Martin Schiele

Martin Schiele (17 January 1870 – 16 February 1939) was a German manufacturer (brickworks in Reckling and Neu-Schollene, which also included the starch factory in Neu-Molkenberg) and lord of the manor (Rittergut Neu-Schollene near Rathenow). Schiele was also a nationalist (German Conservative Party, DNVP, CNBL), member of the Reichstag, President of the Reichslandbund, the interest group representing farmers in the German Reich, founder of the Christian National Farmers' and Rural People's Party, and in the Weimar Republic briefly Reich Minister of the Interior and twice Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture.

Martin Schiele
Dr. rer. agr. h. c. Martin Schiele
Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture
In office 31 March 1930 – 1 June 1932
Chancellor	Heinrich Brüning
Preceded by	Hermann Dietrich
Succeeded by	Magnus von Braun
In office 1 February 1927 – 28 June 1928
Chancellor	Wilhelm Marx
Preceded by	Heinrich Haslinde
Succeeded by	Hermann Dietrich
Member of the Reichstag
In office 24 June 1920 – 18 July 1930
Constituency	Magdeburg
Member of the Weimar National Assembly
In office 6 February 1919 – 21 May 1920
Constituency	Magdeburg

Schiele's gravestone

Life

He was part of the leadership of the German National People's Party (DNVP) from its 1918 founding until Alfred Hugenberg became leader in 1928. He was also the chief representative of the agrarian wing of the DNVP.^[1] As a member of Hans Luther's coalition government, Schiele secured the restoration of agricultural and industrial protectionism with the tariff of 1925.^[2] As minister of food in 1927–28, he favored state credit as a means for subsidising agriculture.^[3]

He was persuaded by President Hindenburg to return as minister of food in Heinrich Brüning's cabinet.^[4] The Agricultural League under Schiele's leadership was criticised by Richard Walther Darré's Nazi agrarian apparatus. Schiele ceased to be leader of the Agricultural League shortly after the 1930 election.^[5] Unhappy with Hugenberg's leadership, Schiele left the DNVP and moved closer to the Conservative People's Party.^[6]

Family

Schiele, who was of the Protestant faith, came from a farming family; his father was already a manor tenant.

Marriage

Schiele was married to Thekla, née Borchmann, daughter of the wealthy merchant and brickworks owner Theodor Hubert Borchmann (1824–1882).

Daughter Erika

On 14 July 1920, Erika Schiele (b. 26 January 1899) married her fiancé 1st Lieutenant Otto Lüdecke. Otto and Erika would have four children:

• Gisela (b. 9 May 1921 in Staßfurt)
• Joachim Otto (b. 13 January 1924 in Küstrin), 2nd Lieutenant of the Wehrmacht, killed-in-action on 1 July 1944 near Nowa Niwa
• Klaus (b. 17 July 1926 in Stettin)
• Christel Ingeborg Marianne (6 December 1931 in Berlin)

External links

• Newspaper clippings about Martin Schiele in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW