Bockelberg had been a member of the CDU since 1958. From 1960 to 1970, he was chairman of the CDU district association of Bielefeld. Bockelberg, who had previously been a member of the Bielefeld district council from 1958 to 1964, was elected to the German Bundestag in the 1969 federal elections via the North Rhine-Westphalia CDU state list, to which he belonged until 1976.
Literature
Herbst, Ludolf; Jahn, Bruno (2002). Vierhaus, Rudolf (ed.). Biographisches Handbuch der Mitglieder des Deutschen Bundestages. 1949–2002 [Biographical Handbook of the Members of the German Bundestag. 1949–2002] (in German). München: De Gruyter - De Gruyter Saur. p. 1715. ISBN978-3-11-184511-1.