Albin Weis

Albin Weis (born August 12, 1897 in Heidersbach near Suhl ; † September 17, 1970 ) was a German politician ( KPD / KPO ) and union official . He was a member of the State Council of the Saar region .

Life

Weis (also Weiß / Weiss) learned the trade of gunsmith . In autumn 1920 he applied for a tender from the German Metalworkers' Association (DMV) and became secretary of the DMV local administration in Völklingen (Saar). Only a short time later, the delegates elected him as the association's local representative. Weis joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1920 and was a member of the Völklingen municipal council . In 1924 he was expelled from the party because of his criticism of the left-wing extremist orientation of the KPD. Two years later he rejoined the KPD. In March 1928 he was elected to the Saarland regional council for the KPD. In mid-1929, Weis was again expelled from the KPD as a so-called “right wing” because he rejected the party's new ultra-left orientation, particularly in the area of ​​trade union and strike policy. Weis then became a member of the Communist Party Opposition (KPO) and belonged to its Saar district leadership.

Weis fought against the annexation of the Saar area to the Third Reich until 1935. In 1934 he was one of the organizers of a large international anti-fascist workers' sports festival in Völklingen. After the Saar referendum , he emigrated to France in mid-January 1935. Here he was employed in a small business. In 1939/40 he was temporarily interned in France. In the late summer of 1941, with the help of a US aid committee, Weis managed to emigrate to the United States via Spain and Portugal . Weis worked as a toolmaker in Cambridge, Massachusetts and was a member of the American Federation of Labor . Even after the end of the war he stayed in the USA , where Weis died.

literature

• Stefan Heinz , Hubert Kesternich: Albin Weiss (1897–1970). In: Siegfried Mielke , Stefan Heinz (eds.) With the collaboration of Julia Pietsch: Emigrierte Metallgewerkschafter in the fight against the Nazi regime (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - Resistance - Emigration. Volume 3). Metropol, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-86331-210-7 , pp. 805-813.
• Patrik von zur Mühlen: “Beat Hitler on the Saar!” Voting campaign, emigration and resistance in the Saar area 1933–1935 . Verlag Neue Gesellschaft, Bonn 1979, ISBN 3-87831-308-X , p. 45.
• Martin Schumacher (Hrsg.): MdL The end of the parliaments in 1933 and the members of the state parliaments and citizenships of the Weimar Republic in the time of National Socialism. Political persecution, emigration and expatriation 1933–1945 . Droste, Düsseldorf 1995, ISBN 3-77005-189-0 , p. 172.
• Weis, Albin . 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. 1007.

Web links

• Who were they - Saar MPs