Erich Ollenhauer (27 March 1901 – 14 December 1963) was the leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1952 until 1963. He was a key leader of the opposition to

Konrad Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman who served as the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of the Christian Dem ...

in the Bundestag. In exile under the Nazis, he returned to Germany in February 1946, becoming vice chairman of the SPD. He was a close ally of the chairman

Kurt Schumacher Curt Ernst Carl Schumacher, better known as Kurt Schumacher (13 October 1895 – 20 August 1952), was a German politician who became chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany from 1946 and the first Leader of the Opposition in the Wes ...

, and worked on party organization. Where Schumacher was a passionate intellectual, Ollenhauer was a thorough and efficient bureaucrat. He became party leader after Schumacher's death in 1952. Besides attending to organizational details, his main role was moderating the tension between the left-wing and right-wing factions. He remained party leader until his death, but yielded to the charismatic Berlin mayor

Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ge ...

in 1961 as the party's candidate for chancellor.

Early political career and exile

Ollenhauer was born in

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebu ...

and joined the SPD in 1920. When the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

took power in 1933 he fled Germany for

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

. After the outbreak of

WW2 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 ...

Ollenhauer travelled across Europe in order to avoid Nazi persecution, first going to Denmark, then France, Spain, Portugal, and eventually London, where he remained until the end of the war. In London, he kept close ties to the Labour Party, which financially supported the expatriate SPD (called ''

SoPaDe Sopade (also written SoPaDe) was the name of the exile organization of the Social Democratic Party of Germany ( SPD). It operated in Prague from 1933 to 1938, from 1938 to 1940 in Paris and until 1945 in London. History After the occupation o ...

''), of which Ollenhauer was a member. He also worked with the

Union of German Socialist Organisations in Great Britain The Union of German Socialist Organisations in Great Britain (German: ''Union deutscher sozialistischer Organisation in Großbritannien'') was the amalgamation of German socialist and social democratic oriented organisations of exiled Germans durin ...

.Erich Ollenhauer
"Möglichkeiten und Aufgaben"
Friedrich Ebert Foundation, official website. Presentation at the Union membership meeting, London. (6 December 1942) Retrieved 20 July 2010 In February 1946, Ollenhauer returned to Germany. In May the same year, he was voted deputy leader of the SPD, behind

. Ollenhauer entered the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Common ...

after the

1949 German federal election Federal elections were held in West Germany on 14 August 1949 to elect the members of the first Bundestag, with a further eight seats elected in West Berlin between 1949 and January 1952 and another eleven between February 1952 and 1953. They we ...

Leadership of the SPD

After Schumacher's unexpected death in 1952, the SPD elected Ollenhauer as its leader. He ran as the SPD's candidate for Chancellor of Germany in the

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yug ...

and 1957 German elections, both of which were lost to

's CDU. In 1957, Ollenhauer called for a trans-European security alliance (in place of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

and the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist repub ...

), in which a reunified Germany would serve as an equal partner. The plan was then denounced as radical, but it helped pave the way for

's ''

Ostpolitik ''Neue Ostpolitik'' (German for "new eastern policy"), or ''Ostpolitik'' for short, was the normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany) and Eastern Europe, particularly the German Democratic Republ ...

'' and indirectly influencing some developments within the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

, such as a European common security policy, and the eventual reunification of Germany. Ollenhauer's proposal is also known as the Ollenhauer Plan. In 1961, Ollenhauer declined to run for Chancellor a third time and instead supported the candidacy of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

mayor Willy Brandt. Ollenhauer died in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

on 14 December 1963 from

pulmonary embolism Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a blockage of an artery in the lungs by a substance that has moved from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream ( embolism). Symptoms of a PE may include shortness of breath, chest pain particularly upon breathin ...

References

External links

Biography of Erich Ollenhauer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ollenhauer, Erich Politicians from Magdeburg People from the Province of Saxony Presidents of the Socialist International 1901 births 1963 deaths Members of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia Members of the Bundestag 1961–1965 Members of the Bundestag 1957–1961 Members of the Bundestag 1953–1957 Members of the Bundestag 1949–1953 Members of the Executive of the Labour and Socialist International Members of the Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party of Germany