Willi Richter

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Willi Richter on a postage stamp from the Federal Post Office

Willi Richter (born October 1, 1894 in Frankfurt-Bornheim ; † November 27, 1972 there ) was a German trade union official and politician of the SPD .

Life

Willi Richter was the son of a locksmith. He attended elementary school and learned the trade of a precision mechanic. During the First World War he was wounded and after recovering he was obliged to work in the war-important Frankfurt Adler works . Then he was employed by the Frankfurt city council. At the age of only 27, he chaired the general works council of all municipal companies in Frankfurt. Richter took advantage of the training opportunities at the union- related Academy of Labor and trained as a guest student at the University of Frankfurt during this time.

He found his way to the SPD and the trade union movement early on. In 1913 he joined the German Metalworkers' Association (DMV). In the union he was from 1926 first as a secretary in the general association of public companies in Darmstadt and then from 1928 to 1933 as district secretary in the General German Trade Union Federation , from 1929 as a city councilor and as a member of the city council also in Darmstadt. As a social democrat and trade unionist, Richter was immediately dismissed in 1933. Like many of his colleagues and comrades, he was placed under police supervision and arrested several times. During the Nazi era he had to make ends meet as a sales representative.

Richter was a member of the Economic Council of the Bizone from 1947 to 1949, where he chaired the Political Examination Committee and the Labor Committee. He was a member of the German Bundestag from its first election in 1949 to 1957. From 1949 to 1953 he was deputy chairman of the Bundestag committee for labor and from 1949 to 1957 chairman of the committee for social policy .

In 1950, Richter had already been appointed full-time as managing director of the DGB federal executive committee in Düsseldorf. Here, too, he managed the social-political department until 1956. At the 4th Federal Congress of the DGB in Hamburg, Richter was elected as the successor to Walter Freitag for three years on October 6, 1956, as chairman of the DGB. From 1956 Richter was also Vice-President of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions in Brussels, member of the board of the International Labor Office in Geneva and employee delegate at the International Labor Conference , as well as member of the board of the International Institute for Labor Affairs . He was also a member of the European Parliament and belonged to the Senate of the Max Planck Society .

As chairman of the DGB, Richter primarily campaigned for the introduction of the 40-hour week . In his keynote address to the 5th Federal Congress of the DGB in Stuttgart at the beginning of September 1959, he spoke out in favor of an active wage policy , a fair distribution of property, the five-day week, a social rental and tax policy and the equality of civil servants, workers and employees. Richter advocated an offensive reunification policy and general disarmament and the renunciation of nuclear weapons in order to achieve this goal. An active reunification policy precluded contact with the organs of the GDR . Like the IG Metall chairman Otto Brenner , Richter was a staunch anti-communist due to his experience of communist rule in Eastern Europe and the workers' and popular uprising in the GDR on June 17, 1953 . Solidarity with developing countries is essential to defend the free world.

From 1948 he was chairman of the planning committee for the establishment of a labor administration, which laid the foundations for the establishment of the Federal Employment Agency (now the Federal Employment Agency ). With Robert Pferdmenges ( CDU ) and Karl Atzenroth ( FDP ) he has been instrumental in the development of co-determination law (1951: Montan Co-Determination Act , 1952: Works Constitution Act : 1953 Personalvertretungsgesetz been involved).

Richter was thus one of the fathers of the labor and social order of the Federal Republic of Germany , as it basically exists to this day.

On the occasion of his 65th birthday in 1959 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit with sash and shoulder ribbon. He had already received the Federal Cross of Merit with a star in 1958. In 1961 he received this award "with a star and shoulder ribbon" and a plaque of honor from the city of Frankfurt am Main .

He was chairman of the German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB) until October 27, 1962. In 1960 he was appointed Minister of Social Affairs in the government team of the SPD candidate for Chancellor Willy Brandt .

Honors

  • 1956: Large Cross of Merit with Star
  • 1959: Plaque of honor from the city of Frankfurt am Main
  • 1966: Wilhelm Leuschner Medal

literature

  • "... towards democracy" - The minutes of the advisory state committee of Greater Hesse in 1946 - A documentation. Edited by Bernhard Parisius and Jutta Scholl-Seibert, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-930221-05-5 , pp. 44–45.
  • Jochen Lengemann : The Hessen Parliament 1946–1986 . Biographical handbook of the advisory state committee, the state assembly advising the constitution and the Hessian state parliament (1st – 11th electoral period). Ed .: President of the Hessian State Parliament. Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-458-14330-0 , p. 361 ( hessen.de [PDF; 12.4 MB ]).
  • Jochen Lengemann: MdL Hessen. 1808-1996. Biographical index (= political and parliamentary history of the state of Hesse. Vol. 14 = publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse. Vol. 48, 7). Elwert, Marburg 1996, ISBN 3-7708-1071-6 , p. 308.
  • Boris Schwitzer:  Judge, Willi. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , p. 540 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Rudolf Vierhaus , Ludolf Herbst (eds.), Bruno Jahn (collaborators): Biographical manual of the members of the German Bundestag. 1949-2002. Vol. 2: N-Z. Attachment. KG Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-23782-0 , p. 686.

Web links

Commons : Willi Richter  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Awarded the Wilhelm Leuschner Medal on February 7, 1967 . In: The Hessian Prime Minister (Ed.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1967 No. 8 , p. 241 , point 174 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 3.0 MB ]).