Josef Schlaffer

Josef Schlaffer (born March 27, 1891 in Kallmünz , Upper Palatinate, † April 26, 1964 in West Berlin ) was a German craftsman (machinist) and politician ( KPD ).

Life

Schlaffer attended elementary school and advanced training school. He was then trained as a machine fitter. From 1911 to 1918, Schlaffer was a member of the Imperial Navy . After the November Revolution of 1918, Schlaffer became chairman of the soldiers' council in Brunsbüttelkoog .

After the First World War , Schlaffer joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). After gaining further political experience as chairman of the works council , Schlaffer moved in 1924 for an electoral term (until 1928) as a member of the Bavarian state parliament , in which he temporarily chaired the KPD parliamentary group. In the following years Schlaffer was elected to the central committee of the KPD, entrusted with the leadership of the KPD in Württemberg and appointed Reichsleiter of the Kampfbund against fascism . At the end of 1932, Walter Ulbricht tried to get Schlaffer's replacement as the Württemberg KPD leader after Schlaffer deviated from the social fascism theory , which postulated the identity of social democracy and fascism, and spoke out in favor of unilateral action against the NSDAP as the main political enemy.

In 1921 Schlaffer was sentenced to three years' imprisonment, which he spent in Niederschönfeld and Landsberg am Lech . Further prison sentences followed later, such as a three-month prison sentence in Württemberg, after a political speech in a KPD meeting in Stuttgart that had been declared an evening of entertainment.

In September 1930, Schlaffer was elected to the Reichstag as his party's candidate for constituency 31 (Württemberg) . He was a member of parliament until November 1932.

After the National Socialist " seizure of power " in 1933, Schlaffer worked successfully as a businessman under a false name in Berlin. In 1936 and 1937 he was imprisoned and then worked in various professions until his entry into the Wehrmacht in 1943.

In 1945, Schlaffer was a Soviet prisoner of war in Küstrin , where he was elected political leader of the communist prisoners and finally held the post of political commander in the camp.

On September 20, 1945, Schlaffer became director (from October president) of the newly established Central Administration for Refugees and Returnees in the Soviet Occupation Zone , which was renamed the German Central Administration for Resettlers (ZVU) in October . He was dismissed from this post on December 15, 1945. The reason for this was Schlaffer's conflicts with the SMAD , in particular his efforts to allocate leadership positions within the ZVU to the same extent to social democrats and communists according to the principle of parity and Schlaffer's persistent adherence to his SPD vice-president. Schlaffer's successor was Rudolf Engel . After his dismissal, Schlaffer became director of the Iron and Metal Industry Association of the State of Brandenburg and - until his resignation in 1948 - director of the Hennigsdorf iron and steel works .

In 1948, Schlaffer was arrested by the Soviet secret service for alleged espionage and detained for two months and then handed over to the German authorities as a "Gestapo agent". On March 14, 1949 he was released and expelled from the SED . He moved to West Berlin and lived there in seclusion. In 1956 he was rehabilitated by the Central Party Control Commission of the SED. At this point in time, Schlaffer had been working for the Gehlen organization (and later for the Federal Intelligence Service ) for several years , and there was repeated suspicion that he was working for an eastern intelligence service.

literature

Markus Baumgartner, Kurt Schilde : Josef Schlaffer (1891–1964). In: Siegfried Mielke , Stefan Heinz (eds.) With the collaboration of Julia Pietsch: Trade unionists in the Oranienburg and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. Biographical Handbook, Volume 4 (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - Resistance - Emigration. Volume 6). Metropol, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86331-148-3 , pp. 648-659.
Hartmut Mehringer : The KPD in Bavaria 1919-1945. Prehistory, persecution and resistance. In: Martin Broszat , Hartmut Mehringer (eds.): Bavaria in the Nazi era V. The parties KPD, SPD, BVP in persecution and resistance. Munich, Vienna 1983, p. 23
Kurt Schilde : Escape over the balcony wall. Political biography of the communist Josef Schlaffer. In: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung: Yearbook for Historical Research on Communism, 2008, pp. 310–318.
Slacker, Joseph . In: Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German Communists. Biographisches Handbuch 1918 to 1945. 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 .

Web links

Josef Schlaffer in the database of members of the Reichstag
Joseph Schlaffer in the parliamentary database at the House of Bavarian History

Individual evidence

↑ Dierk Hoffmann / Michael Schwartz : Successful integration? Specifics and Comparisons of Displaced Persons , 1999, p. 110.
↑ Ronny Heidenreich: The GDR espionage of the BND. From the beginnings to the construction of the Wall (= publications of the Independent Commission of Historians for Research into the History of the Federal Intelligence Service 1945–1968 Volume 11). Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-96289-024-7 , pp. 491–497.

personal data
SURNAME	Slacker, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German craftsmen and politicians (KPD), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH	March 27, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH	Kallmünz , Upper Palatinate
DATE OF DEATH	April 26, 1964
Place of death	West Berlin

[1] Dierk Hoffmann / Michael Schwartz : Successful integration? Specifics and Comparisons of Displaced Persons , 1999, p. 110.

[2] Ronny Heidenreich: The GDR espionage of the BND. From the beginnings to the construction of the Wall (= publications of the Independent Commission of Historians for Research into the History of the Federal Intelligence Service 1945–1968 Volume 11). Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-96289-024-7 , pp. 491–497.