Fritz Hellwig (3 August 1912 – 22 July 2017) was a German CDU politician and European Commissioner. He was born in

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; Rhenish Franconian: ''Sabrigge'' ; ; ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken has 181,959 inhabitants and is Saarland's administrative, commerci ...

and turned 100 in August 2012. and died on 22 July 2017 at the age of 104. He died at age 104, being the last surviving member of the Second Bundestag.

Early life

Hellwig was born in the area known today as the

Saarland Saarland (, ; ) is a state of Germany in the southwest of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and the smallest in ...

province, known at that time as the

Rhine Province The Rhine Province (), also known as Rhenish Prussia () or synonymous with the Rhineland (), was the westernmost Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822 to 1946. ...

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

. After finishing school in 1930 in

, he studied philosophy, national economy, political sciences and history in

Marburg Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...

, Vienna and

Humboldt University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

. He received a doctorate in 1933 in Berlin with a study on ''The Fight for the Saar 1860 – 1870'', and in 1936 concluded a

Habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

with a work on the Saarland Industrialist Carl Ferdinand von Stumm-Halberg. From 1933 to 1939, he worked in the Saarbrücken

Chamber of Commerce and Industry A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to a ...

. From 1937 he was also a lecturer at the Saarbrücken teacher training university. Hellwig was a member of the

NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers ...

Fritz Hellwig
site of the

Deutsches Historisches Museum The German Historical Museum (), known by the acronym DHM, is a museum in Berlin, Germany devoted to German history. It describes itself as a place of "enlightenment and understanding of the shared history of Germans and Europeans". It is often ...

. and the SA, and maybe also a member of the SS—his membership card of the writer's chapter of the

Reich Chamber of Culture The Reich Chamber of Culture (''Reichskulturkammer'', abbreviated as RKK) was a government agency in Nazi Germany. It was established by law on 22 September 1933 in the course of the ''Gleichschaltung'' process at the instigation of Reich Ministe ...

is ambiguous. In 1939/1940 Hellwig was managing director of the iron production organization in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

and until 1943 of the iron and steel producing industry in the southwest district. He was called up to serve in the armed forces in 1943 and served until 1947. After his dismissal from the army, Hellwig became an economic adviser in Duesseldorf and

Duisburg Duisburg (; , ) is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine (Lower Rhine) and the Ruhr (river), Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruh ...

. From 1951 to 1959, he was acting director of the ''German industrial institute'' in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

and also chairman of the "German Saarbundes". His analysis had a crucial influence on the "Saarpolitik" of Chancellor

Konrad Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman and politician who served as the first Chancellor of Germany, chancellor of West Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of th ...

Party politics

At first, Hellwig had belonged to the Centre Party but in 1947 he joined the CDU and immediately became a member of the political-economic committee for the

Rhineland The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...

. Later he was selected for the federal committee for economic policy and the federal promotion of the CDU. Hellwig was among the authors of the 1949 CDU publication ''Düsseldorfer Leitsätze'' (the Düsseldorf guiding principles).

Public representative

Hellwig represented the Cologne II constituency in the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

from 1953 to November 1959. From 21 September 1956 he was chairman of the Bundestag committee on

economic policy ''Economic Policy'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Oxford University Press, Oxford Academic on behalf of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, the Center for Economic Studies (University of Munich), and the Paris Scho ...

. From 1953 to 1956 Hellwig was also a deputy delegate for the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

. In addition Hellwig was a member of the early

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

from 25 February 1959 to 14 September 1959.

Public office

Hellwig left the Bundestag to become a member of the High Authority of the

European Coal and Steel Community The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was a European organization created after World War II to integrate Europe's coal and steel industries into a single common market based on the principle of supranationalism which would be governe ...

. When this was merged in 1967 with the Commission of

European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...

he became a vice-president of the new

Rey Commission The Rey Commission is the European Commission that held office from 2 July 1967 to 30 June 1970. Its president was Jean Rey. Work It was the first commission of the merged European Communities. It was the successor to the Hallstein Commissio ...

and European Commissioner for Science & Research.

Publications

* '' The fight for the Saar 1860 – 1870. Contributions to the Rhine politics Napoléons third '', Berlin 1933. * '' Carl baron von Stumm-Halberg '', Habilitation, Heidelberg/Saarbrücken, 1936. * '' Lorraine steel instead of Ruhr steel? '', Duesseldorf 1947. * '' The economic entwinements of the Saar '', Duesseldorf 1947. * '' Konrad Adenauer. To 125. Birthday '', in: Historical-political reports, number 8, 2001, pages 1 – 10. * '' European integration from historical experience '', a time witness discussion with Michael Gehler, Bonn 2004
pdf; 0.6 MT
.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hellwig, Fritz 1912 births 2017 deaths Centre Party (Germany) politicians Nazi Party members Christian Democratic Union of Germany politicians German men centenarians German European commissioners Politicians from Saarbrücken Politicians from the Rhine Province Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany European commissioners (1967–1970) Members of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community Humboldt University of Berlin alumni