Gustav Böhrnsen was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 politician of the Social Democratic Party

Social Democratic Party of Germany

The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...

 (SPD), who served as chairman of the SPD group in the Parliament of Bremen (the Bürgerschaft) from 1968 to 1971. He was elected to the Parliament of Bremen in 1955 and served as deputy chair of his party group 1966-1968, before being elected chair.

He was originally a member of the SPD, but in the 1930s, he became a member of the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany

Socialist Workers' Party of Germany

The Socialist Workers' Party of Germany was a political party in Germany. It was formed by a left-wing party with around 20,000 members which split off from the SPD in the autumn of 1931. In 1931 the remnants of USPD merged into the party, and in 1932 some Communist Party dissenters joined the...

, the Young Communist League of Germany

Young Communist League of Germany

The Young Communist League of Germany was a political youth organization in Germany. It was formed in 1920 from the Free Socialist Youth of the Communist Party of Germany, which itself was formed in October 1918, with support from the Spartacus League . The KJVD was created in 1925...

 and the Communist Party of Germany

Communist Party of Germany

The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...

. During the Nazi era, he was active in the anti-Nazi resistance, and was imprisoned from 1936 to 1939 as a political prisoner. In 1942, he was conscripted into the 999th Light Afrika Division, a penal military unit

Penal military unit

Penal battalions, penal companies, etc., are military formations consisting of convicted persons for which military service in such units was either the assigned punishment or an alternative to imprisonment or the death penalty.-Nazi Germany:...

. He was taken prisoner of war

Prisoner of war

A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...

 by the Americans in 1943 and repatriated

Repatriation

Repatriation is the process of returning a person back to one's place of origin or citizenship. This includes the process of returning refugees or soldiers to their place of origin following a war...

 in 1946. After the war, he became a member of the SPD again and became active in the IG Metall

IG Metall

IG Metall is the dominant metalworkers' union in Germany. Analysts of German labor relations consider it a major trend-setter in national bargaining. As a metalworkers' union, it represents workers in the motor vehicle industry...

 union. He was elected chair of the works council

Works council

A works council is a "shop-floor" organization representing workers, which functions as local/firm-level complement to national labour negotiations...

 of AG Weser, his employer, in 1951, and served in this capacity until 1979. The election of Böhrnsen, a social democrat, to this position, meant the communists were finally ousted from influence in the works council.

He was the father of SPD politician Jens Böhrnsen

Jens Böhrnsen

Jens Böhrnsen is a German politician of the SPD. Since 2005, he has served as the President of the Senate and Mayor of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, that is, the head of government of the city-state of Bremen...

, who would hold the same position as his father did and eventually become Mayor of Bremen.

A street in Bremen-Gröpelingen is named in his honour.