Carlo Schmid – Wikipedia

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Carlo Schmid (*December 3, 1896 in Perpignan, France, as Karl Johann Martin Heinrich Schmid ; † December 11, 1979 in Bonn) was a German politician (SPD) and renowned constitutional lawyer.

Schmid is one of the fathers of the Basic Law and the Godesberg program of the SPD; He campaigned strongly for European integration and Franco-German reconciliation. He was a candidate for the Federal President’s office in 1959 and in the Kiesinger cabinet (1966–69) Federal Council Minister.

The early years [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

Schmids from Württemberg from Württemberg (1860–1925) was a private scholar and lecturer at the University of Toulouse, the mother Anna Erra (1869–1968) was French. Schmid spent his childhood in Weil der Stadt, where the family was moved one year after his birth. There his father was headmaster and teacher of the secondary school for five years. In 1908 the family moved to Stuttgart, where Schmid attended the Humanistic Karls-Gymnasium and took off the Abitur in the spring of 1914. In his last school years, Schmid became in Wandervogel Active where he met Arnold Bergstraesser. [first]

Schmid took part in the First World War from 1914 to 1918 and fought in Verdun, among other things; His last rank was a lieutenant of the reserve.

In 1921, he completed a degree in legal and state science at Eberhard Karl’s University of Tübingen with the first legal state examination; The second state examination followed in 1924. In 1923 he became work The legal nature of the company representatives according to the works council law Doctorate for the doctor.

He initially settled as a lawyer in Reutlingen, but already entered the judicial service of the State of Württemberg in 1925 as a court assessor. From 1927 to 1931 he was a judge at the district court and later the district court council in Tübingen.

From 1927 to 1928 he was on leave for working as a speaker at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Foreign Public Law and international law in Berlin. In 1929 he habilitated at the University of Tübingen with a work on the case law of the constant International Court of Justice, where he worked as a private lecturer from 1930.

During National Socialism [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

1931–1932 Schmid took over the management of a camp of the volunteer work service in Münsingen. Unemployed young people worked with students in a quarry with the aim of preserving the young people through their personal commitment from the radical mass movement of National Socialism. In 1933, Schmid’s personnel file received a blocking notice due to his activities. To avoid dismissal, he joined the Bund National Socialist German lawyer. However, he publicly referred to National Socialism as “philosophy of cattle breeders, applied to the wrong object”. Serious consequences could only be prevented by supporting a Nazi student leader.

Schmid was called to the Wehrmacht in 1940 and was a war board member until 1944 [2] (in the rank of a major) of the Oberfeld Command in Lille/France. In this function he was in contact with Helmuth James Graf von Moltke and the Kreisau district. In some cases, he managed to save French citizens from retaliation measures by the Wehrmacht. [3]

After the Second World War [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

After the end of the war, Schmid changed his first name in Carlo to avoid confusion with his proximity to the constitutional lawyer Carl Schmitt. [4] He was instrumental in the reopening of the University of Tübingen and the appointment of Romano Guardini, Wilhelm Weischedel, Eduard Spranger, Alfred Kühn and Adolf Butenandt to the university. From 1946 to 1953 he was a professor of public law. In 1953 he followed the call of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main on the Chair of Political Science. He also translated works by Machiavelli, Baudelaire and Malraux. His translation of The evil flowers From 1947 to this day, groundbreaking is considered to be groundbreaking. [5]

For Schmid, it was clear to Schmid at the end of 1946 that the “fate of the European states depended” whether it could develop into an “independent force”. [6] He therefore stood persistently for the economic, political and military integration of Europe. Leading Social Democrats such as Kurt Schumacher thought Schmid’s federal European idea was premature. One reason for this reluctance was the strong commitment of the conservative British Duncan Sandys in the European movement. Regardless of this, Schmid looked for international shoulder and worked for a long time in the Union of European federal braces. In 1949 Schmid became the first Vice President of the German Section of the European Union Germany. He was also the first chairman of the “German Parliamentary Section of the European Movement”. In France he joined a Freemason lodge; He held twice in the Hamburg lodge The bridge builders a speech. [7]

In 1949 Schmid founded the International Bund (IB) with Theodor Eschenburg, the former main department head of the Reich youth management Heinrich Hartmann and the French occupation officer Henri Humblot, which based on the model of the Voluntary working group Young people should enable a chance to continue training.

As early as August 1948, Schmid was very significant in the Herrenchiemsee Constitutional Conference, which initiated the later Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany. He opposed efforts that only want to grant Germans who want to grant Germans who are pursued abroad because of their “occurrence of freedom, democracy, social justice or world peace”. The editorial committee saw a general right of asylum for political refugees as “too largely” because “it may close the obligation to take up, supply, etc.” and is therefore not affordable. [8] [9] [ten] Together with Hermann von Mangoldt (CDU), Schmid prevailed against these concerns and achieved that with Article 16 of the Basic Law, the Federal Republic of Germany guaranteed all the right to asylum for everyone in the world. [8] This wording consisted of the 1993 asylum compromise, with which it was severely restricted.

Carlo Schmid (left) in conversation with Egon Bahr 1976

After the war, Schmid became a SPD member and was SPD state chairman in Württemberg-Hohenzollern from 1946 to 1952. From 1947 to 1970 he was a member of the SPD party executive. From 1958 to 1970 he also belonged to the Presidium of the SPD and was largely involved in the development of the Godesberg program. Within the SPD it was one of the advocates of the majority voting law. From 1949 to 1972 he always won the direct mandate for the SPD in the Bundestag elections in his Mannheim constituency.

With Fritz Erler, Herbert Wehner and Willy Brandt, Schmid belonged to the so -called Breakfast cartel the SPD, which prevailed with its ideas of a party reform until 1958.

Since Federal President Theodor Heuss was no longer allowed to run after two terms, the SPD Schmid nominated to its candidate in the election of the German President in 1959, in which he was defeated by the previous Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Forestry Heinrich Lübke (CDU) in the second ballot.

In 1961 and 1965 Schmid was part of the government team of Willy Brandt in the event of a change of government. He was intended as foreign minister.

In 1947 Schmid was elected to the state parliament for Württemberg-Hohenzollern, to which he belonged to Baden-Württemberg on May 17, 1952.

In 1948/49 he was a member of the Parliamentary Council and here chairman of the SPD parliamentary group and the constitutional-political main committee and the committee for the occupation statute. In a fundamental speech at the 2nd plenary session on September 8, 1948, Schmid presented his views of the goals and limits of the Basic Law to be created. Due to the experience in the elimination of the Weimar constitution by the National Socialists, he clearly advocated a representative, in contrast to Plebiscitarian democracy:

“Democracy is only more than a product of a mere functional decision where you have the courage to believe in it as something necessary for human dignity. But if you have this courage, you also have to raise the courage to intolerance towards those who want to use democracy to kill them. ”

On his initiative, the constructive vote of no confidence, the right to refuse to do war and the right to asylum in the Basic Law were adopted. [3] [11] From 1949 to 1972 he was a member of the German Bundestag. From 1949 to 1966 and from 1969 to 1972 Schmid was Vice President of the German Bundestag and from 1949 to 1953 and from 1957 to 1965 also deputy chairman of the SPD parliamentary group. From 1949 to 1953 Schmid was the chairman of the Bundestag committee for the occupation statute and foreign matters, 1953 to 1956 and 1957 to 1966 deputy chairman of the Federal Foreign Committee.

Carlo Schmid (top left) in September 1955 with Adenauer in Moscow

In 1955, in this function as a member of the negotiating commission under Konrad Adenauer, he contributed very to the success of the German-Soviet negotiations in Moscow, from which the admission of diplomatic relationships of the Federal Republic with the Soviet Union and the return of German prisoners of war resulted. [twelfth] Throughout his belonging to the Bundestag, Schmid represented the constituency of Mannheim I as a direct member of the constituency of October 12, 1959 to 1961, he was chairman of the sub -commission “Household” of the Bundestag Presidium. In his last parliamentary term, he was the second oldest member of the Bundestag after William Borm (FDP).

In 1959, with Josef Arndgen (CDU), Walther Kühn (FDP) and Ludwig Schneider (DP), after the accident death of MP Josef Gockeln, was one of the initiators of an age, disability and survivor’s care for MPs.

Schmid, who was particularly committed to the Franco-German reconciliation, belonged to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg from 1950 to 1960 and from 1969 to 1973. From 1963 to 1966 he was President of the Assembly of Western European Union in Paris after he had previously been the deputy president since 1956.

At the time of the French occupation, Schmid took the head of the provisional government (President of the State Secretariat) of the “State Secretariat for the French -occupied area of ​​Württemberg and Hohenzollern”. At the same time, he took over the office of state director for teaching and cultural affairs in the state administration deployed by the French military government.

From December 9, 1946, Schmid was Minister of Justice of Württemberg-Hohenzollern and until July 8, 1947 he also performed the function of the President. After the state elections in 1947, Carlo Schmid was deputy president until August 12, 1948 and until May 1, 1950, the office of Justice in the state government led by Lorenz Bock (CDU) and his successor Gebhard Müller, which he also leads to the constitutional convention represented in men’s chiemsee.

After the election to the Bundestag, he was voted the Bundestag Vice President in the first legislative period, an office that he held from 1949 to 1966 and again from 1969 to 1972.

On December 1, 1966, as Federal Minister of Affairs of the Federal Council and the federal states, he was appointed to the federal government of the grand coalition led by Federal Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger and was a representative of the cabinet in the Federal Council in this property. After the Bundestag election in 1969, Schmid left the federal government on October 21, 1969.

From 1969 until his death, he was a coordinator for Franco-German relationships.

Schmid married Lydia Hermes (1897-1984) in 1921. With her he had four children [13] : Hans (1925–2019), Martin (1927–2019), Raimund (1935–1956) and Beate (*1936). The daughter Juliane emerged from the relationship with Irmgard Michael in 1942 [14] . Schmid spent the last years of his life in Orscheid, a district of the city of Bad Honnef near Bonn.

In 1955 Schmid was awarded the Greater Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1958 he was honored with the order against animal seriousness because of his witty and quick -witted speeches as President of the Bundestag. In 1976 he received the medal of merit of the state of Baden-Württemberg and the German-French translator award donated by the Baden-Baden-Baden-Baden and spa administration for his translation by André Malraux ’work Oaks you fall . He was also the carrier of the Hansische Goethe Prize of the Alfred Totfer Foundation. Schmid received the Goethe Prize of the city of Frankfurt am Main in 1967. [15] He has been an honorary citizen of Mannheim since 1970 and since 1977 by Tübingen.

Four days after his death, the German Bundestag honored his former Vice President with a funeral service in the plenary hall. On December 15, 1979, he was honored with a state burial at the Tübingen city cemetery.

His estate is managed in the archive of social democracy.

In 1987 the Carlo Schmid Foundation [16] founded, the people, groups and organizations with the Carlo Schmid Prize distinguished that stand up for the preservation and further development of the democratic and social constitutional state, a liberal political culture and European understanding. For its 100th birthday, the Federal Ministry of Post and Telecommunications issued a special letter mark worth 100 pfennig on December 3, 1996.

  • Carlo-Schmid-Brücke Mannheim

  • Carlo-Schmid School Freiburg

  • Carlo-Schmid-Platz Frankfurt-Bockenheim

  • Carlo-Schmid-Allee-Hoesch Phoenix-West, Dortmund-Hörde

  • Carlo Schmid tomb, city cemetery Tübingen

Schmid worked as a scientist, state-philosophical and political publicist, essayist, memorial author, but also as a translator, stage and cabaret author and poet.

  • Germany and the European Council ( Series of the German Council of the European Movement , No. 1), Cologne 1949.
  • Government and Parliament. In: Hermann Wandersleb: Law, state, economy. Band 3, Düsseldorf 1951.
  • Four years of experience with the Basic Law. In: Public administration. 1954, issue 1, pages 1–3.
  • The opposition as a state institution. In: The voter. 1955, Heft 11, S. 498–506.
  • Macchiavelli , Fischer 1956
  • The MP between the party and the parliament. In: The new society. 1959, Heft 6, S. 439–444.
  • The German Bundestag in constitutional reality. In: Friedrich Schäfer: Financial science and financial policy , Commemorative publication for Erwin Schoettle, Tübingen 1964, pp. 269–284.
  • (with Horst Ehmke and Hans Scharoun): Commemorative publication for Adolf Arndt on his 65th birthday. Frankfurt am Main 1969.
  • Politics as a spiritual task ; Collected works in individual editions, Scherz Verlag, Bern/Munich/Vienna 1973.
  • The German Bundestag. An essay. In: The German Bundestag. Portrait of a parliament. Pfullingen 1974, pp. 12–17.
  • The foundation of our state order. In: Confession to democracy. Wiesbaden 1974, S. 11–20.
  • Democracy – the chance to realize the state. In: Forum today. Mannheim 1975, S. 319–325.
  • Europe and the power of the mind. Munich/Zurich 1976 (collection of essays, 410 pages).
  • Memories. Scherz, Bern/Munich/Vienna 1979, ISBN 3-502-16666-8.
  • Memories – Carlo Schmid in conversation with Emil Obermann. Excerpts from the event on November 28, 1979 in Hoser’s bookstore (1 LP) (Hoser’s bookstore, Stuttgart, without number), ISBN 3-921414-04-0.
  • Carlo Schmid: Fundamental speech on the Basic Law in Parliamentary Council from September 8, 1948.
  • Theodor Eschenburg, Theodor Heuss, Georg-August Zinn: Equipment for Carlo Schmid on his 65th birthday. Mohr (Siebeck), Tübingen 1962.
  • Stine Harm: Citizens or comrades? Carlo Schmid and Hedwig Wachenheim – Social Democrats despite bourgeois origin. Ibidem-Verlag, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8382-0104-7.
  • Walter Henkels: 99 Bonn heads. Covered and supplemented edition, Fischer-Bücherei, Frankfurt am Main 1965, pp. 218ff.
  • Frank Raberg: Carlo Schmid (1896–1979). State Center for Political Education Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart 2006 ( online ).
  • Erich Schmidt-Eenboom, Michael Müller: The Causa Carlo Schmid. Between French pressure and American observation , in: The leaflet 20 (2017) Online version .
  • Petra Weber: Carlo Schmid. 1896–1979. A biography. Beck, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-406-41098-7; Suhrkamp pocketbook 2912, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-518-39412-6.
  • Petra Weber: Carlo Schmid. Democrat and European. Mannheim 1996 (= small writings of the city archive Mannheim No. 4).
  • Petra Weber:  Schmid, Carlo. In: New German biography (Ndb). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3, p. 151 f. ( Digitized ).
  • Nadine Willmann: Carlo Schmid and the French occupation power in Wurtemberg during the immediate post-war period (= Schmid’s relationship to the French occupation in Württemberg in the immediate post -war period). In: Catherine Maurer (ed.): Germany review and German -speaking countries. 1, 2017, ISSN  0035-0974 , Pp. 289–304 (French).
  1. ↑ Carlo Schmid: Memories . In: Collected works in individual editions . Band 3 . Scherz, Bern/Munich/Vienna 1979, ISBN 3-502-16666-8, S. 36 .
  2. ↑ Achim Trunk: Europe, one way out: political elites and European identity in the 1950s . Munich 2007 (Diss. 2005), p. 168.
  3. ↑ a b Michael Reitz: Carlo Schmid – architect of the Basic Law. SWR2 knowledge of July 14, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Kristina Meyer: The SPD and the Nazi past 1945-1990 . Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8353-2730-6, S. thirty first ( Google.de [accessed on January 30, 2018]).
  5. ↑ Wer war’s? – Carlo Schmid. In: Vorwärts 12/2012, p. 41.
  6. ↑ Carlo Schmid: Memories . S. 417 .
  7. ↑ Christian Polscher: Well -known Freemasons – with connection to Hamburg . Hamburg 2009, S. 45.
  8. ↑ a b Jochen Bittner: The opposite of gratitude . In: Die Zeit, January 2, 2017.
  9. ↑ The parliamentary council 1948-1949. Files and protocols, Vol. 7: Designs on the Basic Law (edited by Michael Hollmann), Boppard 1995, p. 37.
  10. ↑ Michael Streich: “Politically persecuted enjoy asylum law” . In: Die Zeit, February 17, 1989.
  11. ↑ Biography at the Federal Center for Political Education
  12. ↑ Michael once: Carlo Schmid – Architect of the Basic Law in SWR2 knowledge, broadcast from July 14, 2017 :

    “Prime Minister Bulganin brought his glass to the health of the Federal Chancellor. Everyone took their vodka listles and drank it. I asked for the word and said it seemed to me to be a historical lie that the Russians were drinking. If it were like that, they would not drink from finger haul on the health of their guests. I bought a larger glass. It came and I emptied it. Then Konrad Adenauer: ‘Mr. Schmid, I forbid you. You get a heartbeat.’ Then I: ‘Mr. Chancellor, you can’t forbid me anything.’ “”

    – Carlo Schmid, memories

  13. ↑ Schmid, Carlo (Karl). In: State-class information system Baden-Württemberg (leo-bw.de). State Archives of Baden-Württemberg, accessed on November 13, 2017 .
  14. ↑ Petra Weber: Carlo Schmid 1896-1979. A biography . 1st edition. C. H. Beck, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-406-41098-7, S. 165 .
  15. ↑ Frankfurt am Main: Goethepreis
  16. ↑ Carlo-Schmid Foundation