Hans Katzer | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Katzer in 1981 at the 30th Federal Party Congress of the CDU | |
| Federal Minister for Labour and Social Affairs (West Germany) | |
| In office 26 October 1965 (1965-10-26) – 29 October 1969 (1969-10-29) | |
| Chancellor | Ludwig Erhard Kurt Georg Kiesinger |
| Preceded by | Theodor Blank |
| Succeeded by | Walter Arendt |
| Member of theBundestag forCologne III | |
| In office 15 October 1957 (1957-10-15) – 19 September 1965 (1965-09-19) | |
| Preceded by | Johannes Albers |
| Succeeded by | Aenne Brauksiepe |
| Member of theBundestag forNorth Rhine-Westphalia | |
| In office 19 September 1965 (1965-09-19) – 4 November 1980 (1980-11-04) | |
| Member of the European Parliament | |
| In office 17 July 1979 – 23 July 1984 | |
| Parliamentary group | European People's Party Group |
| Constituency | Germany |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1919-01-31)31 January 1919 |
| Died | 18 July 1996(1996-07-18) (aged 77) |
| Political party | Christian Democratic Union |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Nazi Germany |
| Branch/service |  German Army |
| Years of service | 1939-1945 |
| Rank | Leutnant |
Hans Katzer (31 January 1919 – 18 July 1996) was a German politician of theChristian Democratic Union (CDU). He served asFederal Minister for Labour and Social Affairs ofWest Germany from 1965 to 1969 underLudwig Erhard andKurt Georg Kiesinger. During his time as minister, he helped improve war victims'pensions and helped pass the Labour Promotion Act (Arbeitsförderungsgesetz, AFG)[a] in 1969, which was meant to upskill workers, push a moreactive labour market policy, and create the Federal Institute of Labour. It was replaced in 1997 with the Third Book of the Social Code upon the implementation of the Employment Promotion Reform Act.[1]
He was also aMember of theBundestag forCologne III thenNorth Rhine-Westphalia from 1957 to 1980.
Katzer was born on 31 January 1919 inCologne, the sixth child of thecarpenter Karl Katzer and Rosa Katzer (née Franke).[2] Karl had been a secretary of theKolping Society since 1902 and later administrative director from 1927 to 1938.[3] He was also a member of the council of Cologne for theCentre Party from 1919 to 1933.[2] In 1929, he joined theJugendbund Neudeutschland, a Catholic organization affiliated with the Centre Party.[4] Due to his father's social status, he attended aRealgymnasium, dreaming of becoming anarchitect, but the seizure of power of theNazi Party made his father lose his mandates and positions.[5] He was forced to leave the Realgymnasium in 1935 due to this.[6] He then did acommercial apprenticeship at a Colognetextile company, where he worked as part of theReich Labour Service from 1938 to 1940,[7] and attended the Higher Technical School for the Textile Industry inMönchengladbach from 1939 to 1942.[8]
His service in theNazi German Army started in 1939.[9] During theBattle of Moscow, on December 7, 1941, he received a serious injury in the form of agunshot wound to the lung.[10] He afterwards became aLeutnant, becoming an instructor inMetz during theGerman occupation of France.[7] He was briefly aprisoner of war by theU.S. Army in May 1945, but was soon after released.[11]
In 1945, upon recommendation ofJohannes Albers, he was placed in the CologneFederal Employment Agency.[12] Katzer would later say Albers "introduced him to politics", who was also his politicalmentor in addition toJakob Kaiser.[13] That year he also joined theCDU in Cologne upon its founding.[14] In 1952, the localelections for North Rhine-Westphalia happened and the CDU won 31 of the 66 seats of the council of Cologne, and he was elected a member alongside people like Ernst Schwering.[15] During this time period he also became the co-editor of the magazines "Soziale Ordnung" and "Betriebsräte-Briefes".[16]
Katzer won a seat in theBundestag the1957 West German federal election bydirect mandate forCologne III with 55.1% of the vote.[2][17] The CDU also won a majority of the votes during this election.[18] From 1965 to 1980 he was then elected to the Bundestag bystate list forNorth Rhine-Westphalia.
In the Bundestag from 1969 to 1980 he was Deputy Federal Chairman of theCDU and also of theCDU/CSU parliamentary group.[19] He was also a member of the CDU Executive Committee from 1960.[20] He also became the Chairman of the Committee on Economic Property from 1961 to 1965.[21][22]
He was sharply critical throughout his career of the distribution of ownership bymeans of production, stating in a 1970 Bundestag debate it was not good that at the time 71% of the capital was in the hands of the 1.7%, and states it had come from a bygone era of the post-war years.[23]
He left the Bundestag in 1980.[6]
In 1965 he was promoted to being Minister for Labour and Social Affairs byLudwig Erhard, a position he would hold during thegrand coalition years ofKurt Georg Kiesinger until 1969.[24][25]
In 1967, he threatened to resign alongsideGerhard Schröder if his budget was cut.[26] That same yearunemployment reached a record high in the within the last decade, and he said it was a "decisive goal" of his administration's policy.[27] Unemployment would remain a huge issue during his time as minister, as endangered areas like theSaarland and theBavarian Forest had significantly higher rates of unemployment.[28] Prior to his term, miners were referred to theRuhr for work, but they would later not move andlayoff figures rose.[28] Katzer also helped improve war victims'pensions.[29][30]
In 1969 Katzer started pushing the Labour Promotion Act, which introduced a moreactive labour market policy in an attempt to fight unemployment and inferior employment.[31] In addition, it created the Federal Institute of Labour to oversee this push and to upskill workers.[32] The act was praised across the spectrum of parties after the preceding crisis of unemployment in 1967.[33] After the1969 West German federal election, he and his followers who were generally consideredleftists, attempted to ally withSPD in an attempt to push his social policy but they were rejected byHelmut Schmidt.[34]
In 1950 he became theChief Executive Officer of theCDA Social Committees, which he headed until 1963.[35][36] In April 1957, Kaiser suffered a massive stroke and so Katzer became the chief strategist for the Social Committees of the CDA in addition to his responsibilities as CEO.[37] His long-term goals for that position at the time were to persuade Catholicbishops to switch their support from the Christian trade unions so that the more powerfulDGB would consider an alliance with the CDA, create a relationship with the Catholic workers’ clubs, and unify the workers' wing of the CDU.[37] In 1963 he became the chairman of the social committees, heading it until 1977 when Blüm took over.[38]
His plans for his social committees largely corresponded with the ideas of theSPD, which included higherchild benefit subsidies, an investment wage for employees, and morecodetermination.[39] He helped pass the Savings Premium Act and the issuance of shares to the general public at a discounted rate.[39] In 1973, at a meeting with the social committees, Katzer called for a return of theAhlen Program for the CDU,[40] which called for the partialsocialization oflarge-scale industry and strongco-determination rights.[41] That same year he received a major defeat when his push for parity co-determination, or 50% of a board being workers, was rejected soundly by the CDU.[37][42]
He was considered a political mentor toNorbert Blüm, who later led the same ministerial role as him.[43] However, there was later a reported feud between them in the late 1970s when Blüm succeeded him as chairman of the CDU Social Committees, as Blüm's newer followers helped oust him but Katzer later said there was nothing between them.[44][45]
Katzer headed the Jakob Kaiser Foundation, and in this role pushed forGerman reunification.[46] Starting in 1980 he also helped lead the German chapter of the European Union of Christian Democratic Workers alongsideAlfred Bertrand.[47]
From 1979 to 1984 he was aMember of the European Parliament from Germany for theEuropean People's Party Group.[48] He was on theBureau of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1982, theCommittee for Transport in 1979, and finally on the Delegation for relations with thePeople's Republic of China from 1983 to 1984.[48] His stance on China as part of the delegation was generally positive, saying the country supportedEuropean unification and if peace was to be had there needed to be "a strong European Community and a strong China".[49] His most important role in the Parliament was as one of theVice-Presidents of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1982.[50][51]
In 1949 he married Elisabeth Kaiser, whom he would remain with and have one daughter.[9][52] Their daughter, Marietheres Kreuz-Katzer, is asociologist who has repeatedly decried the rise ofthe rise of the far-right in Germany.[53][54] His father-in-law wasJakob Kaiser, who was theFederal Minister of All-German Affairs, and Katzer inherited much of his estate after Kaiser's death.[55]
Katzer died on 18 July 1996 inCologne, Germany.[56] He had earlier had problems requiringgastrointestinal surgery.[56]Helmut Kohl, thenChancellor of Germany, honoured him by calling him one of the most "outstanding personalities",[57] and thenMayor of Cologne, Norbert Burger, called him "one of the first architects of our state".[58]
On 19 January 1973, he was awarded theGrand Cross with Star and Sash on behalf of then President of West Germany,Gustav Heinemann.[59] In 1987 he was awarded the Hans Böckler Prize, which was organized by theGerman Trade Union Confederation, and in 1988 he received the Ludger Westrick Prize.[6] In 1989 he was awarded with theOrder of Merit of North Rhine-Westphalia byJohannes Rau.[60] For his work with the Social Committees of the CDA, he was made an honorary chairman after retiring from being chairman in 1977.[61]