Anton Storch (1 April 1892 – 26 November 1975) was a German trade unionist, politician, a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the minister of labor from 1949 to 1957.

Early life

Storch was born in Fulda,

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...

, in 1892. He was trained as a carpenter and served in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Career

Storch was the functionary of Woodworker's Christian Trade Union from 1920 to 1933, trade union chairman of

Hanover region Hanover Region (german: Region Hannover) is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Heidekreis, Celle, Gifhorn, Peine, Hildesheim, Hamelin-Pyrmont, Schaumburg and Nienburg. T ...

from 1931 to 1933 and insurance agent until 1939. From 1939 to 1945 he served as a member of air raid police. He contributed to the reestablishment of the trade unions in Hanover (British Zone) in 1945 and 1946. From 1946 to 1948, he served as the chief of department for social policy of British Zone trade unions. He became a member of Bizonal Economic Council in 1947 and was named its director of labor in 1948. He was the director of the workers' union (Verwaltung für Arbeit (VfA)) until 1949. He was a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and one of the CDU representatives in 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 ...

. He became a member of the Bundestag in 1949 and served there until 1965. In the party he served at the social affairs committee. Then he was appointed minister of labor and social affairs to the cabinet led by

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

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

on 20 September 1949. He was in office until 29 October 1957 when

Theodor Blank Theodor Anton Blank (19 September 1905 – 14 May 1972) was a German politician of the CDU. He was one of the founders of the CDU in 1945. Blank was born in Elz an der Lahn. He was the third of ten children of a carpenter. His family was R ...

replaced him in the post.

Views

Storch was an advocate of "far-reaching social welfare programme" and of

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

political economy Political economy is the study of how economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and political systems (e.g. law, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour ...

. He argued that the reason for two world wars was the "exaggerated liberal-capitalistic economic order of the last one hundred years."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Storch, Anton 1892 births 1975 deaths Labor ministers (Germany) Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Members of the Bundestag for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany Members of the Bundestag for Lower Saxony Members of the Bundestag 1961–1965 Members of the Bundestag 1957–1961 Members of the Bundestag 1953–1957 Members of the Bundestag 1949–1953 People from Fulda People of the Cold War Social Affairs ministers of Germany