Hermann Kling (17 February 1880 – 20 January 1957) was a German politician ( CSVD, CDU).

Life

Hermann Jakob Kling was born in

Owen Owen may refer to: People and fictional characters * Owen (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname Places United States * Owen, Missouri, a ghost town * Owen, Wisconsin * Owen County, Indiana ...

, a small protestant town set in the hill countryside of

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Province of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern, two other histo ...

, between

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 ...

and

Ulm Ulm () is the sixth-largest city of the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with around 129,000 inhabitants, it is Germany's 60th-largest city. Ulm is located on the eastern edges of the Swabian Jura mountain range, on the up ...

. He was the second of the five recorded children born to Jakob Friedrich Kling (1847–1918) by his marriage to Karoline Luise Obenland / Kling (1853–1936). He attended school locally and then moved on to the Teacher Training college at nearby

Nürtingen Nürtingen (; ) is a town on the river Neckar in the district of Esslingen (district), Esslingen in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. History The following events occurred, by year: *1046: First mention of ''Niuritingin'' in ...

. After successfully passing through the basic training programme he joined the Württemberg public schools service. Between 1902 and 1903 he taught at Mitteltal near Baiersbronn and Kirchheim. Between 1910 and 1913 Kling undertook university level studies 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 ...

. Subjects covered included Philosophy, Pedagogy, Psychology and History along with Civil and Administrative Law. In 1916 he was appointed to the headship of a junior school, although he was only able to take it up in November 1918, after returning from the

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

. Between August 1914 and November 1918 he served in the 122nd Fusilier Regiment (Württemberg), reaching the rank of

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

and compiling, after the war, a history of the regiment during the

. He won the

Iron Cross The Iron Cross (, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire (1871–1918), and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). The design, a black cross pattée with a white or silver outline, was derived from the in ...

first and second class, the Knight's Cross of Württemberg and the Knight's Cross Class 2 with Swords of the Friedrich Order. After the revolution Kling turned to politics, joining the short-lived Christian Social People's Service (party - ''"Christlich-Sozialer Volksdienst"'' / CSVD), a protestant conservative party produced through a political merger. In May 1928 he became a member of the regional legislature (''"Landtag"''), remaining a member till 1933 when the assembly was dissolved. On the national stage, he was one of 14 CSVD candidates elected to the national parliament (''"Reichstag"'') in the 1930 general election. However, he remained a member only till 16 January 1931, after which he restricted himself to the regional legislature (''"Landtag"''). His Reichstag seat was taken over by Hermann Strathmann. Régime change arrived in 1933 and the new government lost little time in imposing one-

party dictatorship A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a governance structure in which only a single political party controls the ruling system. In a one-party state, all opposition parties are either outlawed or en ...

. The CSVD dissolved itself in June 1933 after which Kling served out the final months of the regional legislature (''"Landtag"'') as a "Hospitant" (loosely: guest member) of the

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

. However, the matter was for most purposes theoretical, since the Landtag's final session took place on 8 June 1933 and the Landtag was formally abolished in January 1934. In 1937 Kling acquired "Gut Sonnenhof", a small farm in Beuren. He lived there and farmed the land till 1950. After the

ended in 1945 he returned to politics, although he continued to run the farm at the same time. In January 1946 he was a member of the regional "pre-parliament" created under the auspices of the US military occupation. By this time Hermann Kling was a member of the CDU, a centre-right political party which had emerged the previous year, although its roots went back to the Weimar years. The "pre-parliament" was a nominated chamber, but elections were held in June 1946 for a

constitutional assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

, mandated to create a regional constitution for the newly configured state of

Württemberg-Baden Württemberg-Baden was a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It was created in 1945 by the United States occupation forces, after the previous states of Baden and Württemberg had been split up between the US and French occupation zones. ...

. There was a further regional election in November 1946, held simultaneously with a referendum to approve the new constitution, and Kling was elected to the regional parliament (''Landtag'') of

, remaining a member of it till 1950.Wer ist wer? Das Deutsche WHO’s WHO. 1951, page 317.

Personal

In 1909 Hermann Kling married Hulda Honnegger (1881–1966). Their sons Hermann and Gerhard Paul were born in 1911 and 1918.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kling, Hermann Josef 1880 births 1957 deaths People from Esslingen (district) People from the Kingdom of Württemberg Christian Social People's Service politicians Christian Democratic Union of Germany politicians Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic German Army personnel of World War I Recipients of the Iron Cross, 1st class