Adolf Neumann-Hofer

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Adolf Neumann-Hofer

Adolf Neumann-Hofer (born February 18, 1867 in Lappienen , Niederung district , † May 20, 1925 in Detmold ) was a German newspaper publisher and politician.

Biographical

He was born on February 18, 1867 in Lappienen, East Prussia, as a descendant of Salzburg emigrants. During his school days in Tilsit he moved to Berlin to live with a brother. There he passed his school leaving examination and began studying, which he later completed in Tübingen with a doctorate in political science. He then worked at Deutsche Bank in Berlin before setting up as a freelance journalist and specialist writer.

A coincidence brought him to Lippe. While passing through, he visited his former fellow student Alfons Stengele, who had recently taken over the management of the Lippische Landes-Zeitung. Since he wanted to give it back, Neumann-Hofer took over the newspaper and the Meyerschen Hofbuchdruckerei without further ado in 1899 and settled in Detmold in October 1899 . Neumann-Hofer quickly became politically active and advocated the Biesterfeld line in articles in the regional newspaper during the Lippe succession controversy, which attracted interest throughout the empire. The Lippische Landes-Zeitung , founded in 1776, was not only the oldest, but also the daily newspaper with the highest circulation in Lippe . In 1913, Prince Leopold IV awarded Neumann-Hofer the honorary title of professor for his services and publications in the field of economics .

Adolf Neumann-Hofer died of the consequences of a traffic accident in Detmold on May 20, 1925, four days after the accidental death of his wife.

Neumann-Hofer had four brothers who also lived temporarily in Detmold and supported him in the newspaper publishing house and the Meyerschen Hofbuchdruckerei: the writer and theater director Gilbert Otto Neumann-Hofer (born 1857), the publisher Robert Neumann-Hofer (born 1862) - both were also left-wing liberal - Emil Neumann-Hofer (born 1868) and Fritz Neumann-Hofer (born 1871). He would not have been able to carry out his many functions without the temporary support of his four brothers. In addition to his publishing and political activities, Adolf Neumann-Hofer gradually held 40 supervisory board mandates. From 1910 he was chairman of the supervisory board of Sinalco AG and from 1919 the main shareholder of this stock corporation.

Neumann-Hofer was married to Jenny in his first marriage and to Anna Netty Jaretzki in his second marriage.

Political career

Adolf Neumann-Hofer was a left-wing liberal and immediately got involved in the Lippe party landscape. In the Lippe succession controversy from 1895–1905, he represented the line of the liberal and campaigned for the Biesterfelder. With Neumann-Hofer, the conflict, which had already been resolved across the empire, moved in belatedly within the Lippe Freinn. The publisher belonged to the Liberal Association .

Neumann-Hofer saw himself as a "social liberal" and founded the Lippische Liberal People's Party in Detmold in 1901 . At this time, the native of East Prussia moved into the Lippe state parliament due to an election challenge . He maintained this mandate in the following elections and remained a member of the state parliament until January 1925 . The party was renamed in 1910 after the merger of the liberal parties in Lippe in the Lippe Progressive People's Party .

In 1907 and 1912 he was elected as a member of the Reichstag . Here he belonged to the Liberal Association or the Progressive People's Party . In 1919 he was a member of the Weimar National Assembly for the German Democratic Party .

Confrontation with right-wing nationalists and anti-Semites

Adolf Neumann-Hofer cleverly used the influence of his Lippische Landes-Zeitung . Under his leadership, the Liberals in Lippe developed into a modern and powerful party. With great commitment he endeavored to push back both the influence of the Conservative Party and its surrounding organizations such as the Federation of Farmers or the anti-Semitic Christian Social Party that had been active in Lippe since 1911 . He was not averse to a comprehensive cooperation with the Social Democrats , advocated modern positions such as the abolition of the three-class suffrage and advocated a parliamentary monarchy with greater powers of the Reichstag.

The political and social equality of the Jewish population in Lippe was also a key commitment. Anti-Semitic tendencies, which were quite widespread in the Conservative Party and the "higher" society, he countered in election meetings and articles in his newspaper. Above all with the founding of the Christian Social Party in Lippe in 1911, the Reichstag election campaign in 1912 and the outbreak of the First World War, the hostility against the Jews increased.

Neumann-Hofer also worked against the expansionist and extremely nationalist war target policy of the Pan-Germans and organizations such as the Independent Committee for a German Peace or the German Fatherland Party .

Revolution and Weimar Republic

Adolf Neumann-Hofer was a leading member of the People's and Soldiers' Council that was formed in Lippe in November 1918. As such he was to negotiate with Prince Leopold IV of Lippe . He abdicated on November 12, 1918. Even during the Weimar Republic, Neumann-Hofer was the leading figure and figurehead of the Liberals in Lippe, which now operated as the regional association of the German Democratic Party, the DDP. From 1919 to 1925 he was one of three members of the Lippe State Presidium (state government).

His struggle against the anti-democratic threat from the right, primarily the DNVP and the Deutschvölkische, continued. Neumann-Hofer was an honorary member of the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold and understood the threats the young republic was facing early on. The member of the state parliament and the three-person Lippe state presidium were exposed to massive hostility in 1919 when the Jewish preacher and teacher Moritz Rülf was appointed as a teacher at the Detmold boys' school. German national campaigns determined everyday political life in the city for several months. Members of the newly founded Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund and the German national Lippische Tageszeitung made the front and the mood against the republic and especially against the Jews.

Neumann-Hofer fought against this hostility through the state newspaper and the courts. In the state election campaigns of 1921 and 1925, his opponents attacked him sharply in brochures and election speeches. In 1921 he was able to maintain his mandate - despite the increasing loss of importance of his party, the DDP; In 1925 he did not run for office.

Works

  • The development of the social democracy in the elections to the German Reichstag . Berlin 1894
  • Deposit business and deposit banks. Theory of deposit banking . Leipzig 1894
  • The social-liberal movement in Lippe . Article in the Lippische Landeszeitung from August 18, 1903
  • Introduction to Economics . Leipzig undated (approx. 1906)
  • A contemporary word for the state election reform in 1907 . Detmold 1907
  • Economic production . Leipzig undated (approx. 1908)
  • Conservatives in the election campaign! An epilogue to the state election in the 6th constituencies . Detmold 1913

literature

  • Jürgen Hartmann: "Stand up to this rabble properly". The left-liberal Adolf Neumann-Hofer and anti-Semitism in Lippe. In: Ingo Kolboom / Andreas Ruppert (eds.): Time stories from Germany, France, Europe and the world. In honor of Lothar Albertin . Situation 2007, pp. 235–246.
  • Erich Kittel: home chronicle of the Lippe district . Cologne 1978.
  • Andreas Ruppert: Publicist and Politician - Max Staercke (1880–1959) , in: Heimatland Lippe, magazine of the Lippischen Heimatbund and the Landesverband Lippe, 102nd year, No. 2, February 2009.
  • Hans-Joachim Keil: Professor Dr. Adolf Neumann-Hofer - a reluctant revolutionary from Lippe . in: Julia Schafmeister, Bärbel Sunderbrink and Michael cell (eds.): Revolution in Lippe - 1918 and the departure into democracy, Bielefeld 2018.
  • Karin Jaspers / Wilfried Reinighaus: Westphalian-Lippian candidates in the January elections 1919. A biographical documentation , Münster: Aschendorff 2020 (Publications of the Historical Commission for Westphalia - New Series; 52), ISBN 9783402151365 , p. 148f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ LAV NRW Dept. OWL, D 72 Neumann-Hofer No. 79
  2. ↑ LAV NRW Dept. OWL, D 72 Neumann-Hofer No. 48.
  3. ↑ Imperial Statistical Office (ed.): Statistics of the Reichstag elections of 1907. Berlin: Verlag von Puttkammer & Mühlbrecht, 1907, p. 96 (special publication on the quarterly books on statistics of the German Reich) - Fritz Specht / Paul Schwabe: Die Reichstag elections of 1867 to 1907. Statistics of the Reichstag elections together with the programs of the parties and a list of the elected representatives . 2nd edition supplemented by an appendix. Addendum. The Reichstag election of 1907 (12th legislative period) . Carl Heymann Verlag, Berlin 1908, p. 89
  4. ^ Carl-Wilhelm Reibel: Handbook of the Reichstag elections 1890-1918. Alliances Results Candidates. Droste, Düsseldorf 2007, ISBN 978-3-7700-5284-4 , p. 1481 f
personal data
SURNAME Neumann-Hofer, Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publishers and politicians (FVg, FVP, DDP), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH February 18, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Lappienen , Kreis Niederung
DATE OF DEATH May 20, 1925
Place of death Detmold