Max König (politician, April 1868)

Max König (born April 6, 1868 in Berlin ; † 1946 ibid) was a German politician ( SPD / USPD / KPD / SAP ), trade unionist and leading functionary of the "Association of Public Health", the umbrella organization of the socialist life reform and naturopathic movement .

Life

König was a trained precision mechanic and attended a foremen's school. At first he was an assistant, then foreman at a telegraph construction company. In 1888, König joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). From 1897 to 1910 he was editor of the “Reformblätter. Illustrated monthly sheet for all hygienic reforms (later: Illustrated magazine for hygienic reforms and for public health care) ”in Hanover - Wülfel . In 1912 he moved to Dresden or Niederlößnitz , where he lived in Gradsteg 46, the country house that from 1920 belonged to the painter Paul Wilhelm . König traveled across the country to give lectures on health care in local social democratic associations and naturopathic groups. From 1913 to 1920 he acted as first chairman or second managing director of the "Association of Public Health" (VVg). In addition to Hermann Wolf , the founder of the VVg, König played a major role in the integration of the VVg into the socialist labor movement. König modernized the organization within a few months and expanded the VVg's small warehouse into a large shopping center with a shipping department. The outbreak of the First World War interrupted the organizational upward development of the VVg, which König had successfully promoted.

In 1917, König joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD). From June 1920 he worked as a paid city councilor ( treasurer ) in Weißenfels . In 1920, like other leftists in the USPD district organization Halle - Merseburg , König advocated joining the III. International and unification with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). In February 1921 he was elected to the Prussian Landtag in the Merseburg constituency for the KPD, to which he belonged until the end of the 1924 legislative period. At the end of November 1924, König was replaced as a treasurer in Weißenfels and put into temporary retirement , officially for financial reasons. König appealed because he suspected political motives for his dismissal. From November 1925 to June 1932 he was honorary manager of the union building in Weissenfels. Due to political differences, König left the KPD in 1927. In 1932 he joined the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (SAP). In the same year he retired, but in 1932/33 he still worked as a voluntary welfare worker in Berlin-Charlottenburg .

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists in 1933, König's pension was canceled. He was forced to return to work. Until 1939 he worked as an insurance agent in the Dresden- Radebeul area . He then worked from January 1940 to June 1943 as a cashier at Victoria Life Insurance in Osnabrück , and from July 1943 as an accountant in the company of his nephew Günter König.

literature

• Franz Walter, Viola Denecke, Cornelia Regin: Socialist health and life reform associations . Dietz, Bonn 1991, ISBN 3-8012-4010-X , pp. 18, 30, 53-55, 57, 65, 74, 78-80 and 86.
• King, Max . In: Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst (ed.): German communists. Biographical Handbook 1918 to 1945 . 2nd revised and greatly expanded edition. Karl Dietz Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 , p. 474.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Address book Dresden with suburbs, 1915, part VI, p. 351.
2. ^ Franz Walter, Viola Denecke, Cornelia Regin: Socialist health and life reform associations . Dietz, Bonn 1991, ISBN 3-8012-4010-X , p. 53.
3. ↑ Walter, Denecke, Regin (1991), pp. 18 and 55.