Rohde, Helmut

Education and career start

Grew up in a working environment in Hanover . Father Augustus Rohde, a locksmith at the shipyard, was a Social Democrat and a trade unionist, since 1918 he was considered a confidant of the Nazi Party in Kiel. After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, August Rode was left without work for many years.

Helmut Rohde graduated from a public school with good results and entered a real school. In 1943 he entered the work by order of the Imperial Labor Service , then was called up to the Wehrmacht . In 1945 he returned from captivity and worked for some time at Continental AG in Hanover, then became interested in journalism. In 1945 he joined the SPD. With the assistance of the Printers Union, Rode got a job with Fritz Heine in the press service of the SPD board in Hanover. In 1947, Helmut Rodet volunteered with the editorial board of the Deutscher Pressedienst news agency and then worked as DPA editor in Hanover.

In 1950-1953 he studied political science and economics at the Higher School of Labor, Politics and Economics in Wilhelmshaven . In 1953-1957 he worked as a press officer under the Minister of Social Welfare of the State of Lower Saxony, Heinrich Alberz .

Political career

Member of the SPD since 1945. He was chairman of the Hanover organization of the Union of Young Socialists and Socialists in the SPD and a member of the board of the party’s land branch in Hanover.

From 1973 to 1984, he was the federal chairman of the SPD temporary group on wage earners, a member of the social policy committee under the chairman of the SPD (1975-1983).

In 1957-1987 he was elected to the Bundestag . In 1979-1983 he was deputy chairman of the SPD faction. In 1964-1965 he was also a deputy of the European Parliament .

In the years 1969-1974 in the government of Willy Brandt, he served as Secretary of State under the Federal Minister of Labor and Social Order Walter Arendt and took an active part in the preparation of the law on the promotion of employment. In the first government of Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, he took the post of Federal Minister of Education and Science. During this period, laws were passed on the general principles of the organization of higher education, vocational education and the promotion of employment in the field of education. As a result of the reorganization of the Cabinet of Ministers, Rode left the government on February 16, 1978 and devoted himself to further parliamentary work, concentrating on issues of socio-economic development.

• Biography (German)