Hermann Lindrath (29 June 1896 in

Eisleben Eisleben is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is famous as both the hometown of the influential theologian Martin Luther and the place where he died; hence, its official name is Lutherstadt Eisleben. First mentioned in the late 10th century, ...

– 27 February 1960 in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...

) was a German politician ( CDU). From 1957 to 1960 he was Federal Minister of Public Holdings (Federal Patrimony) (''Bundesminister für wirtschaftlichen Besitz des Bundes''), one of the few federal ministers who died in office.

Career

In 1914 Lindrath volunteered to serve in World War I. After the war he studied law and economics, completed his Ph.D. (''Dr. rer. pol.'') on "Enterprise models in the mining industry", worked in a bank, with the municipal administration and as a chartered accountant in

Halle, Saxony-Anhalt Halle (Saale), or simply Halle (; from the 15th to the 17th century: ''Hall in Sachsen''; until the beginning of the 20th century: ''Halle an der Saale'' ; from 1965 to 1995: ''Halle/Saale'') is the largest city of the German state of Saxony-A ...

, before he joined the management of

HeidelbergCement HeidelbergCement is a German multinational building materials company headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany. It is a DAX corporation and is one of the largest building materials companies in the world. On 1 July 2016, HeidelbergCement AG complet ...

. In 1953 Lindrath defeated industrialist Richard Freudenberg (of Freudenberg Group) who had held the constituency of ''Mannheim-Land'' in his first bid for a

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the German Federalism, 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 Representat ...

seat. In 1957 he was reelected to represent his constituency for a second term. The same year he was appointed to serve as Minister in chancellor

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 ...

's government. Lindrath's appointment helped to achieve a balance between Catholics and Protestants among the cabinet members. Some say that exactly for this religious consideration Lindrath was given preference over Kurt-Georg Kiesinger from the same region. Lindrath's major contribution to German politics was his effort to sell off companies held by the German state, the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south ...

, to the general public in a program of "popular capitalism" (called ''Volksaktien'' in German), which was initiated by

Ludwig Erhard Ludwig Wilhelm Erhard (; 4 February 1897 – 5 May 1977) was a German politician affiliated with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and chancellor of West Germany from 1963 until 1966. He is known for leading the West German postwar economi ...

. Lindrath successfully sold the majority stake in

Preussag TUI Group is a German leisure, travel and tourism company. TUI is an acronym for ''Touristik Union International'' ("Tourism Union International"). TUI AG was known as Preussag AG until 1997 when the company changed its activities from mining to ...

, a diversified company with holdings in mining and transportation, and he concluded a deal with the state of

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

that paved the way for the

privatization Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a global brand post ...

, the VW car manufacturer, which was implemented after his successor, Hans Wilhelmi, had taken over responsibility.Udo Kempf and Hans-Georg Merz (eds.), ''Kanzler und Minister 1949-1998. Biografisches Lexikon der deutschen Bundesregierungen'', Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag, 2001, .

References

Bibliography

* Udo Kempf and Hans-Georg Merz (eds.), ''Kanzler und Minister 1949-1998. Biografisches Lexikon der deutschen Bundesregierungen'', Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag, 2001, pp. 443–447. *

Rudolf Vierhaus Rudolf Vierhaus (29 October 1922 – 13 November 2011) was a German historian who mainly researched the Early modern period. He had been a professor at the newly founded Ruhr University Bochum since 1964. From 1971, he was director of the in Göt ...

and Ludolf Herbst (eds.), ''Biographisches Handbuch der Mitglieder des Deutschen Bundestages 1949-2002.'' Band I, A-M, Munich: Saur, 2002, pp. 505–506. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lindrath, Hermann 1896 births 1960 deaths Members of the Bundestag for Baden-Württemberg Members of the Bundestag 1957–1961 Members of the Bundestag 1953–1957 People from Eisleben Members of the Bundestag for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany