Windthorstbund

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The Windthorstbund was the youth organization of the Catholic Center Party and named after Ludwig Windthorst , a member of the Reichstag .

tasks

The task of the Windthorstbünde was to establish contacts with the Catholic youth associations. The Center Party saw the tasks of the young party members in the political education of the youth in the sense of the center politics. In the early years of the young republic, the Windthorstbund pursued its own interests and broke away from those of the party.

history

Since 1895 more and more Windthorstbünde were founded. In 1903 there was a first meeting of representatives of all German Windthorst alliances. In addition, they organized public lectures, which were then printed in editions of up to 30,000 copies. So the members had a strong impact on the political public.

The Windthorstbünde had a looser relationship with the party. They consisted mainly of young Catholics who regularly discussed political issues from a Catholic point of view and who made themselves available to the Catholic People's Party in the election campaign, because around 1900 there was no party organization in the center in the current sense. Election committees met each time for the elections, and they split up after the vote. In this respect, the Windthorstbünde were not only political training courses for young Catholic men, but the nucleus of a party organization at the center.

From 1923 a separate initiative of the Windthorstbund was formed, which aimed at reforming the state in the sense of a Christian-based socialism. Because of this program, it seemed impossible for the young party members to be elected to office, so they refrained from politics.

This changed with the May elections in 1928 , when Ludwig Kaas was elected to head the Center Party. The moving closer together of party and church brought the youth closer to the center, so that in the course of the next few years the Windthorstbünde followed the course of the mother party. However, the associations retained their character of an autonomous youth party throughout the entire Weimar period.

In the 1932 election campaign they pursued the goal: “Not a Soviet star - not a swastika! Not class struggle and men's club! A free people in the Christian people's state! "

The Windthorstbund was also one of the circles in the center that was involved in the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold .

Known members

  • Bernhard Bauknecht (1900–1985), politician (CDU) and peasant functionary
  • Eugen Bolz (1881–1945), politician (center) and resistance fighter
  • Johannes Brockmann (1888–1975), politician (center), member of the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia and member of the Bundestag
  • Elisabeth Enseling (1907–1998), politician (CDU), member of the German Bundestag
  • Johannes Caspers (1910–1986), politician (CDU) and member of the Bundestag
  • Matthias Erzberger (1875–1921), publicist, politician (center) and Reich Minister
  • Bernhard Günther (1906–1981), politician (center, later CDU)
  • Joseph Illerhaus (1903–1973), politician (CDU), member of the Bundestag and member of the European Parliament
  • Karl Korn (1903–1974), politician (CDU) and member of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia
  • Heinrich Krone (1895–1989), politician (center, later CDU) and federal minister
  • Alwin Reinke (1877–1949), lawyer, local politician (center) and writer
  • Gerhard Ribbeheger (1918–2007), politician (center) and member of the Bundestag
  • Bernhard Roßhoff (1908–1986), politician (center, later CDU)
  • Joseph Roth (1896–1945), politician (center) and Catholic martyr
  • Herbert Scholtissek (1900–1979), politician (center, later CDU)
  • Anton Storch (1892–1975), politician (center, later CDU) and federal minister
  • Wilhelm Weskamp (1903–1986), politician (center, later CDU)
  • Helene Wessel (1898–1969), politician (center, later SPD)

Post war influence

Quite a number of the former members of the Windsthorstbund joined the CDU after 1945. There they mostly campaigned for the social ideas that had already been represented by this federation. Some of them were actively involved in the development of the Ahlen program , which was decided by a conference in Ahlen in February 1947 , but was immediately cashed in again due to its “leftist” character under pressure from Konrad Adenauer .

literature

  • Heinz Kleene: "Against the swastika and the Soviet star!" About the Windthorstbund in Emsland (1895–1933) . In: Yearbook of the Emsländischen Heimatbund, Vol. 54/2008, Sögel 2007, pp. 49–68.
  • Wolfgang R. Krabbe: Party youth in the Weimar Republic. A typological comparison using the example of the youth center and the DVP youth . In the S. (Ed.): Political youth in the Weimar Republic . Brockmeyer, Bochum 1993, ISBN 3-8196-0147-3 , pp. 38-72.