Rudy Sternberg, Baron Plurenden

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Rudy Sternberg, Baron Plurenden (birth name according to other sources: Rudy Steinberg ; born April 17, 1917 in Thorn ; † January 5, 1978 at Tenerife North Airport ) was a British entrepreneur , rancher and farmer who worked in the 1960s and 1970s Supported the Labor Party government under longtime Prime Minister Harold Wilson and in 1975 when Life Peer became a member of the House of Lords under the Life Peerages Act 1958 .

Life

Origin, entrepreneur in the Eastern bloc trade and criticism

Sternberg was born as the son of a grain trader and miller from Germany in what is now Poland and completed his schooling at the Johannesgymnasium in Wroclaw, which existed until 1933, and then completed vocational training in the Leopold Berman coat factory in Wroclaw . In 1935 he went to Great Britain to study chemical engineering at the University of London . During the Second World War he did voluntary military service in the British Army and after the end of the war in 1945 acquired British citizenship through naturalization .

In 1947, Sternberg founded a factory for plastics production in Stalybridge , which he expanded within ten years as the Sterling Group to become the fourth largest petrochemical group in Europe in the areas of plastics, paper and fertilizer production. As an entrepreneur, he subsequently specialized in trade with Eastern Europe and, in particular, the German Democratic Republic . Between 1951 and 1961 his companies exported goods worth £ 30 million to the countries of the Eastern Bloc; one of its eleven companies imported potash salt from the GDR for 3.5 million pounds sterling every year .

Due to his relationship with the General Secretary of the SED , Walter Ulbricht , more and more British companies presented their goods at the Leipzig trade fair in the early 1960s . According to rumors, in the early 1960s in particular, he was said to have had close contact with the Soviet Union and the leadership of the CPSU there led by Nikita Sergejewitsch Khrushchev , which later led to allegations that he was a spy for the Soviet Union.

Sternberg's close relationship with the Eastern Bloc, which also included arranging contacts with other British politicians, met with criticism in the press. For example, The Spectator magazine wrote :

"... there was something inexcusably disgusting about the sight of British MPs who, as directors and straw men ... advertise the Soviet zone."

The weekly newspaper The Sunday Telegraph criticized:

“The activity of certain MPs in Leipzig has particularly annoyed the British exhibitors. It was humiliating how British MPs attracted customers and flattered East Germans. I know of a specific case - and there are sure to be several more - in which a British company offered a member of the parliament half a percent commission if he was to bring in an order. "

On the other hand, the weekly newspaper The Observer scoffed :

“If you want to move forward, become a member of the House of Commons. That is the golden rule for success in east-west trade. "

This criticism was particularly directed against some Conservative Party politicians , namely House of Lords Bob Boothby , Baron Boothby, and the two House of Commons members , Burnaby Drayson and Terence Clarke , who were both directors of Sternberg Group companies. On the other was Malcolm Shepherd, 2nd Baron Shepherd , who during the governments Wilson 1964-1967 First Parliamentary Secretary of the Labor faction in the upper house ( Chief Whip in the House of Lords ), and from 1974 to 1976 as Lord Privy Seal ( Lord Privy Seal ) Leader of the House of Lords was director for many years and most recently, due to Sternberg's ailing health, he was Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Sterling Group between 1976 and 1986.

House of Lords

At the same time, Sternberg, who was awarded the title of Freeman of the City of London in 1960 , worked as a farmer and rancher and became chairman in 1968 and president of the British Agricultural Export Council in 1975 . In the 1960s and 1970s he was one of the financial supporters of the Labor Party under its chairman Harold Wilson, who was Prime Minister between 1964 and 1970 and 1974 to 1976.

Sternberg, who was beaten to a Knight Bachelor degree in 1970 and henceforth had the suffix "Sir", was at the suggestion of Harold Wilson through a letters patent from January 28, 1975 as a life peer with the title Baron Plurenden , of Plurenden Manor in the County of Kent , raised to the nobility and was a member of the House of Lords until his death. He then lived mostly in Switzerland and died during a stay in Tenerife at Tenerife North Airport.

Furthermore, Sternberg was a member of various trade associations ( Livery Company ), namely since 1960 of the Worshipful Company of Horners (guild of horn processors) and since 1963 of the Worshipful Company of Farmers (guild of farmers).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Who was Norman John Worthington? The truth about Harold Wilson's secret MI5 file . In: Daily Mail of October 3, 2009.
  2. ↑ Steve Dorril : Five At Eye (pdf version, accessed on November 6, 2013; 351 kB)
  3. ↑ ENGLAND / GDR TRADE: Sternberg Circus . In: Der Spiegel (No. 13/1962)
  4. ^ Lord Shepherd of Spalding: Labor hereditary peer who combined business success with ministerial efficiency . In: The Guardian, April 6, 2001
  5. ↑ London Gazette . No. 46481, HMSO, London, January 31, 1975, p. 1427 ( PDF , accessed November 6, 2013, English).
  6. ↑ Entry  ( 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. (PDF; 77 kB) in The Edinburgh Gazette of January 31, 1975@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.thegazette.co.uk  
personal data
SURNAME Sternberg, Rudy, Baron Plurenden
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Steinberg, Rudy (different maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British entrepreneur, farmer and rancher
DATE OF BIRTH April 17, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Thorn
DATE OF DEATH 5th January 1978
Place of death Tenerife North Airport