# Siegfried Balke

Siegfried Balke (1 June 1902 – 11 June 1984) was a German politician (CSU).
He served as German Federal Minister for Post and Communications from 1953 to 1956 and as German Federal Minister for Nuclear Energy from 1956 to 1962.

## Education and professional life

Balke was born in Bochum. He obtained his master's degree in chemistry in 1924, and a doctorate in chemistry in 1925. During the Nazi period, Balke, a Protestant Christian, was classified as a "half-Jew", which prevented him from pursuing an academic career in Germany. From 1925 to 1952, he worked for various chemical companies, until he became director of Wacker Chemie in 1952. A 50% stake of Wacker Chamie was held by the chemical conglomerate IG Farben until 1945, and then by Hoechst AG. After 1945, Balke was one of the few executives of the German chemical industry not stained by Nazi collaboration, which led to his chairmanship of the Association of the Bavarian Chemical Industry. He was honorary professor for chemical processing at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich since 1956. After his resignation as Minister for Nuclear Energy, he was president of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA) from 1964 to 1969 and chairman of the Technical Monitoring Association (TÜV).
Balke was co-publisher of "Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Technical Chemistry" as well as the periodicals "Chemical Industry" and "Nuclear Economy" (all in German).

## Party

From 1954, Balke was a member of the CSU.

## Member of Parliament

From 1957 to 1969, Balke was a member of the German parliament (Bundestag).
In the federal elections of 1957 and 1961, Balke was elected to the German parliament as a direct representative of the Munich-North district, and in 1965 through the state list of Bavaria.

## Public Offices

Following the German federal elections of 1953, he was appointed to serve as Federal Minister of Post and Communications in the cabinet of Konrad Adenauer based on a recommendation by the CSU party group. One aspect for his appointment was his Protestant faith, which allowed to preserve a denominational balance in the cabinet. On October 16, 1956, he became Federal Minister for Nuclear Energy. After the cabinet reshuffle following the Spiegel scandal, Balke was dismissed from the federal cabinet on December 13, 1962.
During Balke's term as Minister for Nuclear Energy, the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) was founded, one of Germany's largest research centers for particle physics. While Balke's predecessor Franz Josef Strauß focused his interest on military nuclear technology, Balke was mostly interested in research for civilian purposes. In 1957, he publicly sided with the signers of the Göttingen Manifesto against arming the German military with tactical nuclear weapons. More than Strauß, and more than his successors, Balke was close to the interests of the nuclear industry. He was an advocate of an independent German nuclear industry.
Balke died in Munich.

## Sources

German Wikipedia article
Joachim Radkau, Aufstieg und Krise der deutschen Atomwirtschaft, Reinbek 1983, ISBN 3-499-17756-0
Links to related articles :
vteSecond Adenauer cabinet (1953–1957)
Konrad Adenauer (CDU)
Franz Blücher (FDP)
Heinrich von Brentano (CDU)
Gerhard Schröder (CDU) (CDU)
Fritz Neumayer (FDP)
Hans-Joachim von Merkatz (DP)
Fritz Schäffer (CSU)
Ludwig Erhard (CDU)
Heinrich Lübke (CDU)
Anton Storch (CDU)
Theodor Blank (CDU)
Franz Josef Strauß (CSU)
Hans-Christoph Seebohm (DP)
Hans Schuberth (CSU)
Siegfried Balke (CSU)
Ernst Lemmer (CDU)
Victor-Emanuel Preusker (FDP)
Theodor Oberländer (CDU)
Jakob Kaiser (CDU)
Heinrich Hellwege (DP)
Franz-Josef Wuermeling (CDU)
Robert Tillmanns (CDU)
Waldemar Kraft (CDU)
Hermann Schäfer (FDP)
vteThird Adenauer cabinet (1957–1961)
Konrad Adenauer (CDU)
Ludwig Erhard (CDU)
Heinrich von Brentano (CDU)
Fritz Schäffer (CSU)
Franz Etzel (CDU)
Heinrich Lübke (CDU)
Werner Schwarz (CDU)
Theodor Blank (CDU)
Franz Josef Strauß (CSU)
Hans-Christoph Seebohm (DP)
Richard Stücklen (CSU)
Paul Lücke (CDU)
Theodor Oberländer (CDU)
Hans-Joachim von Merkatz (DP)
Ernst Lemmer (CDU)
Siegfried Balke (CSU)
Franz-Josef Wuermeling (CDU)
Hermann Lindrath (CDU)
Hans Wilhelmi (CDU)
vteFourth Adenauer cabinet (1961–1962)
Konrad Adenauer (CDU)
Ludwig Erhard (CDU)
Gerhard Schröder (CDU) (CDU)
Hermann Höcherl (CSU)
Wolfgang Stammberger (FDP)
Heinz Starke (FDP)
Werner Schwarz (CDU)
Theodor Blank (CDU)
Franz Josef Strauß (CSU)
Hans-Christoph Seebohm (CDU)
Richard Stücklen (CSU)
Paul Lücke (CDU)
Wolfgang Mischnick (FDP)
Ernst Lemmer (CDU)
Siegfried Balke (CSU)
Franz-Josef Wuermeling (CDU)
Hans-Joachim von Merkatz (CDU)
Hans Lenz (FDP)
Walter Scheel (FDP)
Elisabeth Schwarzhaupt (CDU)
Heinrich Krone (CDU)
vte Members of the 4th Bundestag (1961–1965)President: Eugen Gerstenmaier (CDU)CDU/CSUvteCDU and CSUSpeaker: Heinrich von Brentano until 14 November 1964; Rainer Barzel from 1 December 1964
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