Josef Schrage (May 6, 1881 – November 27, 1953) was a Westphalian

metalworker Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on every scale ...

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

official and politician, first of the Center Party and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

as one of the founders of the Christian Democratic Union.

Background

Schrage was born May 6, 1881, in Olpe and attended

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

there. From 1895 to 1911 he worked as a

. In 1916 he became full-time secretary of the Christlicher Metallarbeiterverband (Christian Metalworkers' Federation) in Siegen ''kreis'' and Olpe ''kreis''. From 1919 to 1928 Schrage was head of the union administrative offices in Olpe, and from 1928 on, their Labor Office Director.

Politics

In parallel, Schrage was politically active in the framework of the Centre Party. From 1919 to 1933 he was a

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

or in Olpe, he was on the ''Kreistag'', and from 1921 to 1933 sat in the

Province of Westphalia The Province of Westphalia () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1815 to 1946. In turn, Prussia was the largest component state of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918, of the Weimar Republic and from 1918 ...

Provincial Parliament (''Provinziallandtag''). After the seizure of power by the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

, he lost his position as Labor Office Director and until the end of World War II distributed the

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

''Tremonia'' (Dortmund). After the liberation of Germany, Schrage was full-time mayor of Olpe from May 1945 through March 1946. He was one of the founding members of the Christian Democratic Union in Olpe, and played a role in the party's founding in

Ostwestfalen-Lippe Ostwestfalen-Lippe (, literally ''East(ern) Westphalia-Lippe'', abbreviation OWL) is the eastern region of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, congruent with the administrative region of Detmold and containing the eastern part of Westph ...

. From 1946 to 1953 he was a member of the

Landtag A Landtag (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence in non- ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

. In 1948–1949, Schrage was a member of the ''

Parlamentarischer Rat The ''Parlamentarischer Rat'' (German for "Parliamentary Council") was the West German constituent assembly in Bonn that drafted and adopted the constitution of West Germany, the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, promulgated on 23 Ma ...

'' which drafted and adopted the

Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany. The West German Constitution was approved in Bonn on 8 May 1949 and came in ...

''(Grundgesetz)''.Between 1950 and 1953 he was Chairman of the Regional Assembly. He was from 1947 to 1949 first deputy chairman and from 1949 to 1950 (as the successor to

Konrad Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a Germany, German statesman who served as the first Chancellor of Germany, chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the fir ...

) chairman of the CDU/CSU or Union ''fraktion''. From then until his death he was honorary chairman. In the fall of 1953 he resigned from all his posts and died on November 27, 1953, from the effects of stroke.

Background

Politics

See also