breslau ; † December 26, 1994 in Hamburg ) was a German scientist and politician ( SPD ). From 1966 to 1972 he was the first social democratic Federal Minister for Economics and from 1971 to 1972 he was also Federal Minister of Finance . He played a leading role in the creation of the Stability and Growth Law with its goals presented in the “ Magic Square ”. He was also the initiator of the concerted action . Because he gave global control in Germany a legal basis, he is often named together with Ludwig Erhard as the most important economic politician of the post-war period.

family

Karl Schiller was the son of Marie († 1958) and Carl (* 1885) Schiller. His father was an engineer, he worked first at Siemens, later at the Howaldt shipyard, most recently in Hamburg. Karl Schiller was married four times. From the first marriage (Hamburg, 1938-1949) with Lise-Lotte (* 1916) the daughters Barbara (* 1940) and Bettina (* 1945) emerged. His third daughter Christa (* 1952) and his son Tonio (* 1956) come from their marriage (Hamburg, 1951–1969) to Annemarie (* 1921). From 1971 to 1973 he was married to Etta Schiller (* 1933), the daughter of the medical doctor and professional politician Paul Eckel . The doctor of law, who worked as a senior councilor and head of a Cologne tax office, exerted great influence on him and his politics, especially during Schiller's time as super minister , which is considered to be the reason for the loss of his internal party support. His fourth marriage was in 1976 in Jesteburg with Vera-Sylvia Gutzat (* 1936, † 1995). He was buried in the cemetery of the Jesteburg district of Reindorfer Osterberg .

education and profession

After high school at the Hebbel school in Kiel graduated from Schiller in 1931 to study economics and jurisprudence in Kiel , Frankfurt , Berlin and Heidelberg , which he in 1935 as a graduate economist and awarded the degree of Dr. rer. pole. on the topic of “ job creation and financial regulations in Germany”. During his studies he was supported by the German National Academic Foundation. From 1935 to 1941 he was head of a research group at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy . The reports prepared there at that time served short-term current National Socialist expansion plans and long-term plans for a "large-scale economy" in the areas still to be conquered and were thus part of the Nazi warfare.

In 1939 Schiller qualified as a professor with a thesis on market regulation and market organization in the global agricultural economy . From 1941 to 1945 he took part in the Second World War as a soldier . As a first lieutenant he received the Iron Cross 2nd Class and the War Merit Cross 2nd Class with Swords for his services in the northern section of the Eastern Front with the Army Intelligence Unit. In 1947 he accepted a call from the University of Hamburg and received the professorship (chair) for economic theory. Schiller was one of the pioneers of the Academy for Community Economy, founded in 1948 . From 1956 to 1958 he also served as rector of the University of Hamburg. In 1948 he was a founding member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Administration for Economy of the United Economic Area , the forerunner of the Scientific Advisory Board established in 1949 at the Federal Ministry of Economics .

Political career

Memberships

In 1931 Schiller joined the Socialist University Association. After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , he was a member of the SA from June 1933 to 1938 . On May 1, 1937, Schiller joined the NSDAP ( membership number 4,663,250), in which he became political leader of the Kiel local group Klaus Groth in 1938 . As part of his studies and teaching, Schiller was also a member of the following NS organizations: from June 1933 to 1935 National Socialist German Student Union , from 1934 NS Law Guard Association (membership no.82.421), from May 4, 1939 NS Lecturer Association (member no . 4981).

From 1946 to 1972 and again from 1980 he was a member of the SPD.

Career in the Federal Republic

From 1946 to 1957 he was a member of the Hamburg Parliament . From 1965 to 1972 he was a member of the German Bundestag . From 1965 to 1966 he was deputy chairman of the SPD parliamentary group .

From 1948 to 1953 he was Senator for Economics and Transport for the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. From 1961 to 1965 he was in the Senate of Governing Mayor Willy Brandt, Senator for Economics in Berlin .

Karl Schiller (right) with Helmut Schmidt, 1969

From December 1, 1966, he was a member of the cabinet of the grand coalition under Federal Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger as Federal Minister of Economics. During this time he coined the term expiry policy . During this time he worked closely with the Federal Minister of Finance Franz Josef Strauss . Both then received the public nickname Plisch and Plum (after Wilhelm Busch ).

He was a member of the first cabinet of Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt as Federal Minister of Economics. After the resignation of the Federal Minister of Finance Alex Möller on May 13, 1971, he was appointed Federal Minister of Economics and Finance. He resigned from this office on July 7, 1972, leaving the federal government .

In his resignation letter of July 2, 1972, he accused the Chancellor of no longer supporting him, and colleagues from the cabinet, that they did not want to put their individual interests aside against a common strategy of the Social Democrats. These constant conflicts were no longer acceptable to him, especially because of the burden of the dual office as Minister of Economics and Finance. "But there are also limits for me - these are there if I can no longer live up to the responsibility based on my office towards this state and its citizens because I am not supported or even prevented from doing so." The reason for the resignation was the monetary and financial policy of the federal government: “I am not ready to support a policy that gives the impression to the outside world that the government is living according to the motto 'After us the deluge'. The government has a duty to think outside the box and tell the people in good time what needs to be done and what needs to be demanded. "

Senates and Cabinets

Positions

In 1972 he and Ludwig Erhard took part in an advertising campaign for the CDU , in which both appeared as guardians of the market economy .

Karl Schiller was one of the signatories of the Euro-critical manifesto The Monetary Policy Decisions of Maastricht: A Danger for Europe (1992).

Honors

In 1973 Schiller was the winner of the Alexander-Rüstow-Badge . In 1983 Schiller became an honorary senator of the University of Hamburg . The Hamburg Senate awarded him the Mayor Stolten Medal in 1986 . The Kiel Institute for the World Economy awarded him the Bernhard Harms Medal in 1989 . In 1991 Schiller was awarded the Great Federal Order of Merit with a star and shoulder ribbon. In 1999 the “Commercial Schools II” of the city of Dortmund were renamed the Karl Schiller Vocational College . In 1992 he was made an honorary doctorate from the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster.

Works

  • Job creation and financial regulation in Germany. Junker and Dünnhaupt, Berlin 1936.
  • Market regulation and market organization in the world agricultural economy. Habilitation thesis. Fischer, Jena 1940 (Problems of the World Economy; 67).
  • Tasks and experiments: for a new order of society and economy. Speeches and essays. Hansischer Gildenverlag, Hamburg 1953.
  • Considerations on monetary and economic policy. JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 1984 (lectures and essays / Walter-Eucken-Institut; 102).
  • Possibilities and limits of the social market economy. Reinhard Appel in conversation with Professor Dr. Karl Schiller. Hess. Sparkassen- u. Giroverband, Frankfurt am Main 1989.
  • The difficult way into the open society. Critical comments on German unification. Siedler, Berlin 1994.
  • Growth, stability, balance. Lectures, speeches, essays. With appreciations from Peer Steinbrück and Klaus von Dohnanyi. Edited by Detlef W. Prinz. [Karl Schiller Foundation e. V.], Keyser, Leipzig 2007.

literature

See also

Wikiquote: Karl Schiller  - Quotes
Commons : Karl Schiller  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Women: dagger in mouth . In: Der Spiegel . No. 8 , 1990, pp. 114 ( online ).
  2. ^ Heiko Körner:  Schiller, Karl August Fritz. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2 , pp. 736-765 ( digitized version ).
  3. ^ Adolf Brockmann: 100 years - Jesteburgs Osterberg celebrates. In: Abendblatt.de . May 11, 2007, accessed January 8, 2017 .
  4. ↑ How they became "Dr." (XIV): Karl Schiller, Dr. rer. pole. . In: Die Zeit , No. 6/1970
  5. ↑ The Scientific Advisory Board at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. Anthology of expert reports from 1987 to 1997. Lucius & Lucius, Stuttgart 2008, p. A5
  6. ↑ BT-Drs. 17/8134 of December 14, 2011: The Federal Government's response to the major question from the Die Linke ea .: "Dealing with the Nazi past"
  7. ^ Matthias Hochstätter: Karl Schiller - an economic-political biography. Dissertation, Hannover 2006, uni-hannover.de (PDF; 2.0 MB)
  8. ↑ Documents printed in facsimile in: National Council of the National Front of the GDR (Ed.): Graubuch - Expansion Policy and Neo-Nazism in West Germany (2nd revised and expanded edition, pages 208-211) (Staatsverlag der DDR, Berlin 1967)
  9. ↑ Information confirmed by Ernst Klee : Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Second updated edition. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 534.
  10. ^ Documents of the week . In: Die Zeit , No. 29/1972; see. but also about the letter: this is not my signature . In: Der Spiegel . No. 31 , 1972 ( online ).
  11. ↑ Roland Tichy : Freedom instead of growth . In: FAZ , September 12, 2015, p. 20.
  12. ↑ see list of signatories for the online reproduction of the manifesto in the economic blog Wirtschaftliche Freiheit , blog entry from December 11, 2016; accessed July 12, 2020.
  13. ↑ Honorary Senators of the University of Hamburg ( Memento from December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  14. ^ Bernhard Harms Medal. ifw-kiel.de , archived from the original on April 13, 2014 ; Retrieved June 15, 2013 .
  15. ↑ Honorary doctorates of the faculty. Archived from the original on December 30, 2012 ; accessed on May 22, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Schiller, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schiller, Karl August Fritz (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD), Member of the Bundestag, Member of the Bundestag, Federal Minister
DATE OF BIRTH April 24, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH December 26, 1994
Place of death Hamburg