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HEINRICH HELLWEGL.
encourage grain-growing: he sees German agricultural
future in dairy products and eggs. Says he: "The farmer
must fertilize his brain as well as his field."
Asked if there is any chance of unifying small, un-
economic strip farms into larger units, Minister Niklas
said: "At present we have no right to do any more than
recommend such action to the people involved."
Labor Minister Anton Storch
Anton Storch, (CDU), Minister of Labor, sits between the
unions and management on labor problems, including the
currently controversial question of co-determination (Mit-
bestimmungsrecht).
Carpenter Storch got his start early in Catholic trade
union work, advancing through the woodworkers' union
to important posts in the combined trade union movement.
Under the Nazis and their "Labor Front," Mr. Storch had
to shift to selling insurance, but in 1945 he returned to his
old work, helping to reorganize the union administration.
Local and state politics had no charm for former air raid
warden Storch in the first years after the war. His success-
ful campaign as CDU Bundestag candidate from Osna-
brueck, in Lower Saxony, was his first venture into the
political arena. Little more than a month later Chancellor
Adenauer named the long-time labor leader to the laboi
post in the first Bonn cabinet.
Refugee Affairs Minister Hans Lukaschek
Hans Lukaschek, Minister for Refugee Affairs and co-
founder of the CDU, is himself a refugee from the territory
beyond the Oder-Neisse. Kicked out of office as Upper
Silesian president by the Nazis, Breslau lawyer Lukaschek
kept alive, joined anti-Nazi conspirators.
Arrested after the unsuccessful July 20 coup in 1944
and confined in Concentration Camp Ravensbrueck, he
moved after liberation to Cologne, where he helped ad-
minister the Soforthilfe (Immediate Assistance Fund) for
refugees. As a refugee in a non-refugee party, Mr. Luka-
schek has a hard row to hoe between his economy-minded
INFORMATION BULLETIN
40
West German CDU colleagues and the loud demands of
penniless refugees.
Question: What about emigration as a means of easing
the refugee problem in the Federal Republic?
Answer: "Emigration on a large scale can only be
carried out if the costs of travel are guaranteed and as-
surances provided that the emigrants will not meet with
disaster or be unable to make a living in their new
country. However, I feel that money spent to enable
German refugees to start a new life here in the Federal
Republic brings in better returns in every way than the
same amount spent on emigration.
"Plans exist for settling in France German peasant
families which have lived for generations in southeast
Europe. The government is favorably disposed toward
this, since much experience can be gained on the general
possibilities of emigration.
"However, a more urgent task is to do everything possi-
ble to integrate the expellees in West Germany."
Housing Minister Eberhard Wildermuth
Eberhard Wildermuth, (FDP), Minister for Housing and
Reconstruction, was a specialist in low-cost housing in
the Weimar Republic. His cabinet job? To get a low-cost
roof over the heads of thousands of victims of Hitler's
war, the bombed-out families and refugees.
Last year former infantry officer Wildermuth helped
German builders reach a world record: 7.5 dwellings per
1,000 inhabitants. This year he hopes to get the last families
out of unhealthy temporary shelter in damp cellars and
flimsy barracks. In order to get them out faster, Mr. Wil-
dermuth plans 100,000 half-price, easily built, two and
three room apartment projects, which currently carry the
unappealing name of "austerity apartments." It is rumor-
ed that Minister Wildermuth will pay DM 100 ($23.80)
cash for a better name.
Asked if currently rising building costs and shortages
of materials are endangering the housing program, Min-
ister Wildermuth said: "These difficulties, both result-
ing from the coal shortage, raise problems for us. I hope,
however, that we can build 350,000 houses again this
JUNE 1951
HANS SCHUBERTH.