Robert Tillmanns was a German politician.

Life and Work

After the Abitur

Abitur

Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...

 in 1914, Tillmanns took part as a soldier in the First World War. He studied political science from 1919 to 1921, earning a doctorate at the University of Tübingen.
From 1922 to 1930 he served as head of economics at the German National Association for Student Services and in 1925 operated under the umbrella of the German National Academic Foundation.
From 1931 he worked as a council member in the Prussian Ministry of Culture, from which he was dismissed for political reasons in 1933. He then worked until 1945 in mining industry management in central Germany.
After the war he was Secretary General of the Agency of the Evangelical Church in Germany

Evangelical Church in Germany

The Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of 22 Lutheran, Unified and Reformed Protestant regional church bodies in Germany. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding because of the denominational differences. However, the member churches share full pulpit and altar...

 until 1949.
Tillmanns was married to since 1925 Naegelsbach Herta (1904-1995) and had three daughters.

Politics

After the Second World War Tillmanns, together with Jakob Kaiser

Jakob Kaiser

Jakob Kaiser was a German politician and resistance leader during World War II.Jakob Kaiser was born in the Franconian town of Hammelburg. Following in his father’s footsteps, Kaiser began a career as a bookbinder...

 and Ernst Lemmer, founded the CDU

Christian Democratic Union (Germany)

The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...

 in Berlin and the Soviet occupation zone.
From 1949 to 1952 he was first the deputy chairman and from 26 April 1952 until his death chairman of the CDU in Berlin.
From 1950 he was a member of the National board of the CDU

National board of the CDU

The National board of the CDU is the highest permanent body of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany. The board meets at least 6 times a year...

 and the deputy national chairman from 1955. In 1952 he help found the Evangelical Working Group of the CDU/CSU

Evangelical Working Group of the CDU/CSU

The Evangelical Working Group of the CDU/CSU is a specialized agency of the CDU and CSU. It represents the Protestant members of the party and facilitates dialogue with the Protestant churches within Germany....

, and was its National Chairman since 1954.

Parliamentary membership

From 1946 to 1947 he was member of the state parliament of Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

. From 1949 until his death he was Berlin's deputy member of the German Bundestag

Bundestag

The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...

.

Public offices

After the elections in 1953, Tillmanns was appointed on 20 October the Federal Minister for Special Affairs in the Federal Government led by the Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, and during his tenure was a member of the "Cabinet of Elders" in the Bundestag. He is one of the few federal ministers who have died in office.