Arthur Becker (politician, 1862)

Arthur Becker , also Arthur Becker-Bartmannshagen , (born May 19, 1862 in Memel , † March 20, 1933 in Bartmannshagen ) was a German politician ( SPD ), landowner and farmer.

Life

Arthur Becker was a son of the entrepreneur Moritz Becker , who had made great fortune in the amber mining in East Prussia . He attended grammar schools in Berlin and Wittenburg, where he passed the Abitur in 1883. After studying for a semester at the University of Geneva, he went on a trip through Italy. He did his military service in 1886/87 as a one-year-old. He then studied agriculture and forestry as well as philosophy, economics and political science at the Universities of Königsberg, Freiburg and Halle.

After completing his studies, he worked in his father's amber factory. Business trips took him to Vienna, London and Paris, among others. During a one-year trip around the world in 1893/94, he made diary notes on the state of the art and the social conditions in the countries visited. In 1892 he joined Stantien & Becker for five years with a 10 percent stake .

In 1896, with the support of his father, he bought the Bartmannshagen manor near Grimmen in Western Pomerania with 430 hectares of land. From his predecessor he took over the lease of the Heidebrink Vorwerk with 108 hectares. In addition to breeding horses, he grew fruit and vegetables. From 1903 he had a representative manor house built, which was used as a hospital in the GDR and still belongs to the DRK hospital in Grimmen. In 1910 he had the estate relocated by giving land to 24 families on favorable terms.

Becker was initially a member of the Free People's Party . In 1899 Becker was sued by the district president of Stralsund for disregard of office of the district administrator of the district of Grimmen . Becker had refused any official intercourse with the District Administrator Ernst Osterroht , whom he accused of "moral misconduct". Since he attempted suicide after his impeachment, there was no trial.

With the successor Axel Freiherr von Maltzahn , whom he accused of abuse of office by disadvantaging the liberal movement and the workers' organizations, he litigated in 1910/1911 with nationwide attention. The Reichstag and the Prussian House of Representatives debated the dispute. As a result, the district administrator had to resign for violating the law and Becker was sentenced to prison for insulting officials . This was reduced from one year to three months in a revision negotiation.

In 1910 he switched to the Progressive Party , whose left wing he was a member until 1918. He campaigned for the division of large estates and the improvement of the living and working conditions of the rural population. Becker corresponded frequently with the journalist Hellmut von Gerlach , to whom he repeatedly reported on the political situation in the country. In the Progress Party Beckers because claims were not supported by a land reform, he put before the outbreak of the First World War down his party posts. During the war he continued to advocate an agricultural settlement policy.

From November to December 1918 he was chairman of the district, workers and peasants' council. In 1919 he joined the SPD. After he brought down the District Administrator von Kusserow in 1920 for supporting the Kapp Putsch , he was known as "Der District Administrator ". Arthur Becker was a member of the Grimmer district committee from 1921 to 1931 and was chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the district council. He was also a member of the German League for Human Rights , whose General Secretary Kurt Großmann was his nephew. Becker drew the league's attention to the Josef Jakubowski case , which led to an extensive discussion of the death penalty in the Weimar Republic . In the second half of the 1920s he withdrew more and more from active politics for health reasons, but also out of disappointment with social democratic politics and developments in Germany.

Due to inflation, unreimbursed war bonds and low income, Becker was no longer able to cover the costs of the property he had left in the 1920s. He had to go into debt and tried to sell the property. However, no buyer was found for the oversized manor house with only a small amount of land. It was put up for auction four years after Becker's death in 1937.

Arthur Becker, who paid taxes to the Stralsund Jewish community but did not take part in Jewish community life himself, was referred to as the “red Jew” in right-wing conservative circles. Becker was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee .

family

Arthur Becker married Hedwig Jenny Luise Donat († 1923) in 1896, who came from a Huguenot family. With her he had a daughter and a son. In 1924 he married Antje ter Hell (* 1902), his great niece from Berlin, with whom he had a daughter.

His son Alfred acquired the Kritzow estate near Schwerin in 1931 . Since he was exposed to harassment by the National Socialists, who had formed the Mecklenburg-Schwerin government from mid-1932 , he left Germany in 1932. From 1938 to 1943 he worked in Yugoslavia for the British Special Operations Executive . Then he went to Kenya via Palestine . After the death of his wife, he returned to Germany in 1963 and died in West Berlin in 1967 .

Sources and literature

• Estate in the Greifswald State Archives: Rep. 42 Arthur Becker-Bartmannshagen [1]
• Gerhard Strübing: "The Davidsohns and Müller were people like us ..." Jews in Grimmen. In: Margret Heitmann , Julius H. Schoeps (eds.): "Keep away from the whole country any ruin ..." History and culture of the Jews in Pomerania. Georg Olms, Hildesheim 1995, ISBN 3-487-10074-6 , pp. 219-220.
• Helmut Neubach: Jewish politicians from and in Pomerania. In: Margret Heitmann, Julius H. Schoeps (ed.): "Keep away from the whole country any ruin ..." History and culture of the Jews in Pomerania. Georg Olms, Hildesheim 1995, ISBN 3-487-10074-6 , p. 351.
• Katrin Siering: The life and work of Arthur Becker. Dipl. Work on the Hist. Institute of the EMA University of Greifswald, 1991. [Cannot be found in scientific libraries!]
• Wolfgang Wilhelmus : Arthur Becker: Agrarian-Social-Democrat-Jew. In: Irene Diekmann (Ed.): Guide through the Jewish Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 1998, ISBN 3-930850-77-X , pp. 429-447.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wolfgang Wilhelmus : Jews in Western Pomerania. In: Friedrich Ebert Foundation . Landesbüro Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Hrsg.): Contributions to history. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. No. 8, Schwerin 2007, ISBN 978-3-89892-806-9 , p. 69 ( digital copy , PDF )

Web links

• Literature about Arthur Becker (politician, 1862) in the state bibliography MV