Frank Oberle Sr. (March 24, 1932 – September 12, 2024) was a Canadian businessman and politician.

Life and career

Born in Forchheim near Karlsruhe, Germany, Oberle moved with his family to German-occupied Poland in 1941. There he was placed in a

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth ( , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth wing of the German Nazi Party. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. From 1936 until 1945, it was th ...

indoctrination program. Later, he fled the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

advance, surviving on grass and stolen eggs while walking 800 kilometres to his home village in the

Black Forest The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is th ...

. Rejected by his relatives, he immigrated to Canada at the age of 19 and became a logger and then a gold miner. Oberle entered municipal politics, becoming mayor of Chetwynd. He entered federal politics and was elected to the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...

in the 1972 general election as the Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament for Prince George—Peace River,

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. He subsequently won re-election five times. In 1985, Oberle became the first German-born federal

Canadian cabinet The Canadian Ministry ( French: ''Conseil des ministres''), colloquially referred to as the Cabinet of Canada (), is a body of ministers of the Crown that, along with the Canadian monarch, and within the tenets of the Westminster system, forms ...

minister when he became

Minister of State Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...

for Science and Technology in

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Brian Mulroney Martin Brian Mulroney (March 20, 1939 – February 29, 2024) was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993. Born in the eastern Quebec city of Baie-Comeau, Mulroney studi ...

's government. He was science minister when the

Canadarm Canadarm or Canadarm1 (officially Shuttle Remote Manipulator System or SRMS, also SSRMS) is a series of robotic arms that were used on the Space Shuttle orbiters to deploy, manoeuvre, and capture payloads. After the Space Shuttle ''Columbia' ...

went into space as part of the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

program. He later became Minister of State for Forestry, and then Minister of Forestry in 1990. Oberle retired from Cabinet when

Kim Campbell Avril Phaedra Douglas "Kim" Campbell (born March 10, 1947) is a Canadian politician who was the 19th prime minister of Canada from June to November 1993. Campbell is the first and only female prime minister of Canada. Prior to becoming the f ...

succeeded Mulroney as Prime Minister, and retired from politics with the dissolution of the

34th Canadian Parliament The 34th Canadian Parliament was in session from December 12, 1988, until September 8, 1993. The membership was set by the 1988 federal election on November 21, 1988, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and by-elections until it w ...

for the 1993 election. In 2004, Oberle published a

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...

of his

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

experiences, ''Finding Home: A War Child’s Journey to Peace'' (2004). A second memoir, ''A Chosen Path: From Moccasin Flats to Parliament Hill'', was published in the same year. His son Frank Oberle Jr. was elected to the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. Since 2012 the Legislative Assembly has had 87 members, elected first past the post f ...

in the 2004 provincial election, and was appointed Solicitor General on January 13, 2010. Oberle died on September 12, 2024, in Squamish,

, two weeks after his wife of Joan, at the age of 92.https://energeticcity.ca/2024/09/24/frank-oberle-sr-canadas-first-german-born-federal-minister-passes-away-at-92/

Electoral history

References

Bibliography

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oberle, Frank Sr. 1932 births 2024 deaths 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada Canadian loggers Canadian miners German emigrants to Canada Hitler Youth members 20th-century mayors of places in British Columbia Members of the 24th Canadian Ministry Members of the House of Commons of Canada from British Columbia Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs Ministers of the environment of Canada