| Biography: |
| Participated in Christian trade unions and was elected to the municipal assembly of Düsseldorf as a representative of the Catholic Centre Party (Zentrum) in 1929; during the rule of the Nazi Party, he was prosecuted for his political views and arrested in 1944; after World War II, he became one of the founding fathers of the Christian Democratic Union (Christlich Demokratische Union, CDU) in late 1945, and was appointed mayor of Düsseldorf on 29 Jan 1946; assumed the office of deputy minister-president (1946) in the Cabinet of Rudolf Amelunxen, minister-president of North Rhine-Westphalia (1946-1947); succeeded Amelunxen as minister-president of North Rhine-Westphalia (17 Jun 1947 - 20 Feb 1956); as a supporter of German unity, he was elected to the first Bundesrat, which in turn chose him as its president for the one-year period (7 Sep 1949 - 7 Sep 1950); was twice reelected (1950, 1954) as minister-president of North Rhine-Westphalia; his government fell on 20 Feb 1956 after it lost a confidence vote in the local Landtag initiated by the Social Democrats and the Free Democratic Party; became deputy federal chairman of CDU (1956); shortly before his death he was named federal chairman of the CDU social committee. |
| Biographical sources: "Karl Arnold. Eine politische Biographie", by Detlev Hüwel (Wuppertal: Peter Hammer Verlag, 1980). |
| Elections: |
| Candidate |
Vote (7 Sep 1949) |
| Karl Arnold |
37 |
| abstentions |
5 |
|
| Source of electoral results: Bundesrat der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Sitzungsberichte. Nr. 1. 1949. Ausgegeben in Bonn, am 10. September 1949 (Bonn: Carthaus, 1949). S. 1-2. |
| |
| [1] |
Bundesrat der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Sitzungsberichte. Nr. 1. 1949. Ausgegeben in Bonn, am 10. September 1949 (Bonn: Carthaus, 1949). S. 1-2. |
| [2] |
Verhandlungen des Deutschen Bundestages, 1. Wahlperiode, Bd. 1, S. 1-4 (vor S. 1). |
