Ludwig Brucker

Ludwig Brucker (born March 9, 1888 in Ettlenschieß ; † autumn 1948 in special camp No. 2 Buchenwald ) was a German politician of the NSDAP . Before 1933 and afterwards, he was particularly active in the field of social security, but lost all of his party positions in 1934.

Life

After graduating from secondary school, he became administrative secretary in Württemberg . Between 1914 and 1925 he worked for the social insurance company in Stuttgart . In 1925, Brucker joined the German-Völkisch freedom movement . Between 1925 and 1933 he was managing director of the Association of German Health Insurance Officers and Employees. In 1929 he joined the NSDAP. He was particularly active in the NSBO . From 1931 Brucker was head of the social policy committee of the NSBO.

In April 1933 he was involved in talks with the leadership of the ADGB on the part of the NSBO with the aim of creating a unified trade union organization. Brucker assured them that the new regime had no interest in the collapse of the old unions. Rather, the government wants to create a unified union. In the further course, Brucker said that the liberal and Christian trade unions would no longer play a role in the future. These would be affiliated to the free trade unions . Walter Schuhmann , head of the NSBO, was to become the leader of the overall organization . Theodor Leipart and other leading functionaries would have to resign. He announced that there would be no intra-association elections or wage negotiations with employers in the future. The state would regulate the question of wages. The talks failed because of excessive demands by the NSBO.

In 1933 he became department head of the political organization of the NSDAP. From February to August 1934, Brucker was head of the social security office of the German Labor Front . At the same time he was head of the committee for the reform of the social insurance of the Academy for German Law . In 1934 he was also director of the local health insurance fund of Berlin and the representative of the Reich Minister of Labor for the management of the Reich Association of Local Health Insurance Funds. He systematically presented, regardless of their professional qualifications old fighters of the SA one. This procedure was later secured by a corresponding regulation.

In August 1934 he lost all of his party offices in connection with the so-called Röhmputsch . After that he was only active as a specialist author. In 1936 he had to answer before the Supreme Party Court of the NSDAP . The proceedings ended with a warning. During the Second World War he maintained informal contacts with the staff of the Reich Health Leader Leonardo Conti . Brucker was arrested in 1945 by members of the Red Army and died in special camp No. 2 in Buchenwald .

Fonts (selection)

• Walter Schuhmann, Ludwig Brucker: Social policy in the new state. Berlin, 1934

literature

• Florian Tennstedt : History of self-administration in health insurance from the middle of the 19th century to the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany. Bonn 1977, pp. 190–191 digital copy (PDF; 14.6 MB)
• Eckhard Hansen, Florian Tennstedt (Eds.) U. a .: Biographical lexicon on the history of German social policy from 1871 to 1945 . Volume 2: Social politicians in the Weimar Republic and during National Socialism 1919 to 1945. Kassel University Press, Kassel 2018, ISBN 978-3-7376-0474-1 , p. 24 f. ( Online , PDF; 3.9 MB).
• Karsten Linne: "The German social security is in need of reform in the main and the limbs." Ludwig Brucker and the early Nazi initiatives for their transformation in 1933/34 . In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft, Vol. 68, 2020, Issue 5, pp. 417–436.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Michael Schneider: ups, downs and crises. The unions in the Weimar Republic from 1918 to 1933 . In: Ulrich Borsdorf (Ed.): History of the German Trade Unions. Cologne , 1987 p. 439, Heinrich August Winkler: Workers and workers' movement in the Weimar Republic . Vol. 3: The road to catastrophe. 1930-1933 . 2nd edition, Berlin, Bonn, 1990 p. 921