Frederick Augustine Niemann

Fredrick Niemann, attorney and Texas state representative, youngest of four children of Charles H. and Mary Niemann, was born in Yoakum, Texas, on August 25, 1919. Niemann attended the University of Texas at Austin where he served as the president of the student body in 1942 and graduated with a degree in business administration. Upon graduation, Niemann enlisted in the military and served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. After the war, Niemann returned to the University of Texas at Austin and enrolled in the university’s law school, where he received an LL.B. degree. During school, Niemann was a member of the Delta Theta Phi legal fraternity.

Niemann, as a Democrat, represented Lavaca County in the Texas House of Representatives during the Fifty-first and Fifty-second legislatures and Lavaca and Gonzales counties during the Fifty-third and Fifty-fourth legislatures, from January 11, 1949, until January 8, 1957. He was a member of the committees on Appropriations, Criminal Jurisprudence, Examination of Comptroller's and Treasurer's Accounts, Judicial Districts, Motor Traffic, Enrolled Bills, Rules, Contingent Expenses, Congressional and Legislative Districts, Labor, Interstate Cooperation, and Insurance during his tenure in the Texas House. He also participated in a number of special committees including one on the Texas Board of Examiners in Optometry, which sought to investigate the board’s operations including, “particularly, evidence of not performing the duties assigned under the law and the current Appropriations Act and carrying out lobbying activities.” He was the vice chair of the committee on Contingent Expenses in 1951 and the chair of the committees on Insurance and Motor Traffic in 1953 and 1955 respectively. Niemann was married to Virginia Freeman, and together they had four children—Larry, Fred, Jimmy, and Linda. Niemann left politics to spend more time with his family and to establish a law firm in Austin, Texas, where he practiced law for forty-five years. He and two of his sons were real estate attorneys and members of Fredrick’s law firm of Niemann & Niemann. Niemann died on April 25, 1992, and is buried in the Texas State Cemetery.