Fritz Kleiner

Fritz Kleiner (6 May 1893 – 8 October 1974) was a German lawyer, construction company owner and politician from Upper Silesia. He was active in the German National People's Party during the Weimar Republic. Except for the period from July to November 1932, he was a member of the Reichstag from 1929 to 1938. Following the Nazi seizure of power, he remained in the national legislature but never joined the Nazi Party. After the Second World War, Kleiner headed an agency that provided housing for displaced persons in West Germany.

Education and war service Kleiner was born in Beuthen (today, Bytom) in Upper Silesia and attended Mittelschule and Oberrealschule in Kattowitz (today, Katowice). He went on to study law and political science at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and the University of Breslau, where he earned his Doctor of Law degree. In Breslau (today, Wrocław), he joined the Turnerschaft (academic gymnastic club) Suevia Breslau. Kleiner served as a front-line soldier throughout the First World War, rising to the rank of Leutnant of reserves in the 4th Landwehr Field Artillery Regiment and earning both classes of the Iron Cross.

Career in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany From the end of the war in November 1918, Kleiner was the national organizer of the United Associations of Loyal Upper Silesians. During the 1921 Upper Silesia plebiscite, Kleiner helped to organize the German vote to retain Upper Silesia within the German Reich. He became editor-in-chief of the newspapers Ostdeutsche Morgenpost in Beuthen and Ostdeutscher Herold in Gleiwitz (today, Gliwice). He was prosecuted and briefly expelled by the Inter-Allied Commission. He returned and took part in the third Silesian uprising, receiving both classes of the Silesian Badge of Merit. From 1922, he owned an industrial construction company, Hermann Hirt Nachfolger, GmbH., in Beuthen. From October 1933, Kleiner was a member of Hans Frank's Academy for German Law.

Post-war life In August 1948, Kleiner founded and, until his death, served as chairman of the Vorstand (executive board) of the non-profit Refugee Housing Cooperative (FLÜWO Bauen Wohnen) in Stuttgart. A displaced person himself, his aim was to ameliorate the existing post-war housing shortage, especially among refugees from the east. He was also a council member of the Upper Silesian Association, an organization dedicated to the cultivation of Upper Silesian culture, customs and traditions. For his services to the state, Kleiner twice was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany: the Cross of Merit in 1952, and the Cross of Merit, 1st class (Officer's Cross), in 1968. He died in Stuttgart in October 1974.