Frank Oberle, Sr.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Frank Oberle, Sr., PC (born Franz Oberle in Forchheim, Germany, March 24, 1932) is a businessman and former Canadian politician.
Oberle was born in Germany and moved, with his family, to German-occupied Poland in 1941, where he was placed in a Hitler Youth indoctrination program. Later, he fled the Red Army advance, surviving on grass and stolen eggs while walking 800 kilometres to his home village in the Black Forest.
Rejected by his relatives, he immigrated to Canada at the age of 19 and became a logger and then a gold minder.
He entered municipal politics, becoming mayor. He entered federal politics and was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1972 general election as the Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament for Prince George—Peace River, British Columbia. He subsequently won re-election five times.
In 1985, Oberle became the first German-born federal Canadian cabinet minister when he became Minister of State for Science and Technology in Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's government. He was science minister when the Canadarm went into space as part of the space shuttle program.
He later became Minister of State for Forestry, and then Minister of Forestry in 1990.
Oberle retired from Cabinet when Kim Campbell succeeded Mulroney as Prime Minister, and retired from politics with the dissolution of the 34th Canadian parliament for the 1993 election.
In 2004, Oberle published a memoir of his World War II experiences, Finding Home: A War Child’s Journey to Peace (Heritage, 2004) ISBN 1-894384-76-8 . A second memoir, A Chosen Path: From Moccasin Flats to Parliament Hill, was published in 2004.
His son, Frank Oberle, Jr., was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the 2004 provincial election.
