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Klaus Reichenbach

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Klaus Reichenbach
President of the
Saxony Football Association
In office
6 October 1990 – 23 April 2016
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byHermann Winkler
Minister in the Minister-President's Office
In office
12 April 1990 – 2 October 1990
Minister-President
Preceded byHarry Möbis (as Head of the Secretariat of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers)
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Rudolf Seiters (as Head of the Federal Chancellery)
Parliamentary constituencies
Member of the Bundestag
for Chemnitz II – Chemnitz-Land
(Volkskammer; 1990)
In office
3 October 1990 – 10 November 1994
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byBernd Klaußner
Member of the Volkskammer
for Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt
In office
5 April 1990 – 2 October 1990
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
Born
Klaus Reichenbach

(1945-09-22) 22 September 1945 (age 79)
Altenburg, State of Thuringia, Soviet occupation zone, Allied-occupied Germany (now Thuringia, Germany)
Political partyChristian Democratic Union of Germany
(1990–)
Other political
affiliations		Christian Democratic Union (East Germany)
(1969–1990)
Alma mater
Occupation
  • Politician
  • Lawyer
  • Football Official

Klaus Reichenbach (born 22 September 1945) is a German football official and former politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

As minister in the Minister-President's Office in the cabinet of Lothar de Maizière, Reichenbach was an important figure in coordinating German reunification. He left politics in 1994, partly because he was hindered by his past as a bloc party politician loyal to the SED, and worked as lawyer and served as president of the Saxony Football Association and board member of the German Football Association (DFB).

Life and career

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Early career

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Reichenbach's father owned the company Hermann Reichenbach KG in Hartmannsdorf near Chemnitz, which specialized in manufacturing women's underwear.[1][2]

After training as a mechanical engineer, Reichenbach studied engineering economics at the Textile College in Reichenbach im Vogtland.[1][2][3][4][5] Following his father's death in 1969, he became the managing director of the family business, which he continued to lead as plant manager after its forced nationalization in 1972.[2][5]

Between 1975 and 1980, he completed a distance-learning program at the Academy for Political and Legal Sciences of the GDR in Potsdam, de facto a Marxist-Leninist cadre factory of the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED),[6] earning a diploma in political science (Dipl.-Staatswiss.). From 1982 to 1986, he undertook a distance-learning law program at Humboldt University of Berlin, graduating as a lawyer (Dipl.-Jur.).[1][2][3][4][5]

Beginning in 1985, he served as plant manager and later director of VEB Feinstrickwaren "Goldfasan" in Burgstädt.[1][2][3][4][5]

Bloc party politician

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Reichenbach joined the East German Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a bloc party beholden to the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED), in 1969.[1][2][3][4][5]

By 1974, he became chairman of the Karl-Marx-Stadt-Land CDU and joined the party's main board in 1987.[1][2][3][4][5]

On 1 July 1988, he was made chairman of the Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt CDU.[1][2][3][4][5] In this role, Reichenbach collaborated with the local SED, providing them an "annual assessment". In an October 1989 paper to the Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt SED security department, Reichenbach even developed plans for disaster and war cases for the year 1990.[7]

On 3 March 1990,[4] during the Peaceful Revolution, he was also elected chairman of the Saxon CDU.[1][2][4][5]

de Maizière Government

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In the first free elections in the GDR, Reichenbach was elected to the Volkskammer in March 1990 for Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt,[1][3][4] being the first-placed candidate on the CDU's list.[2] He was thereafter appointed as minister in the Minister-President's Office in the cabinet of Lothar de Maizière, serving from April until October 1990.[1][3][4][5][8] The ministry replaced the secretariat of the chairman of the Council of Ministers, mirroring the head of the Federal Chancellery.[5][8]

The ministry prepared cabinet meetings and controlled information flow to the minister-president. It was crucially responsible for coordinating German reunification,[5][8] the head of the German Unity Task Force Parliamentary State Secretary Günther Krause leading the negotiations with the Federal Republic on the Unification Treaty. Additionally, it supervised the Treuhandanstalt.[8]

Reunified Germany

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Reichenbach was one of 144 Volkskammer members co-opted to the Bundestag following German reunification on 3 October 1990.[1][2][3][4][5] In the first all-German Bundestag election in December 1990, he won the direct mandate in the constituency of Chemnitz II – Chemnitz-Land. Reichenbach served on the Bundestag's Sports Committee, the European Community Committee, and from 1992, on the Special Committee for the European Union.

He was considered a candidate for the role of Minister-President of Saxony,[5] but he declined for personal reasons and Kurt Biedenkopf, briefly chairman of North Rhine-Westphalia CDU in the 80s, instead became the CDU's top candidate for the October 1990 state elections and subsequently Minister-President. Amid continuous pressure regarding his past as a high-ranking bloc party politician,[4][5][7][9][10][11] he resigned as chairman of the Saxon CDU in September 1991,[1][2][4][9] with Biedenkopf taking over this position as well.[9]

Being frustrated by his lack of influence as a backbencher,[5] Reichenbach retired from politics completely in the 1994 federal election and has since worked as a lawyer in Hartmannsdorf.[1][2][3][4][5]

From its founding on 6 October 1990 until his resignation on 23 April 2016, Reichenbach was president of the Saxony Football Association (SFV).[1][2][3][4][5][12] He was subsequently named its honorary president.[12] He was also vice-president of the Northeastern German Football Association (NOFV)[1][2] and from 1997 to 2016, a member of the board of the German Football Association (DFB),[1][4][5][12] which later honored him with honorary membership.[12]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "Reichenbach, Klaus". www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de. Wer war wer in der DDR? (in German). Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship. 2009. Retrieved 2024-12-14.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Schröder, Wilhelm Heinz. "Personendaten". volkparl.bundestag.de. Die Abgeordneten der 10. Volkskammer der DDR (Volkparl) (in German). Retrieved 2024-12-14.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Ministerbiografie". Deutsche Einheit 1990 (in German). Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship. Retrieved 2024-12-14.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "Minister unter Lothar de Maizière". www.tu-chemnitz.de (in German). Chemnitz University of Technology. 2010-01-08. Retrieved 2024-12-14.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Sommer, Gerlinde (2020-05-26). "„Wir galten als neue Kräfte in der CDU, die versuchten, etwas zu verändern"". www.tlz.de (in German). Thüringische Landeszeitung. Retrieved 2024-12-14.
  6. ^ Appelius, Stefan (2009-08-29). "DDR-Kaderschmiede". Der Spiegel (in German). ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2024-12-14.
  7. ^ a b "Neues von Reichenbach". Die Tageszeitung (in German). 1990-12-01. ISSN 0931-9085. Retrieved 2024-12-14.
  8. ^ a b c d "Amt des Ministerpräsidenten". Deutsche Einheit 1990 (in German). Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship. Retrieved 2024-12-14.
  9. ^ a b c "Einheit nach innen". Die Zeit (in German). No. 45/1991. 1991-11-01. ISSN 0044-2070. Retrieved 2024-12-14.
  10. ^ "»Wie ein Nagel im Kuhmagen«". Der Spiegel (in German). 1991-09-01. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2024-12-14.
  11. ^ "Ernste Gefahr". Der Spiegel (in German). 1991-09-08. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2024-12-14.
  12. ^ a b c d e.V, Sächsischer Fußball-Verband (2016-11-04). "Klaus Reichenbach zum DFB-Ehrenmitglied ernannt". www.sfv-online.de. Sächsischer Fußball-Verband e.V. Retrieved 2024-12-14.
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