Everything about Siegfried Balke totally explained
Siegfried Balke (born on
June 1 1902 in
Bochum, died on
June 11 1984 in
Munich) was a
German politician (
CSU).
He served as German Federal Minister for Post and Communications from
1953 to
1956 and as German Federal Minister for Nuclear Energy from
1956 to
1962.
Education and Professional Life
Master's degree in chemistry
1924, doctorate in chemistry
1925. During the Nazi period, Balke, a Protestant Christian, was classified as a half-Jew, which prevented him from pursuing an academic career in Germany.
From
1925 to
1952, he worked for various chemical companies, until he became director of
Wacker Chemie in 1952. A 50% stake of Wacker Chamie was held by the chemical conglomerate
IG Farben until 1945, and then by Hoechst AG. After 1945, Balke was one of the few executives of the German chemical industry not stained by Nazi collaboration, which led to his chairmanship of the Association of the Bavarian Chemical Industry. He was honorary professor for chemical processing at the
Ludwig-Maximilians-University in
Munich since
1956.
After his resignation as Minister for Nuclear Energy, he was president of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA) from
1964 to
1969 and chairman of the Technical Monitoring Association (
TÜV).
Balke was co-publisher of "Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Technical Chemistry" as well as the periodicals "Chemical Industry" and "Nuclear Econony" (all in German).
Party
Since
1954, Balke was member of the
CSU.
Member of Parliament
From
1957 to
1969, Balke was a member of the German parliament (
Bundestag).
In the federal elections of 1957 and 1961, Balke was elected to the German parliament as a direct representative of the Munich-North district, and in 1965 through the state list of Bavaria.
Public Offices
Following the German federal elections of 1953, he was appointed to serve as Federal Minister of Post and Communications in the cabinet of
Konrad Adenauer based on a recommendation by the CSU party group.
One aspect for his appointment was his Protestant faith, which allowed to preserve a denominational balance in
the cabinet.
On
October 16 1956, he became Federal Minister for Nuclear Energy.
After the cabinet reshuffle following the
Spiegel scandal, Balke was dismissed from the federal cabinet on
December 13 1962.
During Balke's term as Minister for Nuclear Energy, the German Electron Synchrotron (
DESY) was founded, one of
Germany's largest research centers for
particle physics. While Balke's predecessor
Franz Josef Strauß focused
his interest on military nuclear technology, Balke was mostly interested in research for civilian purposes.
In 1957, he publicly sided with the signers of the
Göttingen Manifesto against arming the German military with tactical nuclear weapons. More than Strauß, and more than his successors, Balke was close to the interests of the nuclear industry. He was an advocate of an independent German nuclear industry.
Sources
German Wikipedia article
Joachim Radkau, Aufstieg und Krise der deutschen Atomwirtschaft, Reinbek 1983, ISBN 3499177560
Further Information
Get more info on 'Siegfried Balke'.
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