Strelitz, Johannes

Lawyer, politician, Minister of State

Born: 20.11.1912 in Berlin

died: 07.03.1991 in Wiesbaden

Strelitz studied law and political science, joined the NSDAP in November 1932 and left again in July 1933. He obtained his doctorate in Göttingen in 1936. Because of his Jewish descent, he was barred from holding any public office. From 1938 he worked as an interpreter in Berlin. In 1942-45, he took part in the Second World War as a soldier and became a member of the SPD after the end of the war. He found a new home in Wiesbaden, worked as a lawyer, interpreter and freelance journalist and joined the Hessian civil service in 1952. From 1958, he was press officer at the Hessian Ministry of Labor, Economics and Transport.

He was a city councillor in Wiesbaden from 1956-67 and Chairman of the Finance and Economic Committee in 1958. From 1958-74, he was a member of the Hessian State Parliament and Chairman of the Budget Committee; he also chaired the SPD parliamentary group in the state parliament from 1964-67. As Minister of State for Justice and Plenipotentiary of the State of Hesse to the Federal Government (1967-69), he campaigned for the reform of civil and criminal law. In 1967, he became a member of the German Bundestag (until 1969) and subsequently Hessian State Minister of the Interior and Deputy Prime Minister until 1970. He was a member of the State Court of Hesse from 1975-84.

Strelitz was co-founder of the German-Israeli Society and Chairman of the Historical Commission for the History of the Jews in Hesse. As deputy chairman, he was a member of the Federal Arbitration Commission of the SPD. He was a member of various lodges.

He was awarded the Grand Cross of Merit in 1972 and the Grand Cross of Merit with Star in 1978. The state of Hesse honored him in 1977 by awarding him the Wilhelm Leuschner Medal.