Wilhelm Kaisen
Encyclopedia
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 from 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...
(SPD). Between 1945 and 1965 he was mayor of the city Bremen
Bremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
which also made him the head of the state of Bremen
Bremen (state)
The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is the smallest of Germany's 16 states. A more informal name, but used in some official contexts, is Land Bremen .-Geography:...
.
Kaisen was born in the German city of Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, and spent his youth there. The poverty of his family didn’t allow him to visit a higher school or even receive a high school education. After the First World War he moved to his wife’s home city Bremen. Influenced by his family he managed to get the SPD into the parliament of Bremen (Bürgerschaft). In 1928 Kaisen became Senator of Social Services.
Kaisen wasn’t involved in politics during the Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
but spent his time with agriculture in the suburb of Bremen-Borgfeld.
August 1, 1945 the US military government
Office of Military Government, United States
The Office of Military Government, United States was the United States military-established government created shortly after the end of hostilities in occupied Germany in World War II. Under General Lucius D...
made Kaisen mayor of Bremen. Supported by the Liberals as well as the Communists he tried to re-establish the political and economical structures of the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
. He was re-elected by the people of Bremen during the first free elections after the war.
Kaisen was very popular but less liked within the SPD itself. The decision to position Germany within the NATO led to a break with the president of the SPD Kurt Schumacher
Kurt Schumacher
Dr. Kurt Schumacher , was chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany from 1946 and first Leader of the Opposition in the West German Bundestag parliament from 1949 until his death...
.
A rescue cruiser as well as a bridge was given his name. In 1971 a container terminal in Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...
received the name of Wilhelm Kaisen as well.
On December 19, 1979 Kaisen died in Bremen.
He was the oldest former Minister-President of Germany from January 4, 1978 to June 9, 1980, preceded by Arthur Werner
Arthur Werner
Arthur Victor Hugo Werner was the first Mayor of Berlin after World War II.In 1907 Werner had graduated as an engineer at the Technical University of Charlottenburg...
and succeeded by Hans Ehard
Hans Ehard
Hans Ehard was a German lawyer and politician, a member of the Christian Social Union party.-Life:...
. If you only count the Ministers-President of the FRG
FRG
FRG may refer to:* Free Radical Gasification, a carbon conversion process developed by Responsible Energy Inc.* Family Readiness Groups in the United States Army...
(after formation) he was it since January 5, 1970, preceded by Christian Stock
Christian Stock
Christian Stock was a German Social Democrat politician and the first Prime Minister—Ministerpräsident—of the provisional state of Greater Hesse , which had been constituted in the aftermath of World War II...
.
Literature
- Karl-Ludwig Sommer: Wilhelm Kaisen. Eine politische Biographie. Hrsg. von der Wilhelm-und-Helene-Kaisen-Stiftung Bremen, Verlag J. H. W. Dietz Nachf., Bonn 2000, 541 S., geb., ISBN 3801202933