100th birthday of Willi Richter - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1994 - 100 Pfennig

When Willi Richter, at the age of 68, no longer ran for president of the German Trade Union Confederation in 1962, his successor, Ludwig Rosenberg, said goodbye to him: "You have undeniably served the long life of the great ideal of a just and decent society." Richter replied: "I have done nothing more than what you all do. I have worked. I worked on the place you put me on. "Willi Richter was born on October 1, 1894 in Frankfurt. There he attended elementary school and learned the profession of precision mechanic. At the Academy of Work and as a guest student at the University of Frankfurt, he continued his education. After the end of the First World War he became an employee of the city administration Frankfurt / Main and stood already at the age of 27 years before the general works council of all municipal enterprises of Frankfurt. Early on he had become active in the SPD and the trade union movement. In 1926 he became a secretary in the General Association of Public Enterprises in Darmstadt and then until 1933 as a district secretary in the General German Trade Union Confederation. Also in Darmstadt he was a member of the city council. In 1933 he was released, placed under police surveillance and repeatedly arrested. By 1945 he had to intervene as a sales representative. After the end of the war Willi Richter campaigned with great energy for the reconstruction of the Free Trade Union Confederation Hesse, of which he became its chairman in 1946. In 1949 he was elected as a member of parliament for the SPD in the first German Bundestag. When he was full-time appointed to the Executive Federal Board of the German Trade Union Confederation, he took over there the social policy department. He gained a high reputation both in the Bundestag and in the unions as a knowledgeable social politician, who mastered in particular the complicated social and labor law brilliantly. On October 7, 1956 Willi Richter was elected at the 4th DGB Federal Congress in Hamburg as Walter Freitag's successor to the first chairman of the German Trade Union Confederation. He was also vice-president of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions in Brussels, board member of the International Labor Office in Geneva, as well as a delegate of workers at the International Labor Conference and board member of the International Institute for Labor. In addition, he was a member of the European Parliament and was a member of the Senate of the Max Planck Society. As chairman of the DGB Richter fought in particular for the 40-hour week. Active wage policy, fair ownership, the 5-day work week, social rent and tax policy, and initial approaches to equality of civil servants, workers, and employees - all this he had put on his agenda on the labor market. Sociopolitically, he campaigned for disarmament and the abandonment of nuclear weapons. For him, the focus was on "social rearmament" and solidarity with the countries of the "Third World". Also against internal trade criticism he rejected any contacts with trade union organizations of the GDR. In 1959 Richter was again elected chairman of the DGB for three years. After Willi Richter had received the great Federal Cross of Merit with Star in 1958, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit with shoulder strap on his 65th birthday. Willi Richter died on 27 November 1972 at the age of 78 years in his hometown Frankfurt / Main. (Text: German Trade Union Confederation, Federal Executive, Dusseldorf)