Wilhelm Niklas (24 September 1887 – 12 April 1957) was a German academic and politician, who was the first minister of food, agriculture and forestry in Konrad Adenauer's first cabinet.

Early life and education

Niklas was born in

Traunstein Traunstein (Central Bavarian: ''Traunstoa'') is a town in the south-eastern part of Bavaria, Germany, and is the administrative center of a much larger district of the same name. The town serves as a local government, retail, health services, ...

, southern Bavaria, on 24 September 1887. He studied law and political science for two semesters and then he studied agriculture and veterinary medicine. He graduated from

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establis ...

with a degree in veterinary medicine. In 1914, he received a PhD in veterinary science with the thesis "The development of the Bavarian cattle insurance office in the first 15 years of its existence".

Career

Niklas began his career at his alma mater as a research assistant and worked there until 1912. Then he moved to state veterinary service. He was the department chief for livestock breeding and animal products in the Bavarian ministry of agriculture from 1925 until 1935 when he was fired by the Nazis. Then he dealt with the management of large estates, and bought and ran a farm in southern Bavaria. He was a member of the Bavarian People's Party before 1933. From 1945 to 1947 he was the state secretary at the Bavarian ministry of food, agriculture and forestry. He was a member of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) which he joined in 1946. From 1947 to 1949 he served as the deputy director of the department for food, agriculture and forestry at the united economic area. He was also an academic and became professor at the Veterinary Faculty of

Munich University The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

in 1947. From 1948 to 1949 he was the deputy director of the Bizonal food and agriculture administration. He served as the minister of food, agriculture and forestry in the cabinet led by Konrad Adenauer. Niklas was in office from 20 September 1949 to 20 October 1953. He was replaced by

Heinrich Lübke Karl Heinrich Lübke (; 14 October 1894 – 6 April 1972) was a German politician, who served as president of West Germany from 1959 to 1969. He suffered from deteriorating health towards the end of his career and is known for a series of embar ...

in the post. In a May 1951

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

he was elected to the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...

Personal life and death

Niklas was a Catholic. He died in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

on 12 April 1957 due to complications following a car accident.

Legacy

The federal ministry of agriculture has been awarding "Professor-Niklas-Medal” for his memory. It is the highest award given by the ministry.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Niklas, Wilhelm 1887 births 1957 deaths German Roman Catholics Bavarian People's Party politicians Agriculture ministers of Germany Federal government ministers of Germany Members of the Bundestag 1949–1953 Members of the Bundestag for the Christian Social Union in Bavaria German veterinarians Technical University of Munich alumni Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany People from Traunstein Politicians from the Kingdom of Bavaria