Albert Osswald (16 May 1919 – 15 August 1996) was a German politician (

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been t ...

). He served as the 3rd

Minister President A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. I ...

of the state of

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...

from 1969 to 1976 and as the 27th

President of the Bundesrat In Germany, the President of the Bundesrat or President of the Federal Council (German: ''Bundesratspräsident'') is the chairperson (speaker) of the Bundesrat (Federal Council). The president is elected by the Bundesrat for a term of one year ...

in 1975/76.

Biography

Oswald was born as the son of a mason in

Giessen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univer ...

. After elementary and secondary school in Giessen, he attended a vocational school for salesmen. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he was a soldier of the German army. In 1945, he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany. After local offices in

, he was elected to the parliament of

in 1954. From 1962 to 1969, he served as minister in the government of

, first as minister of economic affairs, later as minister of finance. Osswald was elected prime minister of Hesse in 1969, after the demission of Georg August Zinn. His government had an absolute majority in the beginning. From 1970 on, Osswald headed a coalition government of

and FDP. After a financial scandal involving the public bank

Helaba Helaba, short for Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen, is a commercial bank with core regions in Hesse and Thuringia, Germany offering financial services to companies, banks, institutional investors and the public sector, both within Germany and interna ...

, Osswald resigned as prime minister of Hesse in October 1976. He retired from all political offices in 1977. A native of Gießen, Osswald supported the creation of the city of

Lahn The Lahn is a , right (or eastern) tributary of the Rhine in Germany. Its course passes through the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (23.0 km), Hesse (165.6 km), and Rhineland-Palatinate (57.0 km). It has its source in t ...

in 1977 - born out of a merger of Gießen and

Wetzlar Wetzlar () is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany. It is the twelfth largest city in Hesse with currently 55,371 inhabitants at the beginning of 2019 (including second homes). As an important cultural, industrial and commercial center, the un ...

, describing it as "Work of the Century" (''Jahrhundertwerk'') as it would strengthen the Central Hesse against the two major population centers of Kassel in the north of the state and

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

in the south. However, the merger would prove to be unpopular and following SPD's defeat in the 1977 local elections in Lahn in favor of CDU opposed to the city of Lahn, the merger was rescinded in 1979. Osswald died during a hiking vacation in

Schwangau Schwangau is a municipality in the district of Ostallgäu in Bavaria, Germany. The village lies 4 km from the larger town of Füssen and just 1.5 km from Hohenschwangau, a collection of tourist-oriented facilities adjacent to the major ...

in 1996.Gestorben Albert Osswald, 77
spiegel.de. 19 August 1996. Retrieved 25 September 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Osswald, Albert 1919 births 1996 deaths Presidents of the German Bundesrat Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Ministers-President of Hesse