11 Facts About Werner Hansen

Werner Hansen was a German Social democratic politician and trades unionist.

Werner Hansen was able to return and resume his trades union career in 1945.

Werner Hansen joined both the Social Democratic Party and, in 1926, the Zentralverband der Angestellten, a white collar trades union.

In Bremen it proved impossible to undertake political work, and Werner Hansen moved to Cologne where he was able to undertake clandestine work for the ISK while supporting himself with casual jobs as a kitchen assistant in a succession of hotels.

Werner Hansen was briefly detained by the Gestapo in 1937.

Werner Hansen was one of those interned in June 1940 and transported to Australia where he remained till November 1941 when he was permitted to return.

Werner Hansen spent the rest of the war in England, politically active with other exiled German socialist activists, working closely with Willi Eichler, like him the son of a postal worker.

War ended formally in May 1945, but with the help of the British military Werner Hansen was able to return to Germany in March 1945.

At Bielefeld in 1947, at the founding congress of the Confederation of German Trade Unions for the British occupation zone, Bockler was elected the organisation's first chairman while Werner Hansen took over from him at the head of the DGB's Nordrhein-Westfalen region.

Werner Hansen presided over the DGB in the Nordrhein-Westfalen region between 1947 and 1956, unanimously elected to the position on four successive occasions.

Werner Hansen was a secularist who believed, in the words of one Christian contemporary, that the DGB should operate as "the extended arm of the Social Democratic Party ".