Hans Reichelt

{{Short description|German politician (1925–2025)}} {{use dmy dates|date=August 2023}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Hans Reichelt | image = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-86336-0001, Werneuchen, Bauernforum mit Hans Reichelt.jpg | caption = Reichelt at the 1961 Farmers' Forum | office1 = Minister for Environmental Protection and Water Management | 1blankname1 = {{nowrap|Chairman of the Council of Ministers}} | 1namedata1 = {{ubl|Willi Stoph|Horst Sindermann|Willi Stoph|Hans Modrow}} | term_start1 = 9 March 1972 | term_end1 = 11 January 1990 | predecessor1 = Werner Titel | successor1 = Peter Diederich | office2 = Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Food | 1blankname2 = {{nowrap|Chairman of the Council of Ministers}} | 1namedata2 = {{ubl|Otto Grotewohl}} | term_start2 = 20 May 1955 | term_end2 = 7 February 1963 | predecessor2 = Paul Scholz | successor2 = Karl-Heinz Bartsch (as Chairman of the Agricultural Council) | 1blankname3 = {{nowrap|Chairman of the Council of Ministers}} | 1namedata3 = {{ubl|Otto Grotewohl}} | term_start3 = May 1953 | term_end3 = October 1953 | predecessor3 = Wilhelm Schröder | successor3 = Paul Scholz {{Collapsed infobox section begin |last=yes |Parliamentary constituencies |titlestyle=border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder | embed = yes | office4 = Member of the Volkskammer for Hohenmölsen, Naumburg, Weißenfels, Zeitz | term_start4 = 8 November 1950 | term_end4 = 5 April 1990 | predecessor4 = ''Constituency established'' | successor4 = ''Constituency abolished''{{Collapsed infobox section end}} }} | birth_date = {{birth date|1925|03|30|df=y}} | birth_place = Proskau, Upper Silesia, Prussia, Germany (now Prószków, Poland) | death_date = {{death date and age|2025|01|14|1925|03|30|df=y}} | death_place = Schöneiche bei Berlin, Brandenburg, Germany | resting_place = | party = Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany (1949–1990) | other_party = Nazi Party (1943–1945) | spouse = | children = | alma_mater = Berlin School of Economics and Law | allegiance = Nazi Germany | branch = Wehrmacht | rank = Lieutenant | battles = Second World War }}

'''Hans Reichelt''' (30 March 1925 – 14 January 2025) was a German politician of the Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany (DBD), a GDR-Bloc party. He was Minister of Agriculture and Forestry in 1953 and from 1955 to 1963, and from 1972 to January 1990, Minister of Environmental Protection and Water Management, as well as Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the GDR.

== Life and career == [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1988-0710-008, Berlin, Gespräch Reichelt, Töpfer, Bräutigam.jpg|thumb|Reichelt (right) in conversation with Federal Minister of the Environment Klaus Töpfer (left) and the Permanent Representative of the Federal Republic in the GDR Hans Otto Bräutigam, 1988]] Hans Reichelt was born on 30 March 1925, in Proskau. He attended secondary school in Opole. He was a member of the Hitler Youth and the Reich Labour Service. On 20 April 1943 (Hitler's birthday), he joined the NSDAP (Membership Number 9,454,165). He served as a soldier in the German Wehrmacht (ultimately holding the rank of Lieutenant) and was in Soviet POW camps until 1949, during which he attended an Antifa school.<ref>Olaf Kappelt: ''Braunbuch DDR. Nazis in der DDR'' Berlin historica, 2009, pp. 482–483, ISBN 978-3-939929-12-3.</ref>

Upon returning to Germany, he became a member of the Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany (DBD) and held various positions (president since 1955) in the party leadership. He was a member of the People's Chamber from 1950. In 1953, he briefly served as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, succeeding Wilhelm Schröder. After attending the Central School for Agricultural Policy of the Central Committee of the SED in Schwerin, on 29 October 1953, he was appointed Secretary of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry by Prime Minister Otto Grotewohl.<ref>Protocol of the 142nd Meeting of the Government of the GDR on 29 October 1953 - Bundesarchiv DC 20-I/3/204.</ref> From 1955 to 1963, he again served as Minister of Agriculture, Procurement, and Forestry, succeeding Paul Scholz.{{citation needed|date= August 2023}}

From 1963 to 1964, he pursued higher education studies, and in 1971, he earned his doctorate at the Berlin School of Economics and Law with the thesis ''The Role and Position of Land Improvement in the Intensification of Agricultural Production and the Social Development of Socialist Agriculture and Some Fundamental Problems of the Further Application of the Economic System of Socialism in the Period up to 1980''. From 1963 to 1972, he was Deputy Chairman of the Agriculture Council, and in 1971–1972, he was Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, and Food. In this capacity, he was involved in what environmental activist Carlo Jordan called "environmentally disastrous decisions" in the areas of forced collectivization, agricultural industrialization, and land improvement.<ref>Carlo Jordan: ''Environmental Destruction and Environmental Policy in the GDR'', Enquete Commission on the reappraisal of the history and consequences of the SED dictatorship in Germany, published by the German Bundestag, 12th legislative period, Vol. II/3, p. 1785.</ref>

Reichelt died in Berlin on 14 January 2025, at the age of 99.<ref>{{cite news |title=Früherer DDR-Minister Hans Reichelt ist tot |url=https://www.t-online.de/region/berlin/id_100574080/berlin-frueherer-ddr-minister-hans-reichelt-ist-tot.html |access-date=14 January 2025 |publisher=t-online |date=14 January 2025}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reichelt, Hans}} Category:1925 births Category:2025 deaths Category:People from Opole County, Opole Voivodeship Category:Deputy prime ministers of East Germany Category:Government ministers of East Germany Category:Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany politicians