Richard Kirn (politician)

Richard Kirn (born October 23, 1902 in Schiffweiler in the district of Ottweiler ; † April 4, 1988 in Völklingen ) was a Saarland politician ( SPS ). He was elected to the Saarland Landtag on October 5, 1947, sworn in as Minister for Labor and Welfare and Deputy Prime Minister in the Hoffmann I and Hoffmann III cabinets on December 20, 1947 and, with the exception of the phase between April 1951 and December 1952, in which the SPS terminated the coalition with the CVP , this function until July 1954. Before that it belonged to theAdministrative commission of the Saarland as director of work on (1946/47).

Life until World War II

Richard Kirn joined the SPD in 1923. He was responsible for the legal protection department in the union building in Forbach . On January 19, 1935, Kirn fled to France, but he was arrested by the French police on September 22, 1941, taken to the Castres secret prison on October 4, 1941 and later extradited to the Nazi authorities. On April 12, 1943, he was sentenced to eight years in prison by the National Socialist People's Court , which he served in Brandenburg-Görden. There he was liberated on April 27, 1945 and returned to Saarland.

Saarland autonomy

Richard Kirn was involved in the re-establishment / founding of the SPS on October 28, 1945, of which he was chairman from June 30, 1946 to 1955. He was a member of the Saarland Constitutional Commission , which drafted the Saarland constitution. On October 5, 1947, he was elected to the Saarland state parliament, to which he was a member until December 17, 1955.

Together with Johannes Hoffmann , Richard Kirn is considered to be the personal axis of what is known as the separatist movement in Saarland , which between 1945 and 1955, under the influence of two world wars, attempted an independent Saarland state policy with the aim of achieving a balance between France and Germany. While at the beginning of the cooperation the objective was to prevent the Saarland from being completely annexed to France, and instead to create a common economic area with a currency and customs union with France (including through the introduction of the French franc as legal tender), the Saar government got it at the latest from the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany under increasing pressure to give up its previous policy and seek a connection with the Federal Republic. The opposition DPS, in particular, vehemently advocated this objective and was ultimately banned temporarily.

The growing prosperity in the newly founded Federal Republic and the common cultural roots on the one hand; As well as the sometimes chaotic French domestic policy, economic problems as well as the Algerian war and the Vietnam conflict ( Battle of Điện Biên Phủ ) on the other hand, the policy of the autonomous Saar government, which feared a considerable burden on the reconciliation between France and Germany in the event of a policy change, became increasingly difficult.

In the course of 1954 negotiations between France and Germany, in consultation with the Saarland government, resulted in a treaty on a European Saar statute . The autonomy of the Saarland should be preserved, Saarbrücken should become the seat of European institutions (including the Council of Europe , the Coal and Steel Union , WEU ). The economic relations between Saarland and France are to be supplemented by similar relations with Germany. On October 23, 1955, however, the European Saar Statute was rejected by a large majority of the Saarlanders (67.2%) after a tough referendum battle, which in some cases assumed tumultuous excesses, the autonomous Saar government had failed with its policy and resigned on the night of the vote .

Richard Kirn, who as Minister of Labor and Welfare of the Saarland had achieved the highest social standards in Europe at that time, left the Saarland after the Saar referendum and went into exile in France. From Sarreguemines , only a few kilometers from the Saarland border, he observed what was happening in the new federal state of Saarland, “partly amused and partly bitter”. In 1986 he was awarded the Saarland Order of Merit as a late recognition for his services to the Saarland and the German-French understanding.

Richard Kirn is buried in the main cemetery in Saarbrücken, less than a hundred meters from the French border.

Honors / awards

• 1986: Saarland Order of Merit

Remarks

1. ↑ Jonny Granzow: The breakout of the Spanish fighters from the secret prison: A historical report , edition bodoni, 2012, ISBN 978-3940781277 , p. 51
2. ↑ As a result of the referendum of October 23, 1955, in which the Saar Statute was rejected, the state parliament was only dissolved on December 17. New elections were held on December 18, 1955. Kirn resigned as minister on October 24.
3. ^ ^{A b} Announcement of awards of the Saarland Order of Merit . In: Head of the State Chancellery (Ed.): Official Gazette of the Saarland . No. 49 . Saarbrücker Zeitung Verlag und Druckerei GmbH, Saarbrücken December 4, 1986, p. 1055 ( uni-saarland.de [PDF; 259 kB ; accessed on June 1, 2017]).

literature

• Johannes Hoffmann: The goal was Europe. The way of the Saar 1945 - 1955 . Günter Olzog Verlag, Munich / Vienna 1963
• Klaus-Michael Mallmann , Gerhard Paul: The splintered no. Saarlanders against Hitler . Dietz, Bonn 1989, ISBN 3-8012-5010-5

Web links

• Richard Kirn on saarland-biografien.de