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Alfred Loritz

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German lawyer and politician

Alfred Loritz (born 24 April 1902 in Munich – died 14 April 1979 in Vienna) was a German lawyer and politician who briefly rose to prominence in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.

Early life

A Munich lawyer, the Catholic Loritz was a right-wing opponent of the Nazi regime. In early 1939, he made contact with a group of Bavarian monarchists in an ultimately-abortive attempt to foment discontent. Ultimately he would spend most of the war in exile in Switzerland.

Political career

In 1945, he established his own political party, the Wirtschaftliche Aufbau-Vereinigung (WAV) and soon gained a reputation as a demagogic speaker. A believer in a strong federal Germany, Loritz's fiery rhetoric attracted attention both in Germany itself and from the occupiers, with some even suggesting that he might prove to be "a new Hitler". However, although he belonged to the political right, Loritz's populism lacked a strong ideological basis, and he appealed mainly to internal refugees who saw him as a strong voice for their defence. He was also a strong advocate of denazification and under the Bavarian government of Hans Ehard was chosen to head up a special ministry for that purpose.

Always at best a loose organisation, the WAV won twelve seats in the Bundestag in the 1949 election but by then had already largely disintegrated as an organisation and saw its vote collapse in the state elections of 1950 and the municipal elections of 1952, when its vote share had fallen to 0.3%. In the Bundestag, the party quickly fell apart, with four deputies breaking away in October 1950 to link up with the Centre Party. That was followed by six more in December 1951 leaving WAV to join the German Party, along with a seventh, who joined the Deutsche Rechtspartei. Loritz was thus left as the sole member in the Bundestag and, although a handful of far-right independents linked up with him in 1953, his influence had largely gone.

Disappearance and death

In the late 1950s Loritz sought to relaunch his political career in Bremen, but before this could take off he was arrested on charges of incitement to perjury. Loritz escaped to Austria where he was eventually granted political asylum. He would live out his days there, dying in a Vienna hospital in 1979.

References

  1. James Donohoe, Hitler's Conservative Opponents in Bavaria, 1930–1945: A Study of Catholic, Monarchist, and Separatist Anti-Nazi Activities, Brill Archive, 1961, pp. 142–143
  2. Jose Raymund Canoy, The Discreet Charm of the Police State: The Landpolizei and the Transformation of Bavaria, 1945–1965, BRILL, 2007, p. 65
  3. ^ Alfred Grosser, Germany in Our Time, Penguin Books, 1971, p. 252
  4. Gavriel David Rosenfeld, Munich and Memory: Architecture, Monuments, and the Legacy of the Third Reich, University of California Press, 2000, p. 356
  5. ^ Grosser, Germany in Our Time, p. 253
  6. ^ Obituary from Der Spiegel

External links

Members of the 1st Bundestag (1949–1953)
President: Erich Köhler until 18 October 1950; Hermann Ehlers from 19 October 1950 (CDU)
CDU/CSU
CDU and CSU
Speaker: Konrad Adenauer until 21 September 1949; Heinrich von Brentano from 30 September 1949
SPD
SPD
Speaker: Kurt Schumacher until 20 August 1952; Erich Ollenhauer from 7 October 1952
FDP
FDP
Speaker: Theodor Heuss until 12 September 1949; Hermann Schäfer until 10 January 1951; August-Martin Euler until 6 May 1952; Hermann Schäfer from 6 May 1952
DP
DP
Speaker: Heinrich Hellwege until 2 November 1949; Friedrich Klinge until 21 December 1949; Hans Mühlenfeld until 15 March 1953; Hans-Joachim von Merkatz from 17 March 1953
BP
BP
Speaker: Gebhard Seelos until 25 September 1951; Hugo Decker from 25 September 1951
  • Members:
  • Aretin (from 14 December 1951 FU)
  • Aumer (from 8 September 1950 Non-attached)
  • Baumgartner (until 1 January 1951)
  • Besold (from 14 December 1951 FU)
  • Decker
  • Donhauser (from 8 September 1950 Non-attached, from 17 September 1952 CSU)
  • Eichner (from 14 December 1951 FU)
  • Etzel (from 14 December 1951 FU, from 3 December 1952 Non-attached (GVP))
  • Falkner (until 27 October 1950)
  • Fink (from 14 December 1951 FU, from 5 January 1952 CSU)
  • Fürstenberg (from 7 November 1950 Non-attached, from 19 January 1951 CSU)
  • Lampl (from 10 November 1950, from 14 December 1951 FU)
  • Maerkl (from 1 September 1952)
  • Mayerhofer (from 14 December 1951 FU)
  • Meitinger (from 26 September 1951, from 14 December 1951 FU)
  • Oettingen-Wallerstein (from 8 January 1951, from 14 December 1951 FU, until 1 September 1952)
  • Parzinger (from 14 December 1951 FU)
  • Rahn (from 14 January 1950, from 8 September 1950 Non-attached, from 17 October 1950 WAV-Gast, from 14 February 1951 CSU)
  • Seelos (until 25 September 1951)
  • Volkholz (from 14 December 1951 FU)
  • Wartner (from 14 December 1951 FU)
  • Ziegler (until 30 December 1949)
KPD
KPD
Speaker: Max Reimann
WAV
WAV
Speaker: Alfred Loritz
  • Members:
  • Bieganowski (from 21 March 1952, from 23 April 1952 DP/DPB, from 9 December 1952 Non-attached)
  • Fröhlich (from 13 October 1950 BHE/DG, from 21 March 1952 Non-attached)
  • Goetzendorff (from 29 March 1950 DRP-Gast, from 5 October 1950 Non-attached (DRP), from 29 April 1953 WAV)
  • Keller (from 24 April 1952, from 6 December 1951 DP, Non-attached)
  • Löfflad (from 6 December 1951 DP)
  • Loritz (from 6 December 1951 Non-attached, from 29 April 1953 WAV)
  • Paschek (from 29 March 1950 DRP-Gast, from 5 October 1950 Non-attached, from 30 January 1951 WAV, from 6 December 1951 DP, until 22 April 1952)
  • Reindl (from 6 December 1951 DP/DPB, from 9 December 1952 Non-attached, from 29 April 1953 WAV)
  • Schmidt (from 6 December 1951 DP/DPB, from 9 December 1952 Non-attached)
  • Schuster (from 6 December 1951 DP)
  • Tichi (from 13 October 1950 BHE/DG, from 21 March 1952 Non-attached)
  • Wallner (from 6 December 1951 DP/DPB, from 9 December 1952 Non-attached)
  • Weickert (from 13 October 1950 BHE/DG, until 16 March 1952)
  • Wittmann (from 6 December 1951 DP, from 9 May 1952 Non-attached, from 5 July 1952 CDU/CSU-Gast)
ZENTRUM
ZENTRUM
Speaker: Helene Wessel
  • Members:
  • Amelunxen (until 7 October 1949)
  • Arnold (from 14 December 1951 FU, from 9 December 1952 Non-attached (GVP))
  • Bertram (from 3 November 1949, from 14 December 1951 FU)
  • Determann (from 14 December 1951 FU)
  • Glasmeyer (from 23 November 1951 CDU)
  • Hamacher (until 29 July 1951)
  • Hoffmann (, from 14 December 1951 FU)
  • Krause (until 18 October 1950)
  • Pannenbecker (from 14 December 1951 FU)
  • Reismann (from 14 December 1951 FU)
  • Ribbeheger (from 14 December 1951 FU)
  • Wessel (from 14 December 1951 FU, from 13 November 1952 Non-attached (GVP))
  • Willenberg (from 26 October 1950, from 14 December 1951 FU)
DRP
DRP
  • Members:
  • Dorls (from 13 December 1950 WAV-Gast, from 17 January 1951 WAV, from 26 September 1951 Non-attached, am 23 October 1952 Mandatsaberkennung)
  • Frommhold (from 7 September 1949 Nationale Rechte, from 5 October 1950 Non-attached (DRP), from 26 March 1952 DP-Gast, from 11 February 1953 Non-attached)
  • Jaeger (from 29 February 1952)
  • Miessner (from 5 October 1950 FDP-Gast, from 20 December 1950 FDP)
  • Rößler (from 15 September 1949 Nationale Rechte, from 6 September 1950 Non-attached, from 13 December 1950 WAV-Gast, from 17 January 1951 WAV, from 26 September 1951 Non-attached, until 21 February 1952)
  • Thadden (from 15 September 1949 Nationale Rechte; 1950 DRP, from 20 April 1950 Non-attached)
OTHER
OTHER
  • Members:
  • Clausen (from 23 January 1952 FU-Gast, from 3 July 1953 Non-attached)
  • Edert (CDU/CSU-Gast)
  • Freudenberg (from 5 December 1952 Non-attached)
  • Ott (Non-attached, from 4 May 1950 WAV-Gast, from 13 October 1950 BHE/DG, from 21 March 1952 Non-attached, from 26 March 1952 DP/DPB-Gast, from 26 June 1952 Non-attached)
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