August Karsten

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August Karsten (born December 20, 1888 in Peine , †  May 8, 1981 in East Berlin ) was a German politician (SPD, USPD, SED).

August Karsten

Life

Empire (1888 to 1919)

August Karsten was born in 1888 as the son of a beer coach for Härke beer. He attended elementary school in Peine from 1895 to 1903. He later earned his living as a worker and driver in the transport industry. In 1905 he became a member of the transport workers' union. In 1907 he was unable to work due to an accident in which he lost a leg, which he later replaced with a wooden leg.

In July 1914 Karsten became a labor secretary in Aschaffenburg . In the autumn of 1917 he took over tasks for the metal workers' association in Schweinfurt. In 1918 he married.

As a young man he became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in 1908 . In 1917 Karsten joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD), a new party that was recruited from representatives of the left wing of the SPD and formed out of dissatisfaction with the SPD's war policy during the war. In February 1918, Karsten was exiled to Brückenau for being forced to stay in Schweinfurt for leading the January strike of the same year. After the outbreak of the revolution in November 1918, he became chairman of the workers and soldiers' council in Peine. In 1919 he was first demobilization commissioner in Braunschweig, then in July 1919 workers secretary in Peine.

Weimar Republic and Nazi Era (1919 to 1945)

After the war Karsten became chairman of the Peine district of the USPD. From July 1919 to October 1923 he was a workers secretary in Peine. As a result, Karsten led the Reich Association of Invalids and Widows from December 1923 to 1933. According to Der Spiegel , he earned a respectable salary in this position, so that he could afford a "rose-red washed villa" on Duttenstedter Strasse in Peine, which had an electrical system that reached into the chicken coop and was served from the bed let. Karsten was also active in the editorial team of the Deutsche Invalidenzeitung . He also wrote a social guide.

In the Reichstag elections of July 1920 Karsten was a candidate of the Independent Socialists for the constituency 18 (Südhannover Brunswick) in the Reichstag elected. During this first legislative period of the parliament of the Weimar Republic , Karsten returned to the SPD in 1922. Accordingly, he also joined their parliamentary group. In the Reichstag election of May 1924 , Karsten entered the Reichstag as the SPD candidate for constituency 16 (South Hanover-Braunschweig). He was re-elected a total of six times in this constituency in the following new years ( December 1924 , 1928 , 1930 , July 1932 , November 1932 , March 1933 ), so that he was a member of the Reichstag for almost 13 years without interruption. In June 1933 Karsten was officially stripped of his parliamentary seat after his party had been banned shortly before. In addition, Karsten was a community representative in Aschaffenburg from 1914–1917, from 1919–1924 mayor in Peine, from 1919–1921 and since 1925 a member of the Peine district and from 1919–1921 a member of the Hanover provincial assembly .

Karsten was one of the MPs who spoke to the Reichstag on December 7, 1932, during the last session of the Reichstag before the National Socialists came to power in January. The speech he delivered that day was essentially a polemic against measures taken by the Papen's government, which had recently resigned . In March 1933 Karsten was one of the 94 members of the Reichstag who voted against the adoption of the Enabling Act , which was passed by 94 to 144 votes and later formed the basis for the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship.

After the National Socialist " seizure of power " in 1933, the Reich Association of Invalid Workers was brought into line and Karsten was removed from his office and briefly placed in " protective custody ". After his release he lived in Oderberg , where he ran a 90-acre farm. In 1944 he was arrested again, this time as part of the grid action .

SBZ and GDR (1945 to 1981)

After 1945 August Karsten first lived in Berlin. He became treasurer of the Eastern SPD and belonged to the central committee (ZA) of the party . In 1945 he turned against a hasty unification of the SPD and KPD in the Soviet occupation zone (SBZ), especially at the lower party level (local branches). On December 15, 1945, when he was giving a public speech in Oranienbaum in which he expressed his views, he was briefly arrested by a representative of the local Soviet headquarters. A short time later, however, he was a member of the central committee of the SPD of the Sixties Conference, which took place shortly before Christmas 1945 and set the course for a unification of the SPD and KPD in the Soviet zone of occupation.

At the unification party congress that resulted in the founding of the SED, Karsten was elected to the SED party executive committee and its innermost center of power, the central secretariat . There, together with Erich Gniffke, he was responsible for party finances and party operations, including Fundamentum AG (“Fundamentum-Karsten”). In the spring of 1946, he also moved to Kleinmachnow , where he lived until the winter of 1976. At the 2nd SED party congress in September 1947, Karsten was confirmed in his party functions. In the summer of 1948, at a meeting of the SED party executive committee, Karsten was reprimanded for financial irregularities in his area of ​​responsibility. As a result, at the end of 1948 he offered to retire from his work in the Central Secretariat. This wish, which officially, but also understandably in view of his disability, was based on health complaints, was granted. Karsten left his position with effect from January 31, 1949. On February 1, 1949, he was appointed director of the state property administration of Brandenburg, and from July 1, 1949, he worked as area director of the Association of People's Own Goods in Potsdam. From autumn 1951 until his retirement in autumn 1952 Karsten worked as a deputy director at VEAB in Berlin .

When he died in 1981, August Karsten was one of the last surviving members of the Reichstag in the Weimar Republic. His urn was buried in the central cemetery in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde on Pergolenweg.

Karsten's estate is now in the SAPMO in the Federal Archives in Berlin. It includes personal documents, reminders as well as greetings and congratulations.

Honors

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 .
  • Short biography for:  Karsten, August . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Get the bacon . In: Der Spiegel . No. 12 , 1949, pp. 6 ( online ).
  2. ↑ Hartfrid Krause: USPD. On the history of the independent Social Democratic Party of Germany , 1975, p. 361.
  3. ↑ Andreas Schmidt: "- ride along or be thrown off": Die Zwangsvereinigung von KPD and SPD , 2004, p. 168.
  4. ↑ Neus Germany from May 19, 1981 p. 2
  5. ↑ Neues Deutschland, May 5, 1965, p. 3
  6. ↑ Neues Deutschland from February 21, 1969 p. 3
  7. ^ New Germany of October 9, 1978 p. 4
personal data
SURNAME Karsten, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH December 20, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Torment
DATE OF DEATH May 8, 1981
Place of death East Berlin