Luise Erhard

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Luise and Ludwig Erhard in May 1963

Luise Erhard (born April 18, 1893 in Langenzenn ; † July 9, 1975 ; born Luise Lotter , widowed Luise Schuster ) was a German economist and the first wife of the Chancellor after 1949.

Life

Early life

Luise Lotter first grew up with her brother in the Middle Franconian town of Langenzenn, where her father ran a brick factory. The family later lived in nearby Fürth . Lotter's first marriage was the lawyer Friedrich Schuster, who died as a soldier in October 1914 in the First World War . The daughter Leonore comes from the marriage.

The widowed shoemaker studied at the Nuremberg Commercial College , where she met Ludwig Erhard from Fürth , whom she knew from her childhood days as the child in the neighborhood and brother of her former playmate Rose. In December 1923 she married Ludwig Erhard. The official "marriage residence" was Luise Erhard's hometown Langenzenn, where her mother and brother - who had meanwhile taken over the father's brick factory - lived. The couple, both of whom had completed their studies in Nuremberg, then wanted to work together to university in Frankfurt further study and a doctorate , while the introduced in marriage daughter "Lore" was supervised by the grandmother in Langenzenn. Luise Erhard gave up after a few months and returned to her daughter, while her husband completed his doctorate in 1925. The daughter Elisabeth emerged from the marriage.

Housewife and mother, advisor and Chancellor's wife

From then on Luise Erhard renounced her own career and accompanied her husband's professional and later political career as a housewife and mother, but also as an expert and "astute" advisor. Ludwig Erhard took over his parents' textile goods business in Fürth in 1925, which went bankrupt as a result of the global economic crisis in 1928. From then on until the end of the Second World War in 1945 he held various positions in the field of economics; after the war he became an honorary professor at the University of Munich in 1947 and also at the University of Bonn in 1950 .

As a non-party economist and de facto later CDU member, Ludwig Erhard quickly rose to high political offices in the post-war period ; Among other things, he was Federal Minister of Economics from 1949 to 1963 , Second Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1963 to 1966 and Federal Chairman of the CDU from 1966/67. Luise Erhard's husband was one of the most popular politicians of the 1950s and was considered the "father" of the social market economy and the economic miracle after the Second World War.

The chancellor's bungalow in Bonn, built in 1964 (photo from 1979)

In the mid-1950s, Luise and Ludwig Erhard had their neighbor there, the architect Sep Ruf , build a bungalow for them in Gmund am Tegernsee and set up their permanent family residence there. Ruf, who had become known for his own style with minimized constructions, transparent walls and slim roofs, was commissioned by Ludwig Erhard - still in his function as Minister of Economics - to build the Chancellor's bungalow in Bonn at the beginning of 1963 . Luise Erhard, who had encouraged her husband to commission Ruf, also influenced the location, design and interior of the new Chancellor's residence. From 1963 to 1964 a representative and modern building in the tradition of classical modernism was built in the park of the then Federal Chancellery , the Palais Schaumburg , which is now considered an outstanding example of West German post-war architecture and has been a listed building since 2001. At the end of 1964, the Erhards were the first residents to move into the new residential and reception building of the German Chancellor.

Luise Erhard "was a strong woman and had a great influence on her husband"; she was regarded as his closest confidante, who always "maintained the greatest [...] discretion". Nonetheless, she saw - “in keeping with the image of women in the time before the dawn of the late 1960s  - her main task, in addition to her representative duties, was listening”. So she was characterized by contemporaries as the “perfect housewife, maternal, charming, self-confident and practical”. When her husband became Chancellor in 1963 and the Erhards (initially) moved into Palais Schaumburg , a newspaper described the Chancellor's wife as a “German housemaid”, whereupon Luise Erhard annoyed announced: “I've never been a housemaid in my entire life, and I really want that Not be".

From October 16, 1963 to December 1, 1966 she was the German Chancellor's wife. In retrospect, at the beginning of the 2000s she was “ perceived by all [to date] 'First Ladies' in the Federal Republic - the title is incorrect, because the Chancellor's wife only ranks fourth in the protocol” - alongside Loki Schmidt as the one who “got through her intellectual sovereignty impresses [e] ”.

Representative tasks, honorary positions and patronage

Chancellor's wife Luise Erhard at her reception of an African women's seminar in the Chancellor's bungalow in May 1966

Luise Erhard took over at the side of her husband, increasingly representative tasks and honorary posts. In 1954 , under their patronage , the non-profit organization Aktion Das Safe Haus (DSH), which still exists today, was launched, the aim of which was and is to provide information about the dangers of accidents at home and in leisure time, thereby helping to reduce the high number of accidents. In 1962 she named a tanker from the then largest German tanker shipping company, Deutsche Shell Tanker GmbH in Hamburg.

As Chancellor's wife, she then carefully selected her representative duties, so in October 1963, and thus already before the election of her husband as Federal Chancellor, she took over the patronage of “the women's colloquium in Bonn's 'Colloquium humanum', which is the meeting between Bonn's ladies and Diplomatic wives cultivate [e] ”, accompanied her husband on trips abroad, including on his first trip to America as Chancellor in 1963, invited selected guests to have breakfast with her husband in the new Chancellor's bungalow and also invited their own guests, met with them her husband for talks with writers and artists, accompanied her husband in May 1965 at the reception at Augustusburg Castle in Brühl in honor of the British Queen Elisabeth II on the occasion of her visit to Germany at the time, laid the foundation stone for the SOS Children's Village “Lipperland” in Barntrup in November 1966 “- the first children's village in North Rhine-Westphalia, and in December 1965 visited the 100th post-war Aus Position in the house of the Städtische Kunstsammlungen Bonn on the opening day.

As a patron , she sponsored, among other things, the "Galerie Pro" founded in Bad Godesberg in 1963 by the gallery owner Johannes Wasmuth , who sold donated works of art and donated the proceeds to the children in need community he founded . Founded by her Foundation Luise-Erhard-fund (also Luise Erhard Foundation called) awards in Fuerth, among other prizes to excellent for their achievements graduates named after her husband, Ludwig-Erhard-school Fuerth , who in the meantime received a degree.

Late life

Grave site for Luise and Ludwig Erhard in Gmund am Tegernsee

After Ludwig Erhard's political failure as chancellor and his resignation on December 1, 1966, Ludwig and Luise Erhard moved from the Bonn chancellor's bungalow to their second home in Gmund am Tegernsee, which became their retirement home. Luise Erhard was 74 years old at the time, her husband shortly before his 70th birthday. While her husband, who remained a member of the German Bundestag until the end of his life, clung to "his fading reputation and Bonn [...]" despite his increasing insignificance for political events, Luise Erhard mostly stayed at Tegernsee, so that the couple saw each other less often than before in the last decade of their lives.

Luise Erhard died in the summer of 1975 at the age of 82, her husband died two years later. The joint grave of Luise and Ludwig Erhard is in the mountain cemetery in Gmund am Tegernsee.

literature

  • Hans Henning Zencke: Luise Erhard, not a housemaid. In: Werner Höfer (ed.): Lucky with presidents, chancellors and women. A gallery in Bonn. Belser-Verlag, Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-7630-1174-9 .
  • Ada Brandes: Luise Erhard. In: Dieter Zimmer (Ed.): Germany's First Ladies. The wives of the Federal Presidents and Chancellors from 1949 to the present day. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-421-05125-9 , pp. 81-98.
  • Helene Walterskirchen: On the side of power. Germany's first ladies. Verlag Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-8000-3845-5 , pp. 125-136.

Web links

Commons : Luise Erhard  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Konrad Adenauer : The last years of life. 1963-1967. Letters and notes, conversations, interviews and speeches. Volume 1: October 1963 – September 1965. In: Hans Peter Mensing (arr.); Hans-Peter Schwarz , Rudolf Morsey (ed.): Adenauer - Rhöndorfer edition. Edition series. Schöningh, Paderborn 2009, ISBN 978-3-506-76776-9 , p. 541 ( online ) at Google Books .
  2. ↑ Konrad Adenauer : Letters 1953–1955. In: Hans Peter Mensing (arr.); Hans-Peter Schwarz , Rudolf Morsey (ed.): Adenauer - Rhöndorfer edition. Edition series. Siedler, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-88680-750-9 , No. 185, footnote 2 ( online at Google Books).
  3. ↑ a b c Bernd O. Weitz (Ed.): Significant economists. Oldenbourg, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58222-2 , p. 183 ( online at Google books).
  4. ^ Volkhard Laitenberger: Ludwig Erhard. The economist as a politician. (=  Personality and history. Vol. 126–128). Muster-Schmidt, Göttingen 1986, ISBN 3-7881-0126-1 , p. 14 ( online at Google books).
  5. ^ A b Daniel Friedrich Sturm : On the side of power. Germany's Chancellor's wives . In: The world . January 19, 2002; Retrieved February 6, 2012.
  6. ↑ Jess M. Lukomski: Ludwig Erhard, the man and the politician. From the American by Eva Bornemann. Econ Verlag, Düsseldorf 1965, DNB 453109497 , p. 85 ( online at Google books).
  7. ↑ a b Volkhard Laitenberger: Ludwig Erhard. The economist as a politician. (=  Personality and history. Vol. 126–128). Muster-Schmidt, Göttingen 1986, ISBN 3-7881-0126-1 .
  8. ^ Chancellor's bungalow. Belly or fish . In: Der Spiegel . No. 49/1963 of December 4, 1963, pp. 29-31; Retrieved February 7, 2012.
  9. ↑ Gerhard Schröder u. a. (Ed.): Ludwig Erhard. Contributions to his political biography. Festschrift for the 75th birthday. Propylaeen Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1972, ISBN 3-549-07278-3 , p. 534.
  10. ↑ Michael Zajonz: How times change us. The Chancellor's wallpaper . In: Der Tagesspiegel . April 18, 2009; Retrieved February 7, 2012.
  11. ↑ Ulrike Herrmann : Barbie lives in the Chancellery . In: taz . July 31, 2002; Retrieved February 6, 2012.
  12. ^ Volkhard Laitenberger: Ludwig Erhard. The economist as a politician. (=  Personality and history. Vol. 126–128). Muster-Schmidt, Göttingen 1986, ISBN 3-7881-0126-1 , p. 85 ( online at Google books).
  13. ↑ Basil Wegener: Chancellor partner looking for roles ( memento from September 6, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ). In: Netzeitung . November 23, 2005; Retrieved February 6, 2012.
  14. ↑ Ada Brandes: Luise Erhard. In: Dieter Zimmer (Ed.): Germany's First Ladies. The wives of the Federal Presidents and Chancellors from 1949 to the present day. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-421-05125-9 , p. 84 ( online at Google books).
  15. ↑ Ada Brandes: Hannelore Kohl, who had suffered from a serious illness for years, put an end to her life - an obituary. "Because of the hopelessness ..." . In: Berliner Zeitung . July 6, 2001; Retrieved February 7, 2012.
  16. ^ German Bundestag : Negotiations. Stenographic reports. Annexes to the shorthand reports. Printed matter of the German Bundestag, volume & 102, Bonn 1965, p. 54 ( online at Google books).
  17. ^ Report in the Hamburger Abendblatt . July 20, 1978.
  18. ↑ Luise Erhard . In: Der Spiegel . No. 42/1963 of October 16, 1963, p. 122; Retrieved February 6, 2012.
  19. ↑ See biography of the American poet Walter, Hulda Saenger . In: Handbook of Texas Online. the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA); English, accessed February 7, 2012.
  20. ↑ Reminder folder for Mrs. Luise Erhard of the visit of the Federal Chancellor L. Erhard to the LBJ Ranch near Johnson City in the USA in 1963 . Reprint, Austin / USA 1963; Archived as a document in the German Historical Museum , GOS no. 97006018, inventory no. Do2 97/2061.
  21. ↑ a b Mike Lukasch: Meeting point at the Chancellor's Bungalow . In: Museum magazine of the House of History , issue 1/2009; Retrieved February 6, 2012.
  22. ↑ A queen in Germany. Federal capital Bonn. ( Memento from July 28, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Brief information on the website of the Deutsche Wochenschau Filmarchiv, documentary from 1965, call number K 0142; Retrieved February 6, 2012.
  23. ↑ Hans-Hermann Igges: A foundation for life. The first children's village association in North Rhine-Westphalia was founded 50 years ago in Paderborn . In: New Westphalian . April 13, 2011; Retrieved February 6, 2012.
  24. ↑ Luise Erhard . In: Der Spiegel . 1/1966, January 3, 1966, p. 76; Retrieved February 6, 2012.
  25. ↑ Rolandseck. Lease station . In: Der Spiegel No. 23/1965 of June 2, 1965, pp. 125–126; Retrieved February 6, 2012.
  26. ↑ Eight times a straight A in the certificate. The Ludwig Erhard School honored its graduates in the Green Hall  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Fürth News . July 27, 2011; Retrieved February 7, 2012.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / heute.nordbayern.de  
  27. ↑ Helene Walterskirchen: On the side of power. Germany's first ladies. Verlag Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-8000-3845-5 , p. 136.
  28. ↑ Ada Brandes: Luise Erhard. In: Dieter Zimmer (Ed.): Germany's First Ladies. The wives of the Federal Presidents and Chancellors from 1949 to the present day. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-421-05125-9 , p. 97 ( online at Google books).
personal data
SURNAME Erhard, Luise
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lotter, Luise (maiden name); Schuster, Luise
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economist and Chancellor's wife
DATE OF BIRTH April 18, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Langenzenn
DATE OF DEATH July 9, 1975