Reinhard Goerdeler

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Reinhard Goerdeler (born May 26, 1922 in Königsberg ; † January 3, 1996 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German lawyer and auditor . As the youngest son of the Nazi resistance fighter Carl Friedrich Goerdeler , he was imprisoned in kin in 1944 .

Goerdeler was the long-standing chairman of the board of the Deutsche Treuhand-Gesellschaft (DTG), chairman of the Klynveld Main Goerdeler International Accountants and co-founder and chairman of the supervisory board of Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (KPMG). He worked from 1973 to 1975 as president of the Chamber of Auditors and from 1977 to 1980 the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC).

In addition, he was the author of legal specialist articles, member of the supervisory board of the Allgemeine Deutsche Credit-Anstalt and was increasingly committed to the foundation system in Germany, for example as chairman of the board of the Association of German Foundations and chairman of the foundation's board of trustees on July 20, 1944 .

Live and act

Origin and military service

Reinhard Goerdeler came from a Protestant Prussian family of officials and lawyers. He was born in 1922 as the fourth of five children and the youngest son of the lawyer and mayor Carl Friedrich Goerdeler (1884–1945) and his wife Anneliese, b. Ulrich (1888–1961), born in Königsberg . His grandfather Julius Goerdeler was a district judge in Pomerania. Uncle Fritz Goerdeler (executed in 1945) worked as a lawyer and resistance fighter, brother Ulrich Goerdeler later became a lawyer and notary.

Residential house in Leipzig-Leutzsch

Reinhard Goerdeler attended school in Königsberg until his father became mayor of Leipzig in 1930 . During this time the family lived in a bourgeois mansion on Rathenaustraße in the Leutzsch district . Goerdeler first attended elementary school, later attended the humanistic St. Thomas School in Leipzig with his brother Christian (died in 1942) and was a member of the famous St. Thomas Choir under the St. Thomas Cantor Karl Straube .

After graduating from high school, he began studying law at the University of Leipzig , but was then drafted into military service. In June 1942 he was promoted to private. Most recently he served with the rank of lieutenant .

Arrest and concentration camp

His father became a leading member of the resistance against National Socialism and was designated as the new Reich Chancellor after the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 . In the course of the arrest of Carl Friedrich Goerdeler in August 1944 and his conviction by the People's Court (execution on February 2, 1945), Reinhard Goerdeler was imprisoned at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 8 from August 8 to 13, 1944 and from August 13 Imprisoned by the Gestapo from 1944 to March 1, 1945 in the Lehrter Strasse cell prison in Berlin . He later reported about his imprisonment:

“The encounters with Professors Gerhard Ritter and Constantin von Dietze and the later Bishop Hans Lilje were particularly impressive - these men had the strength to work in the cell. Sometimes I feel as if the characters of the 'Moabiter Sonnets' are passing by, together with the noble Jehovah's Witnesses, who have rendered us many services. "

Dachau concentration camp, entrance gate

After that, the Nazis took Goerdeler in the Buchenwald concentration camp and later in Dachau concentration camp in guilt by association . In April 1945 they deported him with his entire family and other prominent prisoners from 17 European countries, including Martin Niemöller , Léon Blum and Kurt Schuschnigg , to South Tyrol. They acted as SS hostages. Since he could no longer find a place on the transport with Franz Freiherr von Hammerstein-Equord , Peter Jehle, Dietrich Schatz and Markwart Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, the group was escorted separately to Lake Braies . On the night of April 30th to May 1st, the SS unexpectedly left the five prisoners in the cellar of a farm . At the same time, members of the Wehrmacht under Captain Wichard von Alvensleben liberated the main line. Goerdeler was brought to Munich by the approaching US Army in May .

legal studies

After the war he resumed his studies at the respected and democratic faculty of law at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg . His teachers included u. a. Gustav Radbruch , then Dean, and Walter Jellinek . In 1946 Goerdeler was one of the co-founders of the Heidelberg Students' Association "Friesenberg" , which existed until 1986 and which met regularly in Marie Baum's apartment . Her main concern was the critical examination of National Socialism and dealing with the German resistance. Marianne Weber (widow of Max Weber), Gustav Radbruch and Alexander Rustow acted as important reference persons for the group .

Goerdeler passed the first state examination in law in 1947. In 1948 he became the renowned copyright and Verlagsrechtler Eugen Ulmer in Heidelberg with the dissertation The Foundation as a legal entity for economic enterprises to Dr. jur. PhD. After his legal clerkship, he took the second state examination in 1950. From 1950 to 1951 he studied postgraduate international law at the University of Manchester on a British Council scholarship , from which he graduated with a diploma.

After graduating, he worked for IG Farben for two years .

Auditors

KPMG logo

In 1953 Goerdeler became an employee of the tax department of the Deutsche Treuhand-Gesellschaft (DTG), which had been founded in 1890 by Deutsche Bank and the Frankfurt bank Jacob SH Stern . In 1954 he was admitted to the bar. In 1956 he was elected to the board of the trust company. After passing the auditor's examination, he was also admitted as an auditor in 1962 . In the 1970s, Goerdeler expanded the company across Europe. It merged in 1979 with the service companies Klynveld Kraayenhof & Co. from the Netherlands and McLintock Main Lafrentz from the USA to form Klynveld Main Goerdeler (KMG). From 1979 to 1985 he was Chairman of the Klynveld Main Goerdeler International Accountants. Goerdeler was chairman of the company's supervisory board after 1985 . He carried out his duties until 1991, after which he became Honorary Chairman of the Supervisory Board of KPMG Deutsche Treuhand-Gesellschaft AG . During his active tenure in office he laid the foundation stone for the newly founded KPMG. Between 1986 and 1987, Peat Marwick International (PMI) and KMG merged to form the international auditing and consulting company Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler ( KPMG ).

Goerdeler was a board member from 1968 and from 1973 to 1975 President of the German Chamber of Auditors (WPK). He then became its chairman of the advisory board and a member of the main technical committee of the Institute of Auditors (IDW) in Düsseldorf. He was u. a. 1985 involved in drafting the Accounting Directive Act (BiRiLiG). In the news magazine Der Spiegel , he once described the work of the auditor as: "watchdog" and "guarantor of publicity for both the investor and the lender".

In 1973 he became chairman of the International Coordination Committee for the Accountancy Profession (ICAAP). At the 11th International Accountants Congress (ICA) in Munich in 1977, he was elected as the first President of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). Goerdeler was previously significantly involved in the founding of the organization and led IFAC until 1980. He strived for international harmonization of accounting and auditing standards. After that, his previous Vice President Gordon Cowperthwaite became President.

Economist

From 1990 he was the ten-member, the Federal Ministry of Finance under Theodor Waigel used, Commission to improve the tax conditions for investment and jobs (even Goerdeler Commission or Corporate Tax Commission before). In an expert opinion from 1991, this proposed a reduction in corporate tax and income tax , which, however, was not politically feasible at the time. The business magazine Capital described him as “honorable and competent, but without assertiveness”.

He belonged from the 1950s with Hans Adler , Fritz Wilhelm Hardach , Robert Wissensemich , Hans Otto Lenel and Johannes Semler jun. the stock corporation law committee of the Association of German Banks . He worked out the 4th directive of the Council of the European Communities for the coordination of company law ( 4th EC directive ) on the annual financial statements of certain legal forms of companies. Between 1972 and 1977, under Otto Kunze, he was a member of the commission of independent experts to investigate corporate law issues (including corporate law commission ) of the Federal Ministry of Justice .

In addition, Goerdeler wrote scientific articles and book reviews. He was co-editor of the general commentary on accounting and auditing of companies (from 1960) by Hans Adler, Walther Düring and Kurt Schmaltz and of the major commentary on the GmbH law GMbHG (from 1952) by Max Hachenburg . In addition to Robert Fischer , Marcus Lutter and Herbert Wiedemann, he was co-editor of the magazine for corporate and corporate law (ZGR).

Until 1971 he was a member of the supervisory board of the Allgemeine Deutsche Credit-Anstalt , Berlin / Frankfurt am Main.

Foundation system

Goerdeler was elected to the board of trustees of the relief organization July 20, 1944 (from 1994: Foundation July 20, 1944 ) in 1956 and was chairman of the board of trustees from 1969 to 1996 together with Ludwig von Hammerstein-Equord and Dieter Thomas . He gave several speeches on the subject such as Remembrance of the Dead (1959), Commemorative Words (1975), Striving for Justice, Decency and Freedom (1994). In a speech on July 20, 1975 in the “Ehrenhof der Gedenk- und Bildungsstätte Stauffenbergstrasse” in the Bendlerblock in Berlin, he honored the resistance with the following words: “You are all role models for us and warn us to [...] make sacrifices in the fight against the who seizes power and abuses it. [...] We bow to those who overcome cowardice in order to find the highest fulfillment in courageous deeds. Conscience and the concept of duty silence your doubts. [...] ".

Goerdeler was second chairman from 1987 and first chairman from 1990 to 1996 of the Federal Association of German Foundations in Berlin. He was succeeded by Axel Freiherr von Campenhausen . The honorary chairman Winfried Freiherr von Pölnitz-Egloffstein summed up Goerdeler's achievements for the federal association by honoring his commitment to strengthening the financial basis of the association with the goal of a full-time managing director.

Goerdeler was actively involved in foundations; he was a member of the board of trustees of the Marktwirtschaft Foundation , the Robert Bosch Foundation and, from 1982 to 1996, of the Max Reger Foundation . He was also chairman of the Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation , the Association of German Charitable Foundations. V. and the Thomanerbund e. V.

Reinhard Goerdeler was married and had lived in Frankfurt-Berkersheim since 1962 . He died after a long and serious illness in 1996 in Frankfurt am Main. Kurt Reumann characterized him in 1994 in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as follows: "Reinhard Goerdeler [...] is a master of the soft tones, modest and unpretentious despite all his self-confidence."

Awards

Fonts (selection)

  • The foundation as a legal form for economic ventures. Dissertation, Heidelberg University, 1948.
  • The promotion of the foundation system. A task for the state and society. Non-profit management company for science maintenance, Essen 1969. (published with Ralf Dahrendorf and Ernst-Joachim Mestmäcker )
  • Civil law issues related to company acquisitions. Kronberg Symposium of the ZGR (= magazine for corporate and corporate law, ZGR special issue 3). De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1982, OCLC 472206480 . (edited with Robert Fischer )
  • Labor law and bankruptcy. Bonn Symposium of the ZGR (= magazine for corporate and corporate law, ZGR special issue 13.2). De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1984, OCLC 472206564 .
  • The company in bankruptcy. To the first report of the Insolvency Law Commission. 5th symposium of the ZGR (= magazine for corporate and corporate law, ZGR special issue 15.2). De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1986, OCLC 472206663 .
  • Festschrift for Hans-Joachim Fleck on the occasion of his 70th birthday on January 30, 1988 (= magazine for corporate and corporate law, ZGR special issue 7). De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1988, ISBN 3-11-011658-8 . (edited with Peter Hommelhoff , Marcus Lutter and Herbert Wiedemann )
  • Takeover offers (= magazine for corporate and corporate law, ZGR special issue 9). De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1990, ISBN 3-11-089834-9 . (edited with Peter Hommelhoff, Marcus Lutter, Herbert Wiedemann and Walter Odersky )
  • Festschrift for Alfred Kellermann. For his 70th birthday on November 29, 1990 (= magazine for corporate and corporate law, ZGR special issue 10). De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1991, ISBN 3-11-012549-8 .
  • Advice for donors. To set up a foundation (= Life Pictures of German Foundations, Volume 23). Federal Association of German Foundations, Bonn 1995, ISBN 3-927645-05-2 .

Filmography

Father Carl Friedrich Goerdeler before the People's Court (1944)

On behalf of the Beck , Goerdeler and Stauffenberg families , he criticized the films July 20 and It happened on July 20 in 1955 , as the families were reluctant to deal with the events in this format. In 1994 he was featured in the documentary Search for Dr. Goerdeler interviewed by Michael Kloft and Jürgen Eike , who shows his father's biography.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . January 6, 1996, p. 12 .
  2. ^ Marianne Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler. Courage to resist. One daughter remembers . Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 1998, ISBN 3-931922-92-8 , p. 68 .
  3. ^ A b c Hans Havermann (Ed.): Accounting and corporate law . Festschrift for the 65th birthday of Dr. Dr. hc Reinhard Goerdeler. IDW Verlag, Düsseldorf 1987, ISBN 3-8021-0332-7 , p. XI .
  4. ^ Marianne Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler. Courage to resist. One daughter remembers . Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 1998, ISBN 3-931922-92-8 , p. 52 .
  5. ^ Marianne Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler. Courage to resist. One daughter remembers . Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 1998, ISBN 3-931922-92-8 , p. 94 .
  6. ↑ a b c d e Kurt Reumann : Seal of approval . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . July 21, 1994, p. 8 .
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g h Goerdeler Reinhard, RA Dr. . Website by Gerhard Köbler. Retrieved February 17, 2012.
  8. ↑ Königsberger Anzeiger , June 6, 1942.
  9. ^ Karl Heinz Jahnke : Hitler's last contingent . German youth in the sixth year of the war, 1944/45. Klartext Verlag, Essen 1993, ISBN 3-88474-021-0 , p. 72 .
  10. ^ Franz von Hammerstein : Gestapo prisoner in Berlin - clan prisoner in Buchenwald - special prisoner in Dachau . Ed .: German Resistance Memorial Center . Berlin 1999, p. 3 ( 20-juli-44.de [PDF; 179 kB ; accessed on August 27, 2015]). 20-juli-44.de ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.20-juli-44.de
  11. ↑ Peter Koblank: The Liberation of Special Prisoners and Kinship Prisoners in South Tyrol . Online edition Myth Elser 2006.
  12. ^ Franz von Hammerstein: Gestapo prisoner in Berlin - clan prisoner in Buchenwald - special prisoner in Dachau . Ed .: German Resistance Memorial Center. Berlin 1999, p. 10 ( 20-juli-44.de [PDF; accessed on August 27, 2015]). 20-juli-44.de ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.20-juli-44.de
  13. ↑ a b Memorial stones of the Goerdeler family in the mountain cemetery . In: Rector of the University of Heidelberg (Ed.): Ruperto Carola . Issue 71. Universitätsverlag Winter, 1984, p. 86 (36th year).
  14. ↑ Jürgen C. Heß, Hartmut Lehmann , Volker Sellin (Eds.): Heidelberg 1945 (=  Transatlantic Historical Studies . Volume 5 ). Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-515-06880-5 , pp. 304 .
  15. ↑ a b c Dr. Reinhard Goerdeler . KPMG website. Archived from the original on May 1, 2015. Retrieved February 17, 2012.
  16. ↑ a b c d e f Wolfgang D. Budde: Reinhard Goerdeler. In: Neue Juristische Wochenschrift 1996, 707.
  17. ↑ Wirtschaftsprüferkammer (Ed.): 50 Years of Wirtschaftsprüferkammer . Professional self-administration in the public interest. Berlin 2001, p. 91 ( wpk.de [PDF; 10.1 MB ]).
  18. ^ A b Hans Havermann (Ed.): Accounting and corporate law . Festschrift for the 65th birthday of Dr. Dr. hc Reinhard Goerdeler. IDW Verlag, Düsseldorf 1987, ISBN 3-8021-0332-7 , p. XII .
  19. ↑ More believed than tested . In: Der Spiegel . No. 11 , 1975 ( online ).
  20. ↑ a b History . IFAC website. Retrieved February 17, 2012.
  21. ↑ a b c d e f Reinhard Goerdeler. In: Börsen-Zeitung. January 9, 1996, p. 7.
  22. ↑ Expert council for the assessment of the macroeconomic development (ed.): The economic integration in Germany . Perspectives, ways, risks. Annual report 1991/92. Metzler-Poeschel, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-8246-0086-2 , p. 148 .
  23. ^ Rainer Bossert: Corporate taxation and accounting tax law . Basics of corporate income and corporate taxation. Physica-Verlag, Heidelberg 1997, ISBN 3-7908-1005-3 , p. 2 .
  24. ^ Rainer Huebner: Tax reform . Part 3: Entrepreneurs - please wait. In: Capital . tape 29 , March 1990, p. 23 .
  25. ↑ Heinz-Uwe Dettling: The history of corporate law in the stock corporation law of 1965 . Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 1997, ISBN 3-16-146630-6 , p. 206 .
  26. ↑ Corporate Law Commission . In: work and performance . tape 10 , 1972, p. 282 .
  27. ↑ From the banking world . In: Journal for the entire credit system . 24 (1971) 18, p. 838.
  28. ↑ a b His struggle was not in vain . In memory of Wilhelm Leuschner. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . September 30, 1994, p. 78 .
  29. ^ Rüdiger von Voss: The coup d'état of July 20, 1944 . Political reception and tradition formation in the Federal Republic of Germany. Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-86732-097-9 , pp. 155 .
  30. ↑ Dr. Reinhard Goerdeler . Internet offer of the German Resistance Memorial Center and the Foundation July 20, 1944. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 27, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.20-juli-44.de
  31. ↑ Reinhard Goerdeler: Memorial Words . Berlin 1975 ( 20-juli-44.de [PDF; 41 kB ; accessed on August 27, 2015]). 20-juli-44.de ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.20-juli-44.de
  32. ↑ a b Federal Association of German Foundations (ed.): 60 years of the Federal Association of German Foundations . 1948-2008. 60 years in the service of the foundations. Berlin 2008, p. 14 ( stiftungen.org [PDF; 1.3 MB ; accessed on December 25, 2012]).
  33. ↑ Ulrich Weiss: More courage for freedom and the market . 25 years of the Market Economy Foundation and Kronberger Kreis. Bloch & Co., Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-89015-103-8 , pp. 15 ( PDF 2.99MB ( Memento of January 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) [accessed December 25, 2012]). More courage for freedom and the market ( Memento of the original from January 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stiftung-marktwirtschaft.de
  34. ↑ Hans Maier : Christian Resistance in the Third Reich. Motifs and shapes. Press release, Deutscher Katholikentag, Ulm 2004, p. 1.
  35. ↑ Board of Trustees . Website of the Max Reger Institute. Archived from the original on February 10, 2012. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 17, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www1.karlsruhe.de
  36. ↑ A hero doomed to failure . In: Frankfurter Neue Presse . April 14, 2008, p. 7 .
  37. ↑ Honorary doctorates from the Faculty of Economics . Website of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt. Retrieved February 17, 2012.
  38. ^ Wolfgang Jacobsen : Berlinale. Berlin International Film Festival. Argon Verlag, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-87024-154-3 , p. 59.
  39. ↑ Peter Jochen Winters: Denounced for a million. A television portrait: “The search for Dr. Goerdeler "(MDR). In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. July 20, 1994, p. 28.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on December 25, 2012 .
personal data
SURNAME Goerdeler, Reinhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and auditor
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Koenigsberg
DATE OF DEATH January 3, 1996
Place of death Frankfurt am Main