Walter Richard Gerlich
Walter Richard Gerlich (born October 28, 1908 in Opava ; † March 21, 1981 in Neumünster ) was a German educator and politician ( CDU ).
Life and work
Born in 1908 in Troppau, Austria-Silesia, the first child of the uniform tailor Richard Gerlich and his wife Anna, b. Lehnert, Gerlich grew up in poor circumstances. His brother was Gerhard Gerlich .
Nevertheless, after graduating from high school in 1928 at the Troppauer Humanist Gymnasium, he began studying mathematics and physics at the Karl Ferdinand University in Prague . In order to be present in university politics, he founded - since he could not afford membership in one of the existing corporations - a student union , which in 1931 was accepted into the ring of Catholic German fraternities as "KDB Falkenstein zu Prague" .
During the course of his studies, Gerlich shifted the main areas of study more and more to physics, in particular geophysics , meteorology and astronomy . In 1931 he finished his studies with the philosophical-pedagogical preliminary examination and received his doctorate with a dissertation on problems of light measurement for a doctorate in natural sciences .
From 1931 to 1936 Gerlich worked as a demonstrator, research assistant and then research assistant to Leo Wenzel Pollak at the University of Prague - most recently with a focus on the Meteorological Observatory on the Thunder Mountain ( Milešovka ) in Tellnitz ( Telnice ). In 1935 he was qualified to teach higher education and from 1936 worked as an assistant teacher at the German State High School in Aussig .
From 1936 to 1938 Gerlich did his military service in the army of Czechoslovakia . He completed his training as a reserve officer in Leitmeritz and achieved the rank of senior ensign. As a ethnic German, he was denied promotion to officer . From the Czech mobilization on May 21, 1938 during the Sudeten crisis until his end of service at the end of September 1938, he was deployed in the High Tatras in Slovakia.
From September 1938 he worked first as a provisional professor at the State High School and then as a professor at the State High School for Girls in Aussig .
From May 1941 to May 1945, Gerlich took part in the Second World War as an armed forces officer ( geophysics ) on the German side and was deployed during the war as a squadron meteorologist in the Luftwaffe, mainly in France, most recently as a senior government councilor in Kampfgeschwader 2 .
After the end of the war, Gerlich served in the British association of CO Neumünster Airfield 8401 AD Wing until August 1945. He then returned to the school service and had been a teacher at the Holstenschule in Neumünster from 1946 . In 1956 he was promoted to senior teacher and was appointed as the director's representative at the Kiel School of Academics . From there he moved to the grammar school in Bad Bramstedt and returned to the Holstenschule in Neumünster in 1959, where he worked until he joined the Bundestag in 1963. At the end of the legislative period in 1965, Gerlich remained in retirement and only taught sporadically at the Bundeswehr technical school in Neumünster.
Gerlich was married to his wife Ilse born in 1938. Kastl, they had two children and seven grandchildren. From the end of the war until his death he lived in Neumünster, Schleswig-Holstein.
Political party
Whether and to what extent Gerlich was politically active before 1945 has not been adequately researched. In his brother's marriage record on March 14, 1940, he was named as a member of the SS in the (lowest) rank of " SS man ". Accordingly, it seems plausible to assume , in line with his professional position as a grammar school teacher and historical processes, that he would be accepted into the General SS on November 1, 1938 - verification is still pending.
Since it was founded, Gerlich was a member of the CDU and its regional association Oder / Neisse, which was established in 1950 . Together with his younger brother Gerhard Gerlich , he was instrumental in building up the party in his home town of Neumünster and in the state of Schleswig-Holstein . Before joining the Bundestag in 1963 (see below), he had been a member of the Neumünster Council from 1955, from 1955 to 1958 and from 1962 to 1963 as a city councilor and head of the fire department.
Other public activities
The improvement of the situation of the fugitives was a particular concern of Gerlich. He was involved in the development of the Sudeten German and Silesian Landsmannschaft from its founding on January 15, 1949 as a board member, after the division on November 8, 1950, he was a founding member of the Sudeten German Landsmannschaft Neumünster and received the Golden Badge of Honor for his work. The Bau-Union, which he co-founded in 1948, built four residential estates in Neumünster for displaced persons and refugees, which were built with the help of self and neighborhood help.
As regional chairman of the German Association of Officials, today DBB Beamtenbund and Tarifunion , he was also heavily involved in social policy and advocated an improvement in the public service.
His commitment to local politics led him to long-term chairmanship of both the community of interests of his residential district Wittorf and the community of interests he founded for the residents of Brahmsee .
As a committed Catholic he founded and led a Catholic Teachers Association and a Catholic Academic Association in Neumünster.
MP
Gerlich was a member of the German Bundestag from August 24, 1963 until the end of the legislative period in 1965. He had moved up on the Schleswig-Holstein state list for the late MP Heinrich Gerns .
As a member of the Defense Committee , he was particularly committed to civil protection and the position of soldiers in society. A special interest was shown in the soldier's personal equipment and in the armaments projects Transall C-160 (transport aircraft) and EWR VJ 101 (vertical takeoff).
At the end of the legislative period of the German Bundestag in 1965, Gerlich withdrew completely from politics.
literature
- Ralf Gebel: Home to the Reich! - Konrad Henlein and the Reichsgau Sudetenland (1938–1945) .
- Heinz Höhne: The Order under the Skull - The History of the SS .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bach systems sro: Digitální archive ZA v Opavě. Retrieved November 8, 2018 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gerlich, Walter Richard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German educator and politician (CDU), Member of the Bundestag |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 28, 1908 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Troppau , Sudetenland |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 21, 1981 |
| Place of death | Neumunster |