Arthur Holke

Arthur Holke (born January 12, 1883 in Leipzig ; † January 1940 in Buchenwald concentration camp ) was a German anarchist and co-editor of the magazine Der Anarchist .

Life

Arthur Holke was born in Leipzig-Eutritzsch and worked as a plumber in Leipzig. He was a member of the Free Workers' Union of Germany (FAUD) and worked for them as chairman and Reich delegate in the "Guild of Freedom Book Friends Leipzig" (GfB).

From 1909 to 1913 Holke published the magazine Der Anarchist "Organ for Propaganda of Anarchism and Socialism" with a print run of initially 2000 and later 1000 copies. The connection between anarchism and socialism resulted in communist anarchism , which propagates workers' self-administration and also rejects the state as a form of rule.

In April 1929, before the official establishment of the GfB , Arthur Holke was a co-founder of such a group in Leipzig, independent of the Berlin book club, with its own statutes. He wrote about it, “ Our guild wanted to be more than a book broker. We wanted to take part in the cultural work of the Leipzig workers ”(from: Reflection and Awakening , 1929).

In 1930 he founded the FAUD Reich Archives. From 1933 Holke was a member of the illegal FAUD business commission. In the same year he was taken into “ protective custody ” in the Colditz concentration camp from March to May . With Karl Becker and Robert Runki he was one of the architects of the FAUD underground organization in Leipzig under the Nazi regime. On April 13, 1937, he was arrested again for illegal activities, sentenced to one year and six months' imprisonment for "preparation for high treason" and, after the end of his prison term, deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp, where he died in 1940.

His partner Liesbeth Holke received news of his death on January 22, 1940. He allegedly died of pneumonia.

literature

• Max Nettlau (Ed.), History of Anarchy . In collaboration with the International Institute for Social History (IISG, Amsterdam). Newly published by Heiner Becker. Library Thélème, Münster 1993, 1st edition, reprint of the Berlin edition, Verlag Der Syndikalist , 1927.
  • Volume 5: Anarchists and Syndicalists .

Web links

• To the activities of Arthur Holke from Helge Döhring
• Stumbling block for Arthur Holke

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See on this: M. Nettlau, History of Anarchy , Volume 5.
2. ↑ Author: Hajo Schmück. German-speaking anarchism and its press ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In the database of German-speaking anarchism (DadA). Retrieved on August 6, 2009. In Ulrich Linses book Organized Anarchism , “there is important information (partly from police archives ) ..., as well as about the papers, partly in opposition to the Berlin newspaper parties , Der Anarchist (Leipzig) ... “Quoted from Hajo Schmück, Der deutschsprachige Anarchismus und seine Presse .