Heinrich Held

Infobox Politician
name = Heinrich Held


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office = Minister President of Bavaria
term_start = 1924
term_end = 1933
predecessor = Eugen Ritter von Knilling
successor = Ludwig Siebert
office2 = Minister for Commerce, Industry and Trade
term_start2 = 1927
term_end2 = 1932
predecessor2 =
successor2 =
office3 = Minister for Agriculture
term_start3 = 1930
term_end3 = 1932
predecessor3 =
successor3 =
office4 = Minister for Economy
term_start4 = 1932
term_end4 = 1933
predecessor4 =
successor4 =
birth_date = Birth date|1868|6|6
birth_place = Erbach, Germany
nationality = German
death_date = Death date|1938|8|4
death_place = Regensburg
party = Bavarian People's Party
relations =
residence = Regensburg, Bavaria
alma_mater =
occupation = Journalist
religion = Roman Catholic


website =
footnotes =

Heinrich Held (6 June 1868 – 4 August 1938) was a Catholic politician and Minister President of Bavaria. He was forced out of office by the Nazi takeover in Germany in 1933.

Life

Heinrich Held was born in in Erbach in the Hunsrück, then a part of Prussia. His father, Johannes Held, was a local farmer and musician, his mother was Susanne Held née Kaiser.

Held studied law at the universities of Straßburg, Marburg and Heidelberg before becoming a journalist in Straßburg in 1896. He moved to Heidelberg the year after and became editor of the "Regensburger Morgenblatts", a newspaper in the Bavarian city of Regensburg, in 1899. He moved to take up the same position at the "Regensburger Anzeiger" the year after. From 1906, he became a co-owner of those two newspapers and begun his political involvement as a speaker in the conservative-christian workers movements.

Held became a member of the Bavarian parliament in 1907, for the Bavarian branch of the "Centre Party", and continued to be a member until 1933. He belonged to the left wing of his party and was mainly interested in fiscal politics.

He quickly rose to power within the party, becoming his party's leader in parliament 1914 and party leader shortly afterwards. In 1917, Held was elevated to the title of "Geheimer Hofrat", a member of the Bavarian privy council.

In 1918, after the end of the monarchy in Bavaria, Heinrich Held was one of the co-founders of the "Bavarian People's Party" (BVP), transforming the Centre's Bavarian branch into a party emphasizing conservative elements and states rights. Held remained the parliamentary leader of the party.

Held also served as the president of the "Deutscher Katholikentag" from 1921, a regular gathering and discussion forum for the German catholics.

In July 1924, after the resignation of Eugen Ritter von Knilling, Held became prime minister of Bavaria. His government was supported by his own party, the national-conservative "German National People's Party", the national-liberal "German People's Party" and the "Bauernbund". His politics as prime minister were aimed at reconciliation with the federal government and a move away from separatism. In 1924, he also signed a Concordat with the Holy See.

He ran in the first round of the 1925 German presidential elections and achieved 3.7 percent of the votes. In the second round, his party supported the right-wing candidate Paul von Hindenburg instead of the Centre Party's candidate Wilhelm Marx.

In 1930, his government lost its majority in parliament and continued as a minority government. From 1930 to 1932, Held also held the offices of "Ministers of State for Commerce, Industry and Trade" and "Ministers of State for Agriculture" . Both were merged to form the "Ministry for Economy" which he held from 1932 to 1933 [ [http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Rotunda/2209/Bavaria.html Ministers of Bavaria] ] .

He continued to advocate states rights within the German republic, publishing papers on the subject. He sharply criticized the removal of the Prussian prime minister Otto Braun by Chancellor Franz von Papen in 1932, a move he considered an illegal interference of the central government in state matters [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,743972,00.html Time Magazine - "Fair or Foul"] 11 July 1932] .

An attempt supported by a wide coalition of parties, to establish Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria, as a "Staatskommisar" with dictatorial powers in 1932 to counter the Nazis failed due to the hesitant Bavarian government under Held [ [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=rJNoVaft2PoC&pg=RA1-PA72&lpg=RA1-PA72&dq=Rupprecht+von+Bayern&source=web&ots=3tZzClSo1n&sig=5EBVt2lX628Feoh9gTDGZlPlR7s&hl=en Royals and the Reich: The Princes Von Hessen in Nazi Germany] google book review, Page 72, author: Jonathan Petropoulos, accessdate: 29 April 2008] [cite web|url=http://www.bbkl.de/r/rupprecht_m_l_f.shtml|title=Rupprecht von Bayern (in German)|publisher=Kirchenlexikon|date=|accessdate=2008-04-29] . Held himself had suggested the idea but wavered in the last minute, choosing not to make an announcement appointing the crown prince to the planned position [ [http://www.jacobite.ca/essays/ww2.htm The Royal Family, the Nazis, and the Second World War] ] .

The Bavarian government was forcibly removed by the Nazis on 9 March 1933. Held resisted the attempts by the SA to overthrow his government at first but due to receiving no support from the German army, who had orders from Berlin to stay out of domestic politics, he could ultimately not hold off the Nazis [ [http://books.google.com.au/books?id=SZGd4niiMdsC&pg=PA261&lpg=PA261&dq=Heinrich+Held+&source=web&ots=DAD_oSNRrc&sig=uK3aQHxzNaLlFkpE3CLv8pPku_Y&hl=en A History of Modern Germany, 1800-2000] google book review, author: Martin Kitchen, Blackwell Publishing] . The office of Bavarian prime minister was abolished and replaced by a "Reichsstatthalter", a purely administrative position with no political power [ [http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Rotunda/2209/Bavaria.html Ministers of Bavaria] ] . Held retired from politics, first escaping to Lugano, Switzerland, where his son Josef lived, later withdrawing to Regensburg. His government pension as a former prime minister was revoked by the Nazis [ [http://www.grabendoerfer.de/web_gedenk/ Opfer und Verfolgte des NS-Regimes aus bayrischen Parlamenten - Heinrich Held] (in German), accessed: 6 May 2008] .

His son Philipp became one of the first inmates at the Dachau concentration camp in 1933 [ [http://www.grabendoerfer.de/web_gedenk/ Opfer und Verfolgte des NS-Regimes aus bayrischen Parlamenten] (in German), accessed: 6 May 2008] .

On 4 August 1938, Heinrich Held died in Regensburg

Honors

* Honorary doctorate at the universities of Munich, Innsbruck and Würzburg

ee also

* List of Premiers of Bavaria

ources

* [http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/biografien/HeldHeinrich/index.html Website of the "Deutsch Historische Museum", Berlin - Biography of Heinrich Held] (in German)
* [http://www.grabendoerfer.de/web_gedenk/ Opfer und Verfolgte des NS-Regimes aus bayrischen Parlamenten] (in German)
* [http://rzblx2.bibliothek.uni-regensburg.de/blo/boslview/boslview.php?seite=341&band=1 Universitätsbibliothek Regensburg - Bosls bayrische Biographie - Heinrich Held] (in German), author: Karl Bosl, publisher: Pustet, page 327

References