Reinhold Rehs 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 and chairman of the Federation of Expellees

Federation of Expellees

The Federation of Expellees or Bund der Vertriebenen is a non-profit organization formed to represent the interests of Germans who either fled their homes in parts of Central and Eastern Europe, or were expelled following World War II....

 in 1967-70.

Rehs was born in Klinthenen, district of Gerdauen, East Prussia

East Prussia

East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...

 (today Russia) as a son of a teacher of Huguenot

Huguenot

The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...

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

Königsberg

Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945 as well as the northernmost and easternmost German city with 286,666 inhabitants . Due to the multicultural society in and around the city, there are several local names for it...

 and studied law at the Universities of Königsberg

University of Königsberg

The University of Königsberg was the university of Königsberg in East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 as second Protestant academy by Duke Albert of Prussia, and was commonly known as the Albertina....

 and Heidelberg. He worked as a journalist for the "Ostpreußische Zeitung" in Königsberg (1923-24) and became a lawyer there in 1928.

In World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 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

Operation Hannibal

Operation Hannibal was a German military operation involving the evacuation by sea of German troops and civilians from Courland, East Prussia, and the Polish Corridor from mid-January to May, 1945 as the Red Army advanced during the East Prussian and East Pomeranian Offensives and subsidiary...

. In August 1945 Rehs started to work as a jurist at the Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...

 State employment office and joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany

Social Democratic Party of Germany

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

 in 1948.

Rehs was elected a Member of the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein

Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein

The Schleswig-Holstein Landtag is the state diet of the German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. It convenes in the state's capital Kiel and currently consists of 95 members of six parties. Its main competences are in the fields of education, culture, regional planning and domestic politics...

 in 1950 and Member of the Bundestag

Bundestag

The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...

 in 1953. 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

Willy Brandt, born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm , was a German politician, Mayor of West Berlin 1957–1966, Chancellor of West Germany 1969–1974, and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany 1964–1987....

 first announced his intended turnaround concerning the Former eastern territories of Germany 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

Ostpolitik

Neue Ostpolitik , or Ostpolitik for short, refers to the normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and Eastern Europe, particularly the German Democratic Republic beginning in 1969...

 leading to the Treaty of Warsaw

Treaty of Warsaw (1970)

The Treaty of Warsaw was a treaty between West Germany and the People's Republic of Poland. It was signed by Chancellor Willy Brandt and Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz at the Presidential Palace on 7 December 1970, and it was ratified by the German Bundestag on 17 May 1972.In the treaty, both...

Rehs died in 1971.