Walter Behrendt (politician)

Walter Behrendt and Sandro Pertini , 1972

Walter Behrendt (born September 18, 1914 in Dortmund ; † July 23, 1997 ibid) was a German social democratic politician. From 1971 to 1973 he was President of the European Parliament .

Life and work

Walter Behrendt was born on September 18, 1914 in Dortmund, the son of a miner. He attended elementary school; a long and serious illness of the mother prevented a higher education. After completing a commercial apprenticeship, Behrendt completed a five-semester seminar to become an accountant. He took part in the Second World War as a soldier from 1939 to 1944 and was most recently taken prisoner of war by the French as a sergeant in an Army Aviation Defense Battalion, from which he was released in 1945. From 1949 to 1954, Behrendt worked as an industrial clerk. In 1954 he became an employee of the company newspaper of Hoesch-Westfalenhütte AG in Dortmund. He was temporarily a member of the supervisory board of Dortmunder Stadtwerke AG and Dortmunder Hafen und Eisenbahn AG.

He joined the Free Religious Community in Dortmund in 1948 , and was also a member of the Dortmund Freemason Lodge Zur alten Linde . He had a daughter. Walter Behrend died on July 23, 1997 at the age of 82 in Dortmund.

Political party

After he had previously belonged to the Socialist Workers Youth and the Workers' Sports Association, Behrendt joined the SPD in 1932 . From 1945 to 1947 he was chairman of the Young Socialists for the Dortmund, Lünen and Castrop-Rauxel area . 1951/52 Behrendt was the local chairman of the SPD Altenderne. From 1952 he was district chairman of the Dortmund SPD for three years. From 1970 to 1971 he was again sub-district chairman of the Dortmund SPD.

MP

From 1952 until his move to the Bundestag in 1957, Behrendt was a member of the Dortmund city ​​council .

He was a member of the German Bundestag from the Bundestag election 1957 to 1976. He represented the constituency of Dortmund III in parliament. From 1961 to January 26, 1967 he was deputy chairman of the Bundestag Labor Committee.

On January 26, 1967, Walter Behrendt was appointed to the European Parliament as successor to Käte Strobel , where he was elected Vice-President in 1970. In March 1971 he was elected President of the European Parliament with the votes of the Socialists, Liberals and Gaullists. After a two-year term in office, he was re-elected Vice-President and held this position until he left the European Parliament on January 19, 1977.

Honors

Walter Behrendt was awarded the Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1968 , the Great Cross of Merit in 1973, and the Great Cross of Merit with Star in 1976. The city of Dortmund awarded him the city's ring of honor in 1979. Since 2003, a street in the Derne district of Dortmund has been named after Walter Behrendt.

literature

• Dieter Knippschild: Behrendt, Walter . In: Hans Bohrmann (Ed.): Biographies of important Dortmunders. People in, from and for Dortmund . tape 3 . Klartext, Essen 2001, ISBN 3-88474-954-4 , p. 15th f .

Web links

• Short biography in the archive of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Freemason Behrendt , on the homepage of the Lodge Zur alten Linde (accessed on January 9, 2013)
2. ↑ Announcement of awards of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Federal Gazette . Vol. 25, No. 71, April 11, 1973.