Adolf Schmidt

Adolf Schmidt (18 April 1925 – 26 November 2013) was a German trade union leader and politician.

In 1949, he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), and the following year he studied in Frankfurt.

[1] In 1951, Schmidt began working full-time for IG BE, as its Munich youth secretary, then he successively ran the union's offices in Breisgau and Gießen, before in 1965 he became head of the union's Hesse-Rhineland-Palatinate district, and also won election to its executive.

[1] In 1969, Schmidt was elected as the president of IG BE, on a platform of improving working conditions in coal mines, and preserving jobs in coal mining and at nuclear power stations.

[1] Schmidt stood down from his international post in 1984, as president of the IG BE in 1985, and from the Bundestag in 1987.