Wilhelm Höcker

Grave of Wilhelm Höcker in the cemetery in Güstrow

Wilhelm Höcker (born June 29, 1886 in Holzendorf , † November 15, 1955 in Güstrow ) was a German politician ( SPD / SED ). From 1946 to 1951 he was Prime Minister of the State of Mecklenburg .

biography

Höcker, the son of a carpenter , attended elementary school in Woldegk from 1893 to 1901 and completed a commercial apprenticeship in Brüssow from 1901 to 1904 . From 1904 to 1906 he was an assistant in Penzlin and Rostock . He then did his military service in Rostock until 1908 and then became an employee of the port administration in Hamburg . From 1911 to 1914 he worked as a warehouse keeper in the consumer association Güstrow. In 1911 he joined the SPD and the free trade unions. From 1914 to 1918 he was drafted into military service and took part in the First World War.

In 1918/1919 he worked again as a warehouse keeper in the Güstrow consumer association. From 1919 to 1921 the Social Democrat headed the district authority for people's nutrition in Güstrow. From 1921 to 1932 Höcker was governor (district administrator) in Güstrow. From 1920 to 1933 he was a member of the state parliament of the Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin , from 1926 as its president or first vice-president. During the Nazi era, Höcker made his living with a tobacco shop in Güstrow. In connection with the mass arrests following the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 , he was imprisoned for a few weeks.

After the end of the Second World War , he was first appointed Deputy Mayor of Güstrow and then in June 1945 by SMAD as President of the State Administration of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , which from 1947 was only called Mecklenburg . 1945/1946 he worked as state chairman of the SPD Mecklenburgs. In 1946 he became a member of the SED. In October 1946, the SED received 49.5% of the vote with him as the top candidate in the state elections. From December 1946 to July 1951 he was elected Prime Minister and resigned for health reasons, successor to Kurt Bürger (SED). During the same period he was a member of the SED's national leadership and its secretariat.

In 1948/49 Höcker was a member of the German People's Council and in 1949/50 a member of the Provisional People's Chamber .

Höcker acted from 1952 to 1953 as deputy chairman of the German Red Cross in the Rostock district and from 1953 as chairman of the Society for German-Soviet Friendship (DSF) in the Schwerin district . In 1954 he became a member of the GDR Land Chamber and a member of the Schwerin District Assembly .

Awards

• Honorary award from DSF Mecklenburg (1947)
• Patriotic Order of Merit in Silver (1954)

literature

• Gabriele Baumgartner, Dieter Hebig (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ / DDR. 1945–1990. Volume 1: Abendroth - Lyr. KG Saur, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-598-11176-2 , pp. 323-324.
• Helmut Müller-Enbergs :  Höcker, Wilhelm . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Solveig Lude: Wilhelm Höcker . In: Buchsteiner, Ilona (ed.): Mecklenburgers in German history of the 19th and 20th centuries . Verlag Koch, Rostock 2001, ISBN 3935319223 .

Web links

• Literature about Wilhelm Höcker in the state bibliography MV