Otto Hörsing

Otto Hörsing speaks in front of the Berlin Palace during the constitutional ceremony on August 11, 1928

Friedrich Otto Hörsing (* July 18, 1874 in Groß-Schilleningken , Niederung district ; † August 23, 1937 in Berlin ) was a politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and for almost the entire period of its existence before 1933 Federal Chairman of the Reich Banner Black-Red-Gold .

Life

After attending primary school in Groß Schilleningken in East Prussia , Hörsing completed an apprenticeship as a blacksmith from 1888 to 1891, then worked as a metal worker at Borsig in Berlin and attended a private technical college in Kiel . Hörsing became a member of the SPD. From 1905 to 1908 he was the full-time secretary of the German Metal Workers' Association in Katowice , then until 1914 secretary of the SPD district of Upper Silesia in Opole . From 1914 to 1918 Hörsing took part in the First World War, most recently in the rank of deputy sergeant as manager of a prisoner of war camp in Romania .

During and after the November Revolution, Hörsing held important functions as a professional politician for the SPD. From January 1919 he was chairman of the Central Workers and Soldiers Council for the Province of Upper Silesia , from April 6, 1919 to January 1920, Reich Commissioner for Upper Silesia and the Province of Posen (since March 27, he had already been Prussian State Commissioner). In addition, Hörsing was a member of the Weimar National Assembly in 1919/20 and the Reichstag until December 1922 . From 1924 to 1933 he was a member of the Prussian state parliament .

From February 23, 1920, Hörsing headed the administration of the Prussian province of Saxony as senior president . Together with the Prussian Interior Minister Carl Severing , he put down the communist uprisings in central Germany in 1921 . In his office, Hörsing showed "just as much practical energy as verbal indiscipline".

In 1924, Hörsing took the initiative to found the cross-party Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold, in order to protect meetings and rallies from militant attacks from the monarchist, ethnic or fascist camp in cooperation with republican-minded bourgeois forces. The model was the Republican Protection Association of the Austrian Social Democrats . The founding meeting elected Hörsing on February 22, 1924 as chairman.

Hörsing's partly unconventional approach in office, such as in the " Haas murder affair ", which resulted in a three-day debate in the Prussian state parliament in 1926, his fierce criticism of the German national Reich ministers in the Marx government , especially of Interior Minister Keudell at the East Prussian Reich Banner Day in Königsberg in May 1927, as well as allegations against the actions of the Austrian government during the " Viennese events ", had repeatedly brought the SPD coalition governments in Prussia into need of explanation. Finally, on July 21, 1927 , the Prussian Minister of the Interior, Albert Grzesinski , deposed Hörsing as senior president after disapproval by the Reich government.

There followed a growing rift with the SPD leadership. On 16 December 1931, the SPD-dominated board replaced the Reichsbanner Hörsing at the top of the organization as acting through the Deputy Chairman Karl Höltermann and on 3 July 1932 closed the SPD Hörsing out . Two days later he founded the " Social Republican Party of Germany (Hörsing Movement for Employment) " (SRPD) together with the youth secretary and the treasurer of the Reich Banner , Paul Crohn . On September 13, 1932, the Reichsbanner board of directors made an incompatibility decision with the SRPD and expelled the long-term chairman. In the election for the 7th Reichstag on November 6, 1932, the Hörsing party received only 8,395 votes (0.02%) across the country.

Hörsing lived in Berlin, where he remained connected to former functionaries of the SPD after the "seizure of power" by the National Socialists , including the former district chairman in East Prussia and Reich Banner Leader Wilhelm Meißner (1899-1994). To his circle also included Hermann bad , Josef Orlopp and Max Fechner . In 1937, Hörsing put Julius Leber , who had been released from prison, in contact with this group.

The Hörsingsteig in Berlin's Gropiusstadt has been a reminder of him since 1972.

Fonts

D. Curius [d. i. Paul Crohn]: Otto Hörsing's war plan to reduce unemployment in Germany. Helios-Verlag, Berlin 1931.
Otto Hörsing (Ed.): New battle front. Weekly newspaper for job creation, economic recovery and politics. Publication organ of the Social Republican Party of Germany (SRPD). [1. Vintage]. Berlin 1932 [26 issues a week appeared from June 8, 1932].

literature

Martin Schumacher (Hrsg.): MdR The Reichstag members of the Weimar Republic in the time of National Socialism. Political persecution, emigration and expatriation, 1933–1945. A biographical documentation . 3rd, considerably expanded and revised edition. Droste, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-7700-5183-1 .
Franz Osterroth : Biographical Lexicon of Socialism. Volume 1. Deceased personalities. Verlag JHW Dietz, Hannover 1960, p. 140.

Web links

Otto Hörsing in the database of members of the Reichstag
Newspaper article about Otto Hörsing in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

↑ So Heinrich August Winkler in: The appearance of normality. Workers and the labor movement in the Weimar Republic. 1924 to 1930. Dietz, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-8012-0094-9 , p. 404
↑ Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945. Edited by the Leo Baeck Institute, Jerusalem. Saur, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4 , p. 62.
^ Hans-Rainer Sandvoss: The "other" capital of the Reich. Resistance from the labor movement in Berlin from 1933 to 1945. Lukas-Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-936872-94-1 , p. 145
↑ Hörsingsteig. In: Street names lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near Kaupert )
The claim made there that Hörsing was "excluded from the SPD" because of the founding of an extremely nationalist Social Republican Party, is incorrect.

personal data
SURNAME	Hörsing, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Hörsing, Friedrich Otto (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German politician (SPD), MdR, MdL
DATE OF BIRTH	July 18, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH	Groß-Schilleningken , Niederung district , East Prussia
DATE OF DEATH	August 23, 1937
Place of death	Berlin

[1] So Heinrich August Winkler in: The appearance of normality. Workers and the labor movement in the Weimar Republic. 1924 to 1930. Dietz, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-8012-0094-9 , p. 404

[2] Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945. Edited by the Leo Baeck Institute, Jerusalem. Saur, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4 , p. 62.

[3] Hans-Rainer Sandvoss: The "other" capital of the Reich. Resistance from the labor movement in Berlin from 1933 to 1945. Lukas-Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-936872-94-1 , p. 145

[4] Hörsingsteig. In: Street names lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near Kaupert )
The claim made there that Hörsing was "excluded from the SPD" because of the founding of an extremely nationalist Social Republican Party, is incorrect.