Kurt Gscheidle

Kurt Gscheidle (16 December 1924 in Stuttgart – 22 February 2003 in Saarbrücken) was a German politician affiliated to the Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Gscheidle trained as a mechanic with 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 (DGB) 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 (until 1980) and Post and Telecommunications (until 1982) under Helmut Schmidt in the latter's three terms as Federal Chancellor.

Gscheidle stamp

Kurt Gscheidle is known among philatelists for a stamp designed on the occasion of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. As West Germany participated in the Olympics boycott the stamp was never issued, however Gscheidle, then Minister of Post had received some proofs which he kept after his incumbency. From 1982 to 1983 his wife erroneously used about 24 of these stamps for her private correspondence, which today realize peak prices at auctions. In October 2010, one of the Gscheidle stamps was sold for 26,000 euros in Düsseldorf, Germany.^[1]

References

1. ↑ Auctioneers Felzmann Top hammer price for the Gscheidle stamp

External links

• photo and signature
• Gscheidle stamp photo

Transport, Building and Urban Development Ministers of the Federal Republic of Germany
Transportation Verkehr	Hans-Christoph Seebohm (1949–1966) Georg Leber (1966–1972) Lauritz Lauritzen (1972–1974) Kurt Gscheidle (1974–1980) Volker Hauff (1980–1982) Werner Dollinger (1982–1987) Jürgen Warnke (1987–1989) Friedrich Zimmermann (1989–1991) Günther Krause (1991–1993) Matthias Wissmann (1993–1998)
Public Housing Development Wohnungsbau	Hermann-Eberhard Wildermuth (1949–1952) Fritz Neumayer (1952–1953) Victor-Emanuel Preusker (1953–1957) Paul Lücke (1957–1961)
Housing, Urban Development and Regional Planning Wohnungswesen, Städtebau und Raumordnung	Paul Lücke (1961–1965)
Housing and Urban Development Wohnungswesen und Städtebau	Ewald Bucher (1965–1966) Bruno Heck (1966) Lauritz Lauritzen (1966–1969)
Urban Development and Housing Städtebau und Wohnungswesen	Lauritz Lauritzen (1969–1972)
Regional Planning, Construction and Urban Development Raumordnung, Bauwesen und Städtebau	Hans-Jochen Vogel (1972–1974) Karl Ravens (1974–1978) Dieter Haack (1978–1982) Oscar Schneider (1982–1989) Gerda Hasselfeldt (1989–1991) Irmgard Schwaetzer (1991–1994) Klaus Töpfer (1994–1998) Eduard Oswald (1998)
Transportation, Construction and Housing Verkehr, Bau- und Wohnungswesen	Franz Müntefering (1998–1999) Reinhard Klimmt (1999–2000) Kurt Bodewig (2000–2002) Manfred Stolpe (2002–2005)
Transportation, Construction and Urban Development Verkehr, Bau und Stadtentwicklung	Wolfgang Tiefensee (2005–2009) Peter Ramsauer (since 2009)