Victor-Emanuel Preusker | |
|---|---|
_(1).jpg) Preusker in a 1953 photo of Adenauer II cabinet. | |
| Federal Minister for Housing (West Germany) | |
| In office 20 October 1953 (1953-10-20) – 22 October 1957 (1957-10-22) | |
| Chancellor | Konrad Adenauer |
| Preceded by | Fritz Neumayer |
| Succeeded by | Paul Lücke |
| Member of theBundestag forWiesbaden | |
| In office 14 August 1949 (1949-08-14) – 15 August 1957 (1957-08-15) | |
| Preceded by | office established |
| Succeeded by | Elisabeth Schwarzhaupt |
| Member of theBundestag forNorth Rhine-Westphalia | |
| In office 15 August 1957 (1957-08-15) – 17 August 1961 (1961-08-17) | |
| Vice President of the Bundestag | |
| In office 23 April 1958 – 4 October 1960 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1913-02-25)25 February 1913 |
| Died | 13 May 1991(1991-05-13) (aged 78) |
| Resting place | Burgfriedhof |
| Political party | NSDAP (1937-1945) FDP (1948-1956) FVP (1956-1957) DP (1958-1960) CDU (1960-1970) FDP (1970-1991) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Nazi Germany |
| Branch/service |  Luftwaffe |
| Years of service | 1940-1945 |
| Rank | Leutnant |
| Unit | Kommando Nowotny |
Victor-Emanuel Preusker (25 February 1913 – 13 May 1991) was a German politician who served asFederal Minister for Housing ofWest Germany from 1953 to 1957. He was a member of various political groups, mostly notably as a co-founder of theFVP in 1956 after leaving theFDP as part of the "Euler Group"[a] and as a member of the FDP.
Preusker was born in theGerman Empire, and studiedeconomics, eventually achievingDr. rer. pol. in 1940. He joined theNazi Party in 1937, and was also a member of theSA andSS. He was a "racial specialist" in charge of theAryanization ofAustrian banks atDresdner Bank from 1932 to 1938, and was also in the military as aleutnant of theLuftwaffe and aair traffic controller forKommando Nowotny. He then joined the FDP in 1947 after some persuasion fromAugust-Martin Euler, and was elected to the firstBundestag in 1949 forWiesbaden. He served in the Bundestag until 1961, switching to state list forNorth Rhine-Westphalia in his last term and served as aVice President of the Bundestag. His most notable appointment was as Federal Minister for Housing inKonrad Adenauer's 2nd cabinet. As minister, he pushed foreconomic liberalisation and was market-oriented. His term was dominated by the spike in need of housing aftermillions of East German refugees migrated to the country.
He was born on 25 February 1913 inBerlin, which was then part of theGerman Empire.[1] He was the son of asergeant in the Guards Grenadiers of theImperial German Army and aReichsbank official.[2] He attended theHerder Realgymnasium,[3] and after graduating attended the Berlin School of Economics, studyingbusiness,economics, andpolitical science.[4] In 1937 he received hisdiploma.[5] In 1940 he received hisDr. rer. pol. at theUniversity of Vienna.[6]
He began anapprenticeship withDanat-Bank in 1931, working there until it collapsed.[7]
Preusker joined theNazi Party on 1 May 1937 (membership number 5,372,632),[8] the day in which all government employees were forced to join the party or relinquish their positions. He had previously joined theSA, also called the Brownshirts, in 1933.[9] After it was superseded in importance by theSS he joined theparamilitary organization from May to July 1933 and again from 1 February 1934 until the end of the war.[9]
He initially worked atDresdner Bank form 1932 to 1938, where he was a "racial specialist" in charge of theAryanization ofAustrian banks.[10] He was said to have taken an active part in theliquidation of Jewish property.[11] Since 1934 there he taught economics to theYoung Leaders (Führernachwuchs).[7] He took part inWorld War II as anLeutnant in theLuftwaffe, and then as anair traffic controller forKommando Nowotny which worked withMesserschmitt Me 262s.[2][12] He was briefly aprisoner-of-war by theAmericans.[13]
He was accused bySefton Delmer of theDaily Express of being a "valiant Nazi" alongside other then-cabinet members includingTheodor Oberländer andWaldemar Kraft in 1954, whichDer Spiegel accused of being "sensational".[14] TheStasi would later investigate him in an attempt to weaken West Germany, digging up most information about him which theBerlin Federal Archives later verified as true.[8]
Immediately after the war he founded awood processing company inRotenburg an der Fulda.[15] He was persuaded to join politics by the then district administrator of theHersfeld district,August-Martin Euler, who he said "..persuaded me to work in the Liberal Democratic Party."[2] He took up his first political post as General Secretary of theFDP inHesse 1947.[16] From 1949-1953 he was an economist at theHardy & Co. Bank inFrankfurt am Main.[17] Warmbold was also an editor for the Hessian FDP newspaperDeutscher Kurier during this time.[18]
In the first elections to theBundestag, the1949 West German federal election, forWiesbaden bydirektmandat and was a part of the national-liberal wing of the FDP.[19] Then, starting in the1957 West German federal election, he was instead elected bystate list forNorth Rhine-Westphalia.[6] He decided not to rerun for the1961 West German federal election.[20]
From 23 April 1958 to 4 October 1960 he was one of theVice President of the Bundestag.[21] Warmbold was also on the Committee on Money and Credit, the Committee on Economic Policy, Committee on Article 15 of the Basic Law, and the Committee on Reconstruction and Housing.[3]
He changed his party multiple times during his years in the Bundestag. He was a member of the FDP until 1956, when he left the party with the so-called "Euler Group", which was led byAugust-Martin Euler.[22] Later in 1956 he co-founded theFVP.[23] The FVP merged with theDP on 1957, which he then joined in 1958, which he stayed as a member of until 1960.[24] He then joined theCDU later that year, which he stayed at till 1970.[7] Although he would no re-enter politics after 1970, he rejoined the FDP, where he remained at till his death.[7]
After the Baden-Württemberg coalition between FDP/DVP and theSPD underReinhold Maier in 1952, he said there would be "consequences against the Württemberg DVP" and said they had "not fought with uncompromising determination againstMarxism andcollectivism...to be stabbed in the back by the Württemberg DVP."[25] In 1952 he also approved the Cartel Act, which was meant to regulatecartels in order to ensure fair competition as part of growingeconomic liberalism, as long as there was removal of the last obstacles to themarket economy.[26] He was also involved in the drafting of the Housing Act in 1950.[7]
He proposed the so-called "Preusker Plan" in 1953, which was approved by thenMinister for EconomicsLudwig Erhard.[27] The program provided for, among things, a reduction in food goods through the conclusion of additionaltrade agreements,tax cuts to reduce beverage costs, a financing program forused cars to promotemotor vehicle production, and freedom of transfer forforeign capital after theLondon Debt Agreement was concluded.[27] It was approved by the government on 27 April 1953, a few months before he would become minister with an investment of DM 1.2 billion.[28]
Previously, he was heavily considered for the role of Federal Minister for Housing in 1952 afterHermann-Eberhard Wildermuth's passing, but theGehlen Organization did wish for him to do, as they thought it was better for a latter date for possibilities.[29] Although at the time it was unknown, he worked as an undercover agent and informant for theGehlen Organization, which passed on information to theCIA about theEastern Bloc alongside many other former Nazis.[29] He supplied information about the workings of the FDP, and was described as a reliable contact with many relationships with people inBonn, who he also utilized.[29][30] He used the internal information to denounce left-liberal members of his party.[31]
He became minister on 20 October 1953 as part ofKonrad Adenauer's 2nd cabinet.[32] He left office on 22 October 1957, being replaced byPaul Lücke.[33]
In order to create more housing, he announced that the administration would build over 2 million units during the next four years in 1953.[34] He wanted to introducelegal entitlement in 1954 for builders who built a family home and provided anequity share of at least 30 percent, but it was not approved.[35] More power was given to his office during this time, as in 1953 the duty to recognise companies and associations as organs of state housing, approvestatutes, and approve or withdraw their recognition as long as they had an association in two or more countries, this was done previously by theReich Minister of Labour since 1940.[36]
He was considered, like his predecessors, to be market-oriented and as strengthening the private sectors initiatives.[37] He pursued the liberalisation of the housing sector and wanted to promote housing using market-based methods, at a time when there wasmillions of East German refugees who need housing.[38] He was able to push this liberalisation due to unanimous position of the government, pushing this through the First Federal Rent Act (1955) and Second Housing Act (1957), but it was never fully implemented.[39]
He was also the Wiesbaden FDP chairman for a brief time, and in this role helped putErich Mix, who was also part of the Luftwaffe and a prominent Nazi, as second place on the party list for mayor of Wiesbaden in 1952, which he won with the support of former comrades.[40] From 12 January 1953 to 11 May 1954 he was one of the vice-chairmans of the Committee on the Common Market of theCommon Assembly of theEuropean Coal and Steel Community alongsideMaan Sassen.[41] From 1958 to 1971, in his longest-serving position, he was President of the Central Association of German House and Land Owners. In this role, his early focus was on the integration of the housing industry into the market economy.[42] However, later on, he downplayed things such as the tenant protection law, and said only specific regions needed it.[43] Also after leaving the Bundestag he was the co-owner of the bank Preusker & Thelen in Bonn from 1963 to 1970.[6]
He died on 13 May 1991 in Bonn.[44]
1949 wurde er in Wiesbaden in den bundestag gewahlt und zahlte dort zum rechten, nationalliberalen Flugel um den hessischen landesvorsitzenden August-Martin Euler.
Am 23. Februar 1956 waren unter der Gefolgschaft von August-Martin Euler 16 Abgeordnete als sogenannte "Euler-Gruppe" aus der FDP ausgetreten. Zu diesen zahlten auch die vier Bundesminister Franz Blucher, Fritz Neumayer, Hermann Schafer und Victor-Emanuel Preusker sowie der Bundestagsvizeprasident Ludwig Schneider.