Kurt Schmücker

Kurt Schmücker in 1964 with ministers from Iraq

Kurt Schmücker 1971 in Düsseldorf

Karl Bernhard Kurt Schmücker (born November 10, 1919 in Löningen ; † January 6, 1996 there ) was a German politician ( CDU ). From 1963 to 1966 he was Federal Minister of Economics and from 1966 to 1969 Federal Minister of the Treasury .

education and profession

In 1938, Schmücker finished his training as a book printer and then completed additional training as an editor. From 1940 to 1945 he took part in the Second World War as a soldier in the role of radio operator in the Navy . In 1947 he took over his parents' book printing company , the Friedr. Schmücker, in Löningen.

Political party

He had been a member of the NSDAP since September 1, 1937 . Schmücker had been a member of the CDU since 1946. In 1956 he initiated - together with Richard Stücklen - the establishment of the medium-sized business association of the CDU, after he had founded the medium-sized discussion group of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group in 1953. From the beginning until 1970, Schmücker was chairman of the SME Association. He was also the CDU's federal treasurer from 1968 to 1971.

MP

Schmücker had been a member of the German Bundestag since 1949 and was the youngest member of the CDU until Ernst Majonica joined in 1950. In 1949 he entered parliament via the Lower Saxony state list, and from then until 1972 he represented the constituency of Vechta - Cloppenburg as a directly elected member of parliament (from 1965: Cloppenburg). In the 1961 federal election he achieved the best first vote result of all MPs with 81.9%.

From 1957 to 1960 he was chairman of the working group for economic and agricultural issues of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group and from October 17, 1959 to 1961 chairman of the economic committee of the Bundestag. From 1961 to October 17, 1963 he was deputy group chairman.

On December 4, 1964, Kurt Schmücker represented the Federal Republic of Germany when the Stiftung Warentest was established .

Public offices

Federal Minister

On October 17, 1963, he was appointed as the youngest minister in this cabinet to the Federal Minister of Economics in the federal government headed by Ludwig Erhard . After the resignation of the FDP Federal Minister on October 28, 1966, he was also Federal Minister of Finance from November 8 to November 30, 1966 . The establishment of the Stiftung Warentest (December 4, 1964) and the convening and legal anchoring of the first council of experts to assess macroeconomic development ("economic method") are considered to be important measures in his term of office.

In the grand coalition under Federal Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger (December 1, 1966 to October 21, 1969) Schmücker was Federal Minister of the Treasury . During this time, state-owned companies were restructured and the deficit Saar mines and Salzgitter AG were reorganized. The term of office of the Kiesinger cabinet was marked by the first economic crisis in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1966 and 1967. In June 1967 the Bundestag passed the Stability and Growth Act .

mayor

After the end of his political career in federal politics, he was honorary mayor of his hometown Löningen from 1972 to 1986 . During his tenure, the city was redeveloped and in 1982 his home parish was granted city rights.

After his death in 1996, a centrally located square in Löningen was renamed "Kurt-Schmücker-Platz".

Honors

1965: Papal Order of Knights of St. Gregory the Great (Grand Cross)
1969: Large Cross of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany
Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Grand Cross)
Honorary doctorate ( Dr. phil oec. Hc ) from the University of San Carlos , Cebu City

literature

Walter Henkels : 99 Bonn heads , reviewed and supplemented edition, Fischer-Bücherei, Frankfurt am Main 1965, p. 221ff.
Günter letter : Schmücker, Kurt. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , p. 264 ( digitized version ).
Kurt Schmücker 1919–1996. For the 90th birthday of the former Federal Minister of Economics and leading middle-class politician of the CDU in the 1950s and 1960s. (Short biography of the Archive for Christian Democratic Politics (ACDP) of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation online )
Uwe Andersen: Kurt Schmücker. In: Uwe Kempf / Hans-Georg Merz (eds.): Chancellor and Minister 1949–1998. Biographical Lexicon of the German Federal Governments. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2001, ISBN 3-531-13407-8 , pp. 612–614.

Web links

Commons : Kurt Schmücker - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Literature by and about Kurt Schmücker in the catalog of the German National Library
Kurt Schmücker, History of the CDU, Konrad Adenauer Foundation . In: Konrad Adenauer Foundation . ( kas.de [accessed November 30, 2017]).

Individual evidence

↑ 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” , p. 14 ( PDF ).
↑ See e.g. B. Claus-Martin Gaul: Economic stimulus programs in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany: Classification and evaluation of global control from 1967 to 1982 , p. 10.

personal data
SURNAME	Schmücker, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German politician (CDU), Member of the Bundestag
DATE OF BIRTH	November 10, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH	Loeningen
DATE OF DEATH	January 6, 1996
Place of death	Loeningen

[1] 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” , p. 14 ( PDF ).

[2] See e.g. B. Claus-Martin Gaul: Economic stimulus programs in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany: Classification and evaluation of global control from 1967 to 1982 , p. 10.