Theophil Kaufmann

Theophil Heinrich Kaufmann (born December 15, 1888 in Frankfurt am Main , † August 22, 1961 in Ettlingen ) was a German politician (DDP, CDU ).

biography

Kaufmann, son of a pastor, grew up in Karlsruhe and Pforzheim . He completed a commercial apprenticeship in the Pforzheim jewelry industry, was a lay Methodist preacher and studied philosophy , theology and history in Tübingen , Madison and New York . He experienced the First World War as a non-commissioned officer . In the Weimar Republic he was the managing director of commercial professional associations

politics

Weimar Republic

Kaufmann was politically active in the German Democratic Party ( DDP). For this he belonged from 1925 to 1927 as a member of the citizenship of Bremen and from 1928 to 1933 that of Hamburg . Because of this political activity it was politically unsustainable after the National Socialists came to power . In 1935 he retired from Hamburg to Ettlingen in Baden , where he lived modestly on his father's estate, raising poultry and growing vegetables.

After 1945

In 1945 Kaufmann became politically active again. He participated in the founding of the Baden Christian Social People's Party (BCSV), which later became the Baden regional association of the CDU. In 1946 he was a member of the State Constituent Assembly of Württemberg-Baden .

He was a member of the Parliamentary Council in 1948/49 . In two special committees he played a mediating role between his party, the CDU, and the SPD and FDP in the deliberations on the Basic Law .

From 1946 to 1948 Kaufmann was mayor of the city of Ettlingen in Baden. Afterwards he worked in the Foreign Office and as German Consul General in Basel until his retirement in 1954 .

Web links

• Curriculum vitae on the Konrad Adenauer Foundation website (with photo) (PDF; 94 kB)