August-Martin Euler (9 May 1908 in Kassel â 4 February 1966 in Brussels) was a German politician (FDP, later FVP and German Party). He was state chairman of the FDP in Hesse from 1947 to 1956, a member of the German Bundestag from 1949 to 1958, and chairman of the FDP parliamentary group there from 1951 to 1952. In 1956, he led a breakaway from the FDP faction, the so-called Euler Group.
After graduating from high school, Euler studied law in Marburg and then worked in various legal positions from 1936 to 1944. Since 1939, he has been the general representative for chemistry in Berlin as legal counsel for IG Farben. Euler, who had undergone training with the police, was drafted into the SS Police Regiment 2 Brandenburg on 29 November 1944, as a police officer for the Waffen-SS.
In 1945âÂÂ46, he was district administrator in the Hersfeld district. He then worked as a lawyer. In 1953, he belonged to Club 53 around Arnold Bode. In September 1958, he became Director General of the Supply Department of EURATOM.
He was the father of the later Hamburg FDP parliamentary group leader, Maja Stadler-Euler.
Euler was one of the co-founders of the Liberal Democratic Party, later the FDP, in Kassel in 1945ÃÂ and then throughout Hesse on 29 December 1945. In 1946, he initially became state manager, and in June 1947, he became state chairman of the FDPÃÂ as the successor toÃÂ Georg Ludwig Fertsch. He held the office until he left the party in 1956. AtÃÂ the founding party conference of the FDPÃÂ inÃÂ Heppenheim, Euler was elected to the executive board of the federal party. At the 1949 federal party conference of the FDP in Bremen, he wanted to enforce a commitment to rearmament but failed due to the anti-militarist sentiment of the majority of delegates.
At the meeting of the Federal Main Committeeàof the FDP on 21 September 1950, he spoke out in favor of resolving not only the incompatibility of membership in the FDP with membership in theàAssociation of those Persecuted by the Nazi Regime but also with membership in theàGerman Peace Society (DFG). While the first demandàwas passed with a clear majority because of theàKPD's decisive influence on the VVN, the proposal regarding the peace society failed; after all, , an FDP member, was the federal chairman of the DFG. At theàfederal party conference in September 1951 in Munich, he ran against the previous deputy federal chairman,àHermann Schäfer,àand was narrowly defeated by 114 votes to 139.
Together withÃÂ Hans-Joachim von Merkatz,ÃÂ Euler advocated a rigorous end toÃÂ denazification in 1950. Both soughtÃÂ to exonerate the so-calledÃÂ main culpritsÃÂ andÃÂ those accused of all current or impending sanctions at the time.
Euler was one of the strictest representatives of the citizen bloc orientation of the FDP. In 1952, he called for the Baden-WürttembergàFDP/DVP, which he described asàdemi-Marxists, to be excluded from the party afteràReinhold Maieràentered into a coalition with theàSPD in the southwestern state.
The FDP's coalition change inÃÂ North Rhine-WestphaliaÃÂ in 1956 from the CDU to the SPD ultimately led to a group of FDP members and MPs under Euler's leadership breaking away from the party in February 1956 and founding theÃÂ Free People's PartyÃÂ (FVP). With the FVP, Euler came to theÃÂ German PartyÃÂ (DP) in March 1957.
Euler was a member of the state parliamentàinàHesse in 1946âÂÂ47, 1950âÂÂ51, and 1954âÂÂ55. He was alsoàparliamentary group leader there in 1946âÂÂ47 and 1954âÂÂ55. From 1947 to 1949, he sat on theàEconomic Council of the United Economic Area foràHesse, where he was deputy chairman of the FDP parliamentary group. Euler was a memberàof theàGerman Bundestagàfrom 1949 to 1958. In theà1949 federal election,àhe was directly elected to parliament in theàFritzlar-Homberg federal constituencyàwith 27.8% of the vote, but with a clear lead over theàSPDàcandidate (22.9%), and was able to retain the constituency inà1953. In 1949, he initially spoke out in favor of a joint faction with theàGerman Party.
Initially deputy parliamentary group leader, he was elected chairman of the FDP parliamentary group on 10 January 1951, with 23 to 22 votes against the previous incumbent, Hermann Schäfer.
Just one year later, however, he no longer stood for office. In his first electoral term, he was also chairman of the expert committee for the reorganization of the federal territory, in which he represented far-reaching demands for a reduction in the number of German states.ÃÂ In 1953, he became deputy group leader again.
Together with the so-called ministerial wing (including the four previous FDP ministers of the Adenauer II cabinet:àFranz Blücher,àFritz Neumayer,àVictor-Emanuel PreuskeràandàHermann Schäfer), Euler, after whom these 16 MPs were also calledàthe Euler Group, left on 23 December. February 1956, the FDP parliamentary group. The group founded the FVP, which merged with the German Party a year later.
Towards the end of the electoral term, he became chairman of the Bundestag Committee on Nuclear Issues for the DP/FVP parliamentary group. In theÃÂ 1957 federal election,ÃÂ he returned to parliamentÃÂ on the DP's HessianÃÂ state list. He resigned his mandate on 10 September 1958, when he moved to EURATOM. He was a member of the firstÃÂ Federal Assembly in 1949 and the second in 1954.
See also:ÃÂ Election of the German Federal President in 1949 andÃÂ Election of the German Federal President in 1954