Adam Stegerwald

Adam Stegerwald (14 December 1874, Greußenheim, Lower Franconia  – 3 December 1945) was a German Catholic politician and a leader of the left wing of the Centre Party.

The son of a farmer attended from 1881 to 1888 the primary school in Greußenheim. In Würzburg he learned the profession of a carpenter. In 1893, he entered the Catholic Gesellenverein in Günzburg (Swabia).

From 1900 to 1902 he was a private listener of Lujo Brentano for two semesters for economics and special economics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. From 1903 to 1905 he attended lectures at the Graduate School of Cologne. He was from 1916 to 1919 a member of the board of the Reichsernähungsamt. From 1917 to 1918 he belonged to the Prussian House of Lords.

As a representative of the Christian trade unions he signed on November 15, 1918 the "Arbeitsgemeinschaftsabkommen" between the employer's association and the trade unions. From 1919 to 1929 he became the head of the Christian German Union Federation (DGB). He was from 1919 to 1920 a member of the National Assembly. He belonged to the 'Committee for the preliminary discussion of the draft constitution for the German Empire' of the National Assembly. From March 1919 to November 1921 he was Prussian Minister for People's Welfare. From April to November 1921 he held both the office of the Prussian Minister-president, from April 1929 to March 1930 that of the Minister for Transports, from March 1930 to May 1932, the Minister for employment.

As Minister of Labour in the cabinet of his former personal assistant Heinrich Brüning he tried to save under the conditions of the Great Depression at least the basics of the Weimar welfare state. He failed therein because of the resistance of the Heavy industry. On February 21, 1933, he was attacked at an election rally in Krefeld by Nazis. In March 1933, he led together with Ludwig Kaas and Albert Hackelsberger negotiations with Adolf Hitler. Afterwards the Centre party agreed to the Enabling Act. From 1933 to 1934 he was indicted along with Wilhelm Marx and Heinrich Brauns in the trial of the Cologne Volksverein Verlag in his capacity as board member of the National Association for Catholic Germany, but the process was set in 1934. On July 30, 1934, he submerged temporarily.

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