Klaus Lang (trade unionist)

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Klaus Lang 2010

Klaus Lang (born November 24, 1943 in Iglau / Jihlava ) is a German theologian , trade unionist and labor director .

Life

Klaus Lang comes from Jihlava / Moravia in the former Czechoslovakia and is after the wartime expulsion and flight in May 1945 Austrian Graz grew up. There he passed his high school diploma in 1961 . Until 1966 he studied Catholic theology , psychology and politics in Graz, Bonn and Vienna . From 1967 to 1969 he was the administrator of an academic assistant position at the Catholic theological faculty of the University of Vienna . In Vienna he was active in the student movement and in the “Aktion Critical Christianity”. In 1969, Lang received his doctorate in theology in Vienna on the subject of The Old Testament in Protestant and Catholic religious instruction from the end of the Middle Ages to the present .

In 1969, Lang was elected chairman of the Catholic German Student Union (KDSE) . He was the candidate of those students who are in the KDSE during the '68 movement increasingly critical of society had politicized and because of the Second Vatican Council, also towards the ecclesiastical authorities as mature understood Christians. Because of the resulting differences in content, the Catholic bishops initially gave the KDSE the pastoral mandate to use the name “Catholic” and ultimately withdrew its financial support. That meant the end of the KDSE in 1973 and for Klaus Lang the loss of his job and a year and a half of unemployment . In the successor organization of the Working Group of Catholic Student and University Congregations (AGG), which Lang was still involved in founding, the students stuck to their critical stance and in 2000 again suffered the dissolution of their interest representation by the bishops. Klaus Lang tried to get funding from the German Research Foundation for a research project on political Catholicism in Germany after 1945. However, this failed because, according to him, he was “practically banned from working in the church environment”.

In 1976, Klaus Lang first became a speaker and later deputy press spokesman in the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology headed by Hans Matthöfer . In this function, he organized the controversial “ Citizens' Dialogue on Nuclear Energy ”, which he sought to make fair and open, in which the ministry's brochures, e. B. in the "Bürgerinformation" from October 1975, opponents of nuclear power had their say. Klaus Lang began his professional career as a trade unionist in 1979 as press spokesman for the board of IG Metall in Frankfurt am Main . In 1981 he became head of the wage policy department of the board. From 1993 he headed the department of the 1st chairman Klaus Zwickel and was managing director of the Otto-Brenner-Stiftung , member of the board of the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung , member of the supervisory board of the holding company of the trade unions (BGAG) and deputy chairman of the supervisory board Thyssen Krupp Nirosta and Thyssen Krupp Stainless . In 2003, Klaus Lang the task of Labor Director of Georgsmarienhütte (company) , a large steel plant on the outskirts of Osnabrück, which is one of the leading European suppliers of steel bars, semi-finished and cold drawn steel of high quality steel and engineering steel one.

Lang has been a union member since 1969 and a member of the SPD since 1970 . Today he lives in Osnabrück and Popelau on the Elbe .

Act

After Cornelia Girndt, the FAZ named Klaus Lang the “most important thought leader of the trade unions” in connection with his appointment as head of the collective bargaining policy department of the IG Metall executive board. In addition, the flippant rumor circulated about him at the time that, as a Jesuit student, he had taken the tiny step from the infallibility of the Catholic Church to the infallibility of the world's largest trade union IG Metall. The French newspaper Le Monde once described him as the "eminence gris" of IG Metall. At IG Metall, his calling was “a revolution at the time . Is that allowed by someone who comes from outside? Can a theologian do that? ”But these concerns soon died down. In his opinion, three topics determined his time at IG Metall: "The 35-hour week in the metal and electrical industry, the 2000 tariff reform and the transfer of the tariff system to the new federal states ." During his time at IG Metall also falls the "Alliance for Work", 1995, as the author of which he is considered and which was controversial in the unions. From his point of view, the economic and employment crisis should be overcome and the welfare state reformed in talks and negotiations between the federal government, employers' associations and trade unions. The following sentences are significant for Klaus Lang's trade union work: “Within the collective representation of interests, which is still necessary, the unions must allow more differentiation and freedom of choice and create rights for more self-organization and self-determination in work. ... It's about values that don't change: solidarity , justice , equality , freedom , tolerance . "

When Klaus Lang took over the position of Labor Director at Georgsmarienhütte Holding GmbH in 2003, which had 50 companies in Germany and Austria at the time, Christian Litz dealt with the unusual change from the management of IG Metall to managing director in an article in Brand Eins magazine entitled Der Arbeiterführer of a steel mill. Under Lang as managing director, the mission statement for the steelworks and the entire group was developed, the number of apprenticeships increased and a company health management system introduced. In the steelworks itself, among other things, the electric furnace was renewed, new 160-ton walking beam furnaces were completed as part of the rolling mill and the final operations were upgraded. In 2006 GMH celebrated its 150th anniversary. At a ceremony to which Angela Merkel , Christian Wulff , customers, friends and relatives of the GMH were invited, the founding by George V and Queen Marie was commemorated with many guests.

Since his retirement at the end of 2008, Klaus Lang has been doing voluntary work in various areas. From 2009 to 2018 he was chairman of the Osnabrück community foundation and is still in charge of the open and low-threshold cultural project "K 3" for children and young people.

He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Human Rights Foundation , the Amnesty International Foundation and the Social-Ethical Working Group on Churches and Trade Unions.

Fonts (selection)

  • The Christmas texts in the Bible catechism. Herder: Freiburg im Brg. 1967
  • Flexibility of working hours: custom work is the order of the day. In: Wilfried E. Flex, Personal 2000. FAZ-Gabler: Wiesbaden 1991
  • (with Kay Ohl): Lean production. Challenges and options for action. Bund-Verlag, Cologne 1993
  • (with Hartmut Meine, Kai Ohl): work-pay-performance. Tariff application in the company. 3rd edition, Bund-Verlag: Köln 2001
  • (with Reinhard Kuhlmann): Alliance for work - reform perspective for full employment and the welfare state. In: trade union monthly issues 3/1996, pp. 189–200
  • Opportunities for a European cultural, social and political model. In: W. Fricke (Ed.): Yearbook Work and Technology 2002/2002, Verlag Dietz Nachf .: Bonn 2001
  • (with Stefan Schaumburg): Social innovation through collective bargaining policy - experience of IG Metall. In: collective bargaining policy as social policy. Strategic challenges in the 21st century. VSA-Verlag: Hamburg 2017

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mitbeststellung magazine, issue 11/2000 https://www.boeckler.de/18990_18999.htm
  2. ↑ https://www.brandeins.de/magazine/brand-eins-wirtschaftsmagazin/2004/der-apparat/der-arbeiterfuehrer
  3. ↑ https://www.noz.de/archiv/vermischtes/artikel/330686/ein-doktor-der-theologie-ist-neuer-arbeitsdirektor (last updated on July 7, 2010)
  4. ↑ https://www.brandeins.de/magazine/brand-eins-wirtschaftsmagazin/2004/der-apparat/der-arbeiterfuehrer
  5. ↑ https://www.boeckler.de/18990_18999.htm
  6. ↑ https://www.brandeins.de/magazine/brand-eins-wirtschaftsmagazin/2004/der-apparat/der-arbeiterfuehrer
  7. ↑ https://www.brandeins.de/magazine/brand-eins-wirtschaftsmagazin/2004/der-apparat/der-arbeiterfuehrer
  8. ↑ https://www.brandeins.de/magazine/brand-eins-wirtschaftsmagazin/2002/haltung/ausanders-etzen-verhandeln
  9. ↑ https://www.brandeins.de/magazine/brand-eins-wirtschaftsmagazin/2004/der-apparat/der-arbeiterfuehrer
  10. ↑ Johanna Lügermann: “Looking beyond the fence” Ten years of the Georgsmarienhütte Steel Works Foundation. In: noz.de. February 10, 2016
  11. ↑ https://www.aktiv-buergerschaft.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/SAB-Mag2017_Seiten26-29_einjahr.pdf
  12. ↑ https://ak-sozialethik.de/
personal data
SURNAME Long, Klaus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian, trade unionist and labor director
DATE OF BIRTH November 24, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Iglau / Jihlava