Herbert Czaja

Herbert Czaja PhD
Czaja CDU electoral poster, 1976
Member of the Bundestag
In office 6 October 1953 – 20 December 1990
Personal details
Born	5 November 1914 Teschen (Cieszyn), Austria-Hungary (now Poland)
Died	18 April 1997 Stuttgart, Germany
Citizenship	Austria-Hungary Poland West Germany Germany
Political party	German Christian People's Party Christian Democratic Union
Alma mater	Jagiellonian University
Awards	Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Scientific career
Doctoral advisor	Adam Kleczkowski

Herbert Czaja (November 5, 1914 – April 18, 1997) was a German Christian democratic politician. Czaja was born to a multi-ethnic and multilingual family in Cieszyn in Poland, which was part of Austria-Hungary at the time of his birth. During the Second Polish Republic he was politically active in the German Christian People's Party, a centrist party representing German-speaking Catholics in Poland, and obtained a doctorate in philology from the Jagiellonian University. In 1946 he was expelled from his native Poland by the communist regime during the expulsion of Germans after World War II and came as a refugee to Stuttgart in West Germany, where he worked as a teacher and became active in politics for the Christian Democratic Union.

He served as a member of the city council of Stuttgart from 1947 to 1953, as a member of the Bundestag from 1953 to 1990, was a long-time member of the Central Committee of German Catholics from 1948, and was President of the Federation of Expellees from 1970 to 1994. His political activity focused both on the refugees from Eastern Europe and on Catholic affairs. In the official propaganda of the Polish People's Republic, Czaja was portrayed as one of West Germany's most important politicians and his influence often exaggerated. After the Cold War, Czaja was involved in Polish-German reconciliation efforts. He was awarded the Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1984.