SCHLANGESCHÖNINGEN, HANS

(1886-1960)

politician; deputy chairman of the DNVP during 1926-1928 andOsthilfe* Commissioner under Heinrich Brüning.* The son of a prosperous landowner, he was born on the Schoningen estate in Pomerania. After attending a cadet academy, he was an officer in World War I. A committed conservative and monarchist in the war's aftermath, he represented the DNVP in the Prussian Landtag during 1920-1928 and held a Reichstag* mandate during 1924-1932 (the final two years for theChristlichnationale Bauernpartei).

Chairman of the Pomeranian DNVP during 1924-1929, Schlange was adapt-ing to the Republic when Alfred Hugenberg* became DNVP chairman in 1928.Hugenberg's strident nationalism so alienated him that he left the DNVP in January 1930 and joined the fledglingChristlichnationale Bauernpartei(Chris-tian-National Peasants' Party). Fearing the NSDAP, he championed Brüning's policies and vainly sought to generate conservative support for the Chancellor, even turning for help to trusted members of the SPD. Among the more efficient estate owners, he was namedOsthilfeCommissioner in November 1931 by Agriculture Minister Martin Schiele* and drafted a plan to resettle unemployed west German workers on small farms created by breaking up bankrupt estates (the so-calledSiedlungspolitik). TheReichslandbund,* learning of the plan, la-beled it "agrarian Bolshevism." President Hindenburg,* equally incensed—and seeking reason to fire his Chancellor—demanded the resignation of the entire Brüning cabinet in May 1932.

Despite involvement with the resistance group centered on Carl Goerdeler,* Schlange survived the Third Reich and helped found the Christian Democratic Union. He held responsibility for food distribution during 1945-1949 and then represented West Germany in London during 1950-1955.