Kurt Gscheidle

Who was Kurt Gscheidle?

Kurt Gscheidle was a German politician affiliated with the Social Democratic Party.

Gscheidle trained as a mechanic at the Deutsche Reichspost until 1942, when he was called up by the Wehrmacht. In 1948 he returned from war captivity, began studies at the Dortmund University of Technology and graduated as an engineer. In 1953 Gscheidle became an official of the Deutsche Bundespost labor union and was elected vice-chairman in 1957. He had joined the SPD in 1956, from 1961 until 1969 and again from 1976 to 1980 he was a member of the Bundestag.

In 1969 Gscheidle was a nominee for chairman of the German Confederation of Trade Unions but had to step down in favour of Heinz Oskar Vetter. He then served as a secretary of state at the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications and from 1974 as Minister of Transport and Post and Telecommunications under Helmut Schmidt in the latter's three terms as Federal Chancellor.