Hirtsiefer, Heinrich

(1876-1941)

   politician and trade-union* leader; served as Prussian Welfare Minister during 1921-1932. Born to an in-dustrial worker in Essen, he apprenticed as a locksmith and thereafter worked for Krupp* steel until 1904. He soon joined the Christian labor movement and became district leader in 1904 and secretary in 1920 of the Christian-Social Metalworkers Union. In the years before World War I he struggled to institute more secure pension funding for workers. He was also active in the Center Party* and demanded a larger worker voice in the Party s program debates of 1921. The growing strength of the Center's conservative wing made it difficult to accommodate the Christian trade unions.

   Hirtsiefer was elected to Essen s city council in 1907. Other mandates fol-lowed until in 1919 he joined the Prussian Assembly. He succeeded Adam Stegerwald* in November 1921 as Prussian Welfare Minister and retained the position until Franz von Papen* dismissed Otto Braun s* cabinet in July 1932. Meanwhile, he was attentive to youth and the needs of working families (with Interior Minister Carl Severing,* he created Berliner Winterhilfe in 1930 for the unemployed). Although he belonged to his Party s left wing, he worked with Gottfried Treviranus,* the conservative Reichsminister for Occupied Territories, to establish the Osthilfe* Commission. After the 1930 Reichstag* elections he sponsored closer cooperation with the SPD; indeed, he played a key role in prolonging Braun s government and protested vigorously its dissolution in July 1932. While he was not among the era s colorful politicians, he was a committed and conscientious republican.

   Hirtsiefer was wrongly arrested on corruption charges in September 1933 and shipped to a concentration camp. Although the weakness of the state s case led to his release in July 1934, he was completely broken by the experience.

   REFERENCES:Benz and Graml, Biographisches Lexikon; NDB, vol. 9; Patch, Christian Trade Unions.