Friedrich "Fritz" Wilhelm Schnitzler (16 December 1928 – 15 July 2011"Schnitzler, Friedrich Wilhelm"
, Landesbibliographie Baden-Württemberg online, retrieved 15 December 2014 .) was a German landowner and business manager, and also a local politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the founder of the agricultural association of the District of Reutlingen and co-founder of the landholders' association of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

, and lobbyist in the state parliament.

Life and career

Schnitzler was born in Ohnastetten, now part of St. Johann, in the district of

Reutlingen Reutlingen (; ) is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the capital of the eponymous Reutlingen (district), district of Reutlingen. As of June 2018, it had an estimated population of 116,456. Reutlingen has a Reutlingen University, univ ...

. He had a diploma in agricultural management and was a certified assessor of wildlife damage. While managing his property part-time, from October 1962 to December 1974 he was a district councillor and deputy mayor in Ohnastetten and also served as a

lay judge A lay judge, sometimes called a lay assessor (law), assessor, is a person assisting a judge in a trial. Lay judges are used in some civil law (legal system), civil law jurisdictions. Lay judges are appointed volunteers and often require some legal ...

in the state court at

Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...

. After Ohnastetten was incorporated into St. Johann, he served from 1975 to 1996 as its district representative and a member of the councils there and in St. Johann.Christina Hölz
"Fritz Schnitzler: Ein Kämpfer für den Bauernstand"
, ''

Südwest Presse ''Südwest Presse'' is a German daily newspaper based in Ulm, which is distributed in Ulm, Neu-Ulm, Alb-Donau-Kreis and Landkreis Neu-Ulm. It is also the name of a regional cooperative venture (called a ''Zeitungsverbund'' – newspaper compo ...

'', 20 July 2011 "Landwirt mit Kampfgeist und Beharrlichkeit"
''Reutlinger General-Anzeiger'', 21 July 2011 . In January 1962 he was elected president of the then agricultural association of Reutlingen and in 1975 he united it with its counterpart in

Münsingen Münsingen (; ) is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2013 the former municipality of Trimstein merged into Münsingen, and on 1 January 2017 the former municipalit ...

to form the agricultural association of the District of Reutlingen (''Kreisbauernverband Reutlingen e.V''). He served as its chairman (''Kreisobmann'') from 1975 to 1992. During this time he also co-founded the landholders' association of Baden-Württemberg (''Landesbauernverband in Baden-Württemberg'') and became its first lobbyist in the state parliament. He worked in close association with the Minister-president,

Lothar Späth Lothar Späth (16 November 1937 – 18 March 2016) was a German politician of the CDU. Life Späth was born in Sigmaringen. From 30 August 1978 to 13 January 1991 Späth was the 5th Minister President of Baden-Württemberg and chairman of ...

; the Minister of Agriculture, Gerhard Weiser;Gerhard Weiser
"Zukunft der Südmilch AG"
transcript of radio broadcast, Süddeutscher Rundfunk, 1993, at the State Archive of Baden-Württemberg /

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

archives the Minister of the Environment Hermann Schaufler; the first president of the landholders' association, Ernst Geprägs; and the Baden-Württemberg state Ministry of agricultural land and the protection of land-use (''Ministerium für Ländlichen Raum und Verbraucherschutz Baden-Württemberg''). Schnitzler was the first representative of agriculture for the entire District of Reutlingen, and from 1992 until his death in 2011, was honorary chairman of the district agricultural association and a

docent The term "docent" is derived from the Latin word , which is the third-person plural present active indicative of ('to teach, to lecture'). Becoming a docent is often referred to as habilitation or doctor of science and is an academic qualifi ...

at the "Swabian Farmers' School" in

Bad Waldsee Bad Waldsee () is a town in Upper Swabia in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is part of the Ravensburg (district), district of Ravensburg. It is situated 20 km south of Biberach an der Riß, and 20 km northeast of Ravensburg. The town h ...

. He played an important role in founding both the women's agricultural association of Reutlingen and the women's choir. Schnitzler's political and lobbying efforts focussed for the most part on farming, in particular dairy farming and milk processing. He introduced changes that aroused much discussion throughout the country. He introduced an annual meeting of the agricultural association in St. Johann on Presentation Day, 2 February. He was also a business manager in dairy: he was assistant manager of the Reutlingen dairy plant and chairman of the board of the local dairy producers' association; he continued to advise it as honorary chairman until his death. He also served as both chairman of both the supervisory board and ''

Vorstand In German corporate governance, a ''Vorstand'' is the executive board of a corporation (public limited company). It is hierarchically subordinate to the supervisory board (''Aufsichtsrat''), as German company law imposes a two-tier board of d ...

'' of Südmilch AG, Germany's largest milk producer, after a financial scandal in the early 1990s; he was able to overcome the problems and the company was subsequently sold to what is now

FrieslandCampina Royal FrieslandCampina N.V. is a Dutch multinational dairy cooperative which is based in Amersfoort, Netherlands. It is the result of a merger between Friesland Foods and Campina on 30 December 2008. The European Commission approved the merger ...

and became

Campina GmbH FrieslandCampina Germany GmbH, former Campina GmbH, is a leading German dairy and subsidiary of the Dutch dairy cooperative FrieslandCampina. The company was formed in 1996 after the Stuttgart-based Südmilch AG was renamed. History Milchver ...

Personal life

Schnitzler and his wife Anne-Marie lived on a dairy farm in Ohnastetten with their son Frank Christoph.

Honours

* 1984 Order of Merit on ribbon (''Verdienstkreuz am Bande'') of the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

* 1992–2011 Honorary chairman, Agricultural Association of the District of Reutlingen * 1996–2011 Honorary chairman, Association of Milk Producers of Reutlingen

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schnitzler, Friedrich Wilhelm 1928 births 2011 deaths People from Reutlingen 20th-century German farmers 20th-century German landowners German business executives Christian Democratic Union of Germany politicians 20th-century German businesspeople 21st-century German businesspeople Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany