Richard Becker (politician)

Richard Arnold Becker (born October 10, 1884 in Saarbrücken , † April 11, 1969 there ) was a Saarland politician .

Life

Becker was born the son of the textile merchant Arnold Becker (1853-1928) and his wife Gertrud Sinn (1860-1949) in St. Johann on the Saar . He attended grammar school in Saarbrücken and Brilon and then briefly studied at the commercial school in Freiburg, Switzerland . This was followed by a commercial apprenticeship and one year of military service . From 1905 he then worked in his parents' companies (CA Becker & Co., Saarbrücken, Frankfurt, Stuttgart).

In the First World War , Becker, decorated with the Iron Cross I and II Class and the Knight's Cross of the Hohenzollern Order, served as first lieutenant and battery leader. After the war he rejoined the family business and worked there as managing director. Becker advocated that the Saar area should continue to belong to the German Reich . In 1919 he was one of the signatories of a memorandum to the US President Woodrow Wilson , in which the guarantee of the right of self-determination of the peoples was demanded with regard to the Saar area:

“We residents of the city and the district of Saarbrücken, a purely German area, solemnly object to the request that has emerged in various French newspapers to separate us from our German fatherland and to incorporate France, a country that is completely foreign to us. We are Germans by descent, language, history and convictions. We want to remain united with our German brothers and sisters even now, in this time of deep misery. "

In 1920 Becker was a delegate for the Saar area in the Council of the League of Nations . As a representative of the center , of which he has been a member since 1920, he is a member of the regional council in all four legislative periods (1922–1935).

To honor his pro-German engagement in the Saar referendum on January 13, 1935 , he was appointed councilor of the city of Saarbrücken by the NSDAP after the Saar area became part of the German Reich . With the introduction of the “German Municipal Code” in July 1935, the city councilors in Saarbrücken were no longer elected, but were determined independently by the mayor and representative of the NSDAP. The mayor himself was also selected by party ordinance of the NSDAP. This ended the democratic local self-government. Becker held the councilor office until the collapse of the Nazi regime in 1945. On June 1, 1936, Becker joined the NSDAP ( membership number 6.926.791).

After the Second World War , Becker became a member of the Saar Democratic Party (DPS) in 1949 , and he was appointed first chairman at a party congress on July 2, 1950 in Saarbrücken's Johannishof. Richard Becker brought the DPS, which initially still predominantly supported the autonomy course of the Saarland state government under Prime Minister Johannes Hoffmann , on a strictly pro-German course. Becker later stated that the pastoral letter from Trier bishop Franz Rudolf Bornewasser of March 15, 1947, in which he called for “loyalty to the German fatherland” on the occasion of the Saarland's plans for autonomy, had given him the courage “to embrace the anti-German machinations of the Hoffmann government oppose ". Becker used Heinrich Schneider in particular as a creator of party propaganda and “drummer of the DPS”. The first public rally took place on May 6, 1951 in Saarbrücken.

On May 21, 1951, the DPS was banned because of its anti-German and anti-government orientation. Becker's operations were boycotted, which is why he had to give up his commercial activity in 1952. In addition, Becker was expelled from Saarland due to his pro-German commitment . Becker then relocated the main activity of his party to the Federal Republic. In view of his advanced age, Becker soon handed over the party leadership to Heinrich Schneider and Paul Simonis .

After the re-admission of his party in 1955, Becker was appointed honorary chairman and he succeeded in entering the state parliament of Saarland , to which he belonged during the third legislative period (1955-1960). However, on December 23, 1956, Becker did not agree to the Saarland's decision to join the Federal Republic of Germany in the Saarland state parliament. The background to this behavior was that, after the Saar referendum on October 23, 1955, Becker had demanded binding agreements from the federal government in order to prevent the possible economic disadvantages for the Saarland economy as a result of the integration of the Saarland. Since, in his opinion, this request had not been complied with by the Federal Government, the DPS finally refused to approve the decision to join at Becker's instigation.

Saarbrücken, St. Johann cemetery, grave of the Becker family with the relief of St. George with the dragon

In the following period there were increasing political differences between Becker and Schneider, which became particularly apparent when Schneider wanted to participate in a government with the CVP in January 1959 and the latter tried to enforce his wish with a threat of resignation. After the Saarland state elections in 1961, Heinrich Schneider also refused to take part in government negotiations and sign the coalition agreement due to personal disputes with Franz-Josef Röder . Becker then accused him of a lack of sense of responsibility. When Schneider gave up the post of state chairman of his party in January 1962 and shortly afterwards declared that he would take over the party chairmanship again under certain conditions, Becker massively opposed these plans and positioned Paul Simonis in this office.

The Saarland Landtag elected Becker as a member of the third Federal Assembly , which in 1959 elected Heinrich Lübke as Federal President . From February 22, 1956 until reunification with Germany , he represented Saarland in the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe .

From 1952 Becker was honorary chairman of the general association of Saarland wholesalers. In 1955 he was made an honorary senator of the TU Berlin . From 1956 he was an honorary member of the Saarland Chamber of Commerce and from 1959 an honorary citizen of the city of Saarbrücken. In 1960 Becker retired from active politics for reasons of age and died in 1969 at the age of 84 in his hometown, where he lived in the cemetery in Saarbrücken-St. Johann was buried.

family

Becker had been married to Sylvia Hendler from Saarbrücken since 1909. He had two sons (Viktor Arnold and Ulrich) and a daughter (Christiane).

Honors

In the Saarbrücken district of St. Johann, the "Senator-Richard-Becker-Strasse" commemorates the politician. In 1959 he was made an honorary citizen of the city of Saarbrücken and was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit with a star and shoulder ribbon.

literature

• Richard Becker , International Biographical Archive of May 5, 1969, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)

Web links

• Richard Becker in the Saarland biographies

Individual evidence

1. ^ Munzinger
2. ^ Photocopy of the membership card from the Berlin Document Center at the Peter Imandt Society
3. ↑ Hans-Peter Klausch: List 1: Alphabetical list of members of the Saarland state parliament with proven NSDAP membership. (PDF; 2.15 MB) In: Brown traces in the Saar state parliament. The Nazi past of representatives from Saarland. The left. Parliamentary group in the Saarland State Parliament, Saarbrücken 2013, p. 18 , accessed on January 25, 2016 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Richard Becker has cleared the way - the leading figure of the resistance against autonomy . In: Saarbrücker Zeitung , October 23, 1980, special supplement Zerreißprobe - 25 years ago: Saarlanders between yes and no , pp. VI-VII.
5. ↑ Fratricide Adenauer . In: Die Zeit , No. 43/2005
6. ↑ Two fighters against the separation - Richard Becker and Paul Simonis . In: Saarbrücker Zeitung , October 23, 1980, special supplement Zerreißprobe - 25 years ago: Saarlanders between yes and no , p. VI.
7. ↑ woydt.be
8. ↑ saarland-biografien.de accessed on August 25, 2017.