Reinhard Sommer

Reinhard Sommer (born July 13, 1921 in Köppelsdorf ) is a former trade union official in the GDR. From 1961 to 1988 he was chairman of the central board of IG Metall in the GDR for many years .

Life

Sommer was born on July 13, 1921 in Köppelsdorf, Thuringia. After attending primary school, he completed an apprenticeship as a construction and machine fitter from 1936 to 1939. He then worked as a mechanic and fitter until 1941. This activity was interrupted in 1941 when he was drafted into military service. Sommer served in the Air Force , most recently as a non-commissioned officer. Towards the end of the war he was taken prisoner, from which he was able to escape. Sommer went back to his old Thuringian homeland and resumed his work as a toolmaker. Until then, he had not been politically active, he joined the FDGB in 1945 and became a member of the SPD . After some time, Sommer became involved in voluntary union functions, which soon earned him a full-time union post. First he was a member of the FDGB local board of the city of Sonneberg . In 1947 he gave up his activity as a toolmaker, since he had now become secretary of the FDGB regional board in Sonneberg and also a member of the Thuringia regional board of IG Metall. Through these functions he also became a member of the secretariat of the SED district leadership in Sonneberg. Sommer joined the SED through the union of the KPD and SPD in the Soviet zone of occupation. In 1948 Reinhard Sommer was elected chairman of the FDGB district board in Sonneberg. In 1949 it was decided to send Sommer to a one-year course at the party college "Karl Marx" . After that, Sommer stayed in Berlin, where he initially worked from mid-1950 to 1952 as an instructor and department head on the FDGB federal board. Subsequently, he was deputy chairman of the central board of IG Metallurgie for five years until 1957. After that, Sommer was delegated to the core company VEB Berliner Metallhütten und Halbzeugwerke , where he acted as chairman of the works union management until 1959 to try and gain experience . After a short membership in the Berlin district executive committee of IG Metall from 1959, Sommer was elected chairman. He held this office until February 1961. At the same time, in the summer of 1960, now in the late 30s, he began distance learning at the engineering school for mechanical engineering and electrical engineering in Berlin-Lichtenberg , which he completed in 1962 with a degree as a technician. This was followed by a two-year study of economics at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig until 1964 , which he graduated in summer with a degree in economics. During this study phase, he was elected chairman of the central board of IG Metall of the GDR at the 7th extraordinary central board meeting on February 21, 1961. The reason for this were personnel changes in the federal executive committee of the FDGB, as a result of which summer's predecessor Rolf Berger was promoted to the federal executive committee as secretary. Sommer's new function resulted in additional offices. He was immediately co-opted as a member of the FDGB's federal executive committee and was immediately elected to the presidium, where he remained until 1989. In 1961 he also became Vice President of the International Federation of Metalworkers' Unions in the World Trade Union Confederation (WGB), and between 1978 and 1989 he represented the metalworkers as President in the WGB. With the office of President, Sommer moved up as a member of the General Council of the WGB from 1978. After a frequent change of functionaries at the top of IG Metall, Sommer ensured personnel continuity; he was in charge of IG Metall in the GDR for 27 years. Between 1976 and 1989, Sommer was also a member of the People's Chamber for the FDGB, and in the 8th and 9th electoral terms he was deputy chairman of the parliamentary group. After summer 1988 gave up the chairmanship of the metalworking union for health reasons, he took over the chairmanship of the veterans commission of the FDGB federal board until the political change. At 68 already retired, Sommer gave up his union functions with the political change in autumn 1989.

Honors

• 1969 Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze
• 1981 Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold
• 1986 hero of work

swell

• Andreas Herbst : Summer, Reinhard. In: Dieter Dowe , Karlheinz Kuba, Manfred Wilke (Hrsg.): FDGB-Lexikon. Function, structure, cadre and development of a mass organization of the SED (1945–1990). Berlin 2009.
• Helmut Müller-Enbergs :  Summer, Reinhard . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ New Germany of October 2, 1969 p. 5