Carl Minster

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Carl Minster (born February 25, 1873 in Edenkoben , † September 11, 1942 in Berlin ) was a German-American social revolutionary publicist. Temporarily emigrated to the United States , after returning to Germany he was a member of the SPD and later a member of the KPD , USPD and SAP, among others . After the First World War he was also close to the separatist circles in the Rhineland . After the beginning of National Socialist rule, he worked in the Saar area against annexation to the Reich. He was eventually sentenced to death by the People's Court .

Early years

His parents Georg Minster and his wife Margarete Sachs ran a grocery store. Carl also learned a commercial profession. Emigrated to the USA in 1896. This may have been related to the conviction of his brother Gustav for treason . Between 1901 and 1906 he worked as an editor for the Neuyorker Volkszeitung . According to some information, he was also a correspondent for a number of social democratic newspapers such as the Vorwärts or the Wiener Arbeiterzeitung . He was probably also involved in the German-speaking labor movement in the USA. He was also close to the Socialist Party . He had been an American citizen since 1905. He married in New York in 1905 Helene Schumann (1884-1936) who came from Altona. He returned to Germany and worked in 1913 for the Remscheid part of the Bergische Arbeitervoisse published in Solingen . A year later he moved to the Niederrheinische-Arbeiter-Zeitung in Duisburg .

Internal party opposition

He criticized the SPD parliamentary group's approval of the war credits . From 1916 he participated in political letters published by Karl Liebknecht 's Spartakus group . Because he had put the Niederrheinische-Arbeiterzeitung into the service of the inner-party opposition, the Berlin party executive arranged for his dismissal. The protest of Duisburg shop stewards against it did not help. Even Friedrich Ebert and Otto Braun took part in a constituency conference that finally decided on the dismissal .

Instead, he founded in 1916 the newsletter of the social democratic association Duisburg, that a short time later under the title Der Kampf. Socialist propaganda organ for Rhineland and Westphalia appeared. Instead of monthly, the paper was now published weekly. The distribution area was limited, however, in particular to the western Ruhr area . The edition was only about 1800 copies. The newspaper closely followed the attitude of Karl Liebknecht and the Spartacus group. In contrast, it turned against Georg Ledebour as the organizer of the USPD. Some time later he also became editor of the Braunschweiger Volksfreund . He soon moved to Braunschweig himself and only influenced the newspaper Der Kampf from afar. In the dispute over the people's friend between supporters of the USPD and the MSPD , the majority party prevailed and Minster was dismissed.

Emigration to the Netherlands

When he was about to be drafted into the military in 1917, he fled across the border to the Netherlands . In Amsterdam he published the fight as a weekly paper. This was secretly distributed in Germany. Among others, Franz Mehring , Eduard Bernstein , Willi Münzenberg , Klara Zetkin and Karl Radek wrote in it . The paper is an important source for the history of the founding of the KPD. He was supported by Dutch socialists. Minter soon played an important role among the various groups of German emigrants and deserters in Holland. He has combined these in one organization. The German defense suspected Minster of cooperation with opposing secret services. The Germans managed to kidnap him across the border at the end of 1917 and take him prisoner. He was accused of having issued leaflets calling for strikes. In the Netherlands, his case attracted a great deal of media attention. Parliament also dealt with the case. This apparently prevented Minster from being convicted. His paper could continue to appear in Amsterdam until the end of 1918. Most recently, Wilhelm Pieck was significantly involved.

Time of the Weimar Republic

In the course of the November Revolution, Minster was freed. After the November Revolution he worked for the communist newspaper Die Freiheit, published in Düsseldorf . Since the police continued to watch him, Minster used a number of aliases. In 1919 he joined the Communist Workers' Party of Germany (KAP) and built up its local group in Frankfurt am Main . The group is said to have had 1500 members. He had French papers and was seen as a supporter of separatist aspirations. This resulted in a short-term arrest in 1920.

In 1922 he was editor of the USPD newspaper Freiheit in Berlin. When the party reunited with the SPD, he initially remained loyal to the rest of the USPD. In his newspaper Der Weckruf , which appeared as the party's daily newspaper in Essen , he campaigned for a unified labor movement. Allegedly he was an employee in 1923 and in January 1924 even State Secretary of the separatist "government" of the Palatinate.

After that he would have worked in Zabern until 1928 . He probably rejoined the SPD around this time in order to create a platform for himself there. He must have lived in Essen, where he had good contacts. In 1931 he was one of the co-founders of SAP. At the upper level of the new party he only played a minor role. It was important for the development of the organization in the Ruhr area. He founded the local groups in Duisburg and Essen. For this he was editor of the Rhein-Ruhr-Fackel in Essen. However, regional articles were only printed sporadically. Most of the content was taken from Berlin. During the internal party disputes, Minster and his newspaper sided with the majority of the board around Max Seydewitz .

Emigration and death

After the beginning of the National Socialist rule , the party executive decided on March 3, 1933 to dissolve the party and recommended that the members join the SPD.

Minster tried to continue working illegally. Because he was being searched for particularly intensively, he soon fled to the Saar region. He then tried to prevent the Saar area from being annexed to the German Empire. He worked for the Saarlouiser Journal and the Saarländischer Generalanzeiger as an editor. He became a member of the Saarland Socialist Party and the Saarland Economic Association. He also acted as a speaker for these parties. Many other details of the following period, such as his alleged cooperation with France , have only come down from later statements made to the Nazi judiciary.

After the referendum and the subsequent annexation to the German Reich , Minster went to France in 1935. There he had contact with separatist circles again, became a leading member and was the editor of their newspaper. In the French language, this mainly promoted understanding for the emigrants. In 1939 he turned away from the group. After the defeat of France in 1940, he tried to obtain a passport as an American citizen at the responsible consulate in Paris . Because he had not been in the United States since 1912, he was denied access.

Police investigations against Minster had been ongoing in Germany since 1939. He was arrested by the Gestapo in Saarbrücken on December 10, 1941, and sentenced to death on July 27, 1942 by the 2nd Senate of the VGH for preparing for high treason . The reasoning stated: “The accused is an anti-state personality of such a degree as has seldom dealt with the courts. His activity since his return from America to Germany in 1912 represents a complete chain of attacks against the existence and security of the Reich. "

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kurt Koszyk: The adventurous life of the social revolutionary agitator Carl Minster (1873-1942). In: Archives for Social History Vol. 5 1965 p. 223
personal data
SURNAME Minster, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Minster, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German socialist-communist publicist
DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Edenkoben
DATE OF DEATH September 11, 1942
Place of death Berlin