Leo Herwegen

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Leo Herwegen (born February 25, 1886 in Cologne , † May 9, 1972 in Bad Honnef ) was a German politician ( CDU ), state minister in Saxony-Anhalt and the victim of a show trial in the GDR .

Life

education and profession

After attending elementary school and secondary school, Herwegen studied mining sciences in Clausthal and Aachen . He graduated from this course in 1909 as a qualified mining engineer. Herwegen then initially found a job as an assistant at the TH Aachen , where he also received his doctorate. From 1913 he headed various mines, most recently until 1944 as department head of the mines of IG Farben .

politics

Leo Herwegen joined the center in 1919 and very soon became chairman of the provincial board in Saxony. After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , he could no longer be politically active and was persecuted. He was arrested in July 1944 as an opponent of the Nazi regime.

After the Second World War , Herwegen was one of the founders of the CDU in Saxony-Anhalt . From July 1945 to May 1948 he was its first chairman and then deputy chairman until November 1949. At the same time he was from June 1946 to September 1948 one of the deputy chairmen of the CDU in the Soviet occupation zone. Since the state election in 1946 , Herwegen was a member of the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt. After his mandate was withdrawn, Franz Woitzyk moved up to the state parliament. Franz Woitzyk was not mentioned on the state election list. He was subsequently named as a Member of Parliament by the signatories of the CDU's election proposals.

From December 1946 to October 1949 he was Minister for Labor and Social Policy in the Provincial Government of Saxony-Anhalt in the Hübener and Bruschke I cabinets .

The process

Process start in the State Theater Dessau

In October 1949 Leo Herwegen was arrested and a victim of the first major show trial in the GDR, the Conti affair . The trial took place between April 24 and 29, 1950 under the chairmanship of Hilde Benjamin at the State Theater in Dessau . For this reason, together with the second main defendant, the deputy minister of economics Willi Brundert ( SED , originally SPD ), was sentenced to 15 years in prison on April 29, 1950 for allegedly illegal securities transactions. In addition to Herwegen and Brundert, six other defendants were convicted.

Grave of the Herwegen family in the Melaten cemetery

The subject of the process was the " Deutsche Continental Gasgesellschaft " (DCGG). This was nationalized in 1946 and was a subsidiary of the Provincial Saxon Energy Supply AG (Prevag). With the consent of the state government, a parallel company was founded in Hagen in June 1947 in order to safeguard assets in the western zones. The " Central Control Commission " constructed from this a "transfer of assets" of 100 million  RM to the West. The Attorney General of Saxony-Anhalt, Werner Fischl, examined the allegations and rejected the report. The case was then withdrawn in December 1949. By resolution of February 28, 1950, the Politburo of the SED decided to refer the case to the GDR Public Prosecutor , Ernst Melsheimer . This then operated the process in the sense of the SED.

Leo Herwegen was imprisoned until 1958 and fled to West Germany after his release.

Because of this, Melaten (lit. J) was buried in the family grave at the Cologne cemetery .

In Halle, Leo-Herwegen-Strasse was named after him after the peaceful revolution .

literature

Web links

Commons : Herwegen process  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.kas.de/web/geschichte-der-cdu/haben/biogramm-detail/-/content/leo-herwegen
  2. ↑ Files and negotiations of the Landtag of the Province of Saxony-Anhalt 1946–1952, Volume I.2., Reprint 1992, ISBN 3-8051-0096-5 , Fiftieth session on Tuesday, January 31, 1950, p. 450.
  3. ↑ Broszat and Weber (eds.): SBZ manual. P. 929 f.
  4. ^ Franz-Josef Kos: Political Justice in the GDR. The Dessau show trial of April 1950. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte . Volume 44, 1996, pp. 395-429, here: pp. 402, 406, 410, 413 f., 418 f. (PDF).
  5. ^ Hermann Wentker : Justice in the Soviet Occupation Zone / GDR 1945–1953. Oldenbourg, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-486-56544-3 , p. 523 f.
  6. ↑ https://bundesstiftung-aufteilung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363%3B-1424.html?ID=1393
personal data
SURNAME Because of this, Leo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (CDU), Member of the Bundestag and Minister in Saxony-Anhalt
DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH May 9, 1972
Place of death Bad Honnef