Reinhold Rehs (12 October 1901 – 4 December 1971) was a German politician and chairman of the

Federation of Expellees The Federation of Expellees (; BdV) is a non-profit organization formed in West Germany on 27 October 1957 to represent the interests of German nationals of all ethnicities and foreign ethnic Germans and their families (usually naturalised as Ge ...

in 1967-70. Rehs was born in Klinthenen (now Znamenka in

Pravdinsky District Pravdinsky District () is an administrative district (raion), one of the administrative divisions of Kaliningrad Oblast, fifteen in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. It is located in the south of the oblast. The area of the district is . Its administrati ...

), district of

Gerdauen Zheleznodorozhny (, lit. ''railway (town)''; until 1946 ; ; ) is an types of inhabited localities in Russia, urban locality (an urban-type settlement) in Pravdinsky District of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. It is located 69 km (43 miles) south ...

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

(today Russia) as a son of a teacher of

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

descent, his family lived in East Prussia since their flight from France. He visited school in

Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...

and studied law at the Universities of

and

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

. He worked as a journalist for the "Ostpreußische Zeitung" in Königsberg (1923–24) and became a lawyer there in 1928.Biography at munzinger.de
He joined the SA in 1933 and 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 ...

in 1937. In

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 ...

he was conscripted to the ''Luftschutzwarndienst'' (air defence warning service) and became the head of the regional warning service of Danzig in 1944. Rehs was badly wounded in February 1945 and was evacuated to Western Germany. In August 1945 Rehs started to work as a jurist at the

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...

State employment office and joined the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...

in 1948. Rehs was elected a Member of the

Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein The Schleswig-Holstein Landtag is the state parliament of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It convenes in the state's capital Kiel and currently consists of 69 members of five parties. The current majority consists of a coalition of th ...

in 1950 and Member of the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

in 1953.Spiegel.de "Klinke geputzt" 19 May 1969
/ref> He became the Speaker (Chairman) of the Landsmannschaft Ostpreussen in 1966 and President of the Federation of Expellees in 1967. When

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 concurrently served as the Chancellor ...

first announced his intended turnaround concerning the

Former eastern territories of Germany In present-day Germany, the former eastern territories of Germany () refer to those territories east of the current eastern border of Germany, i.e. the Oder–Neisse line, which historically had been considered German and which were annexed b ...

at the SPD party congress in March 1968, Rehs, sitting in the first row, left the audience in protest. After Brandt became Chancellor Rehs seceded from the SPD in 1969 and joined the CDU in protest against the change in the German

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 Re ...

leading to the Treaty of WarsawFAZ.de 22 October 2007 "Vertriebene, Tor der Erinnerung"
Rehs died in 1971.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rehs, Reinhold 1901 births 1971 deaths People from Pravdinsky District People from East Prussia Members of the Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party of Germany Members of the Bundestag for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany Members of the Bundestag 1953–1957 Members of the Bundestag 1957–1961 Members of the Bundestag 1961–1965 Members of the Bundestag 1965–1969 Members of the Bundestag for Schleswig-Holstein Members of the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein University of Königsberg alumni Heidelberg University alumni Luftwaffe personnel of World War II Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Sturmabteilung personnel Stahlhelm members