Walter Eckhardt (March 23, 1906 in

Bad Homburg vor der Höhe Bad Homburg vor der Höhe () is the district town of the Hochtaunuskreis, Hesse, on the southern slope of the Taunus mountains. Bad Homburg is part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. The town's official name is ''Bad Homburg v.d.Höhe'', w ...

Hesse-Nassau The Province of Hesse-Nassau () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1868 to 1918, then a province of the Free State of Prussia until 1944. Hesse-Nassau was created as a consequence of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 by combining the ...

– January 1, 1994) was a German

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

, who represented the

All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights The All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights (german: Gesamtdeutscher Block/Bund der Heimatvertriebenen und Entrechteten or GB/BHE) was a right-wing political party in West Germany, which acted as an advocacy group of the Germa ...

(GB/BHE) and subsequently the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU). He was a member of the

Parliament of Bavaria The Landtag of Bavaria, officially known in English as the Bavarian State Parliament, is the unicameral legislature of the German state of Bavaria. The parliament meets in the Maximilianeum in Munich. Elections to the Landtag are held every f ...

, a member of 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 Common ...

and a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

. Eckhardt was until 1943 a high-ranking official (Ministerialrat) in the Reichs

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the finance. Lists of current ministries of finance Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Finance (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Finance and Ec ...

. In 1943 he joined the German army and was captured in early 1945 by the British. He remained in captivity until 1948. Following his

repatriation Repatriation is the process of returning a thing or a person to its country of origin or citizenship. The term may refer to non-human entities, such as converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country, as well as to the pro ...

he settled in Munich where he worked as a lawyer and became politically active. In 1949 he was elected president of the German Union and became a member of the directorate of the All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights the following year. He was elected to the

in 1950, serving until 1954.Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte
/ref> He was elected to the

, serving from 1953 to 1957. In 1955 he left the BHE and joined the

CDU/CSU CDU/CSU, unofficially the Union parties (german: Unionsparteien, ) or the Union, is a centre-right Christian-democratic political alliance of two political parties in Germany: the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Soc ...

faction in March 1956. Following the resignation of Otto von Feury, Eckhardt, who had not been elected in the first place, rejoined the Bundestag for the rest of the term. Similarly, he only rejoined the Bundestag after the next elections as replacement candidate from 1964 to 1969. Additionally, Eckhardt served as a

from 1954 to 1956. The Walter Eckhardt Award for Contemporary History of the Zeitgeschichtliche Forschungsstelle Ingolstadt is awarded in his memory. Eckhardt was married with two daughters.

Publications

*''Ist der Deutsche Bundestag faul?''. In: Finanz Rundschau, 1965, Heft 14, Seiten 311 bis 312 *''Vom Beruf unserer Zeit zur Gesetzgebung. Savigny und die Gegenwart''. In: Gerhard Thoma, Ursula Niemann: ''Die Auslegung der Steuergesetze in Wissenschaft und Praxis'', Köln, 1965, Seiten 39 bis 55.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eckhardt, Walter 1906 births 1994 deaths People from Bad Homburg vor der Höhe People from Hesse-Nassau German Protestants All-German Bloc/League of Expellees and Deprived of Rights politicians Members of the Bundestag for Bavaria Christian Social Union in Bavaria MEPs Members of the Bundestag 1965–1969 Members of the Bundestag 1961–1965 Members of the Bundestag 1957–1961 Members of the Bundestag 1953–1957 Members of the Landtag of Bavaria Members of the Bundestag for the Christian Social Union in Bavaria MEPs for Germany 1958–1979