Edmund Söhnker

Adolph Edmund Söhnker (born March 27, 1865 in Wittenberge , Mark Brandenburg , † 1939 in Hamburg ) was a German carpenter , trade unionist , cultural worker and politician ( SPD ).

Life

Edmund Söhnker came from Wittenberge in the Mark Brandenburg. He first attended high school, but had to leave school after the death of his father to help support the family. He became a carpenter and, following his apprenticeship as a journeyman, went “ on the roll ” across the German Empire. Arrived in Kiel, where he also met his future wife Maria Magdalene, geb. Stölting (1868 / 69–1967), he found work at the Kaiserliche Werft Kiel , where he a. a. participated in the construction of the imperial state yacht Hohenzollern , where he made and polished the railings. Söhnker lost his job at the shipyard for political reasons before the completion of the Hohenzollern, after the management found out that he was a social democrat. Söhnker rejected militarism , as well as nationalism and chauvinism and the armament of war under Kaiser Wilhelm II .

In order to be able to take care of his family, Söhnker changed his job and became a colporteur at the Schleswig-Holsteinische Volkszeitung , where he was responsible for acquiring readers and procuring advertisements for the newspaper and the satirical weekly newspaper Der Wahr Jakob . He later became a travel agent there and finally took over the commercial management of the publishing house as authorized signatory . Most recently he was managing director of the Schleswig-Holsteinische Volkszeitung .

As a young man, Söhnker was already involved in social democracy . He was then from 1907 to 1912 chairman of the SPD Kiel, first 1907-1911 as chairman of the Social Democratic Central Association for the 7th Schleswig-Holstein Reichstag constituency, then 1911–1912 as chairman of the newly founded Social Democratic Association Groß-Kiel. In 1908 he became chairman of the social democratic association in Kiel and the surrounding area.

As a politician, Edmund Söhnker was particularly committed to further training and knowledge transfer within the working class. 1916–1920 he was chairman of the workers' education committee of the Kiel SPD. Another focus of Söhnker's partisan work was the introduction of the working class to art and culture . From 1910 until Hitler came to power in 1933, he headed the Kiel Choir Association. Söhnker formed a choir of considerable size from the Kiel Choir Association, originally founded as a workers' choir. During Söhnker's leadership, the choir performed numerous demanding works, including the Verdi Requiem and the 9th Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven . At times one of the conductors was u. a. Eugene Jochum . After the re-establishment, Söhnker was chairman of the Freie Volksbühne Kiel from 1920 to 1925, of which he was one of the founders. In the course of Hitler's seizure of power, Söhnker had to give up his party political offices.

Söhnker's marriage resulted in six children, four daughters and two sons. His older son was the actor Hans Söhnker . Edmund Söhnker passed his political convictions on to his son Hans in particular, who was always openly committed to social democracy and trade unionism. In artistic circles, Hans Söhnker was nicknamed “Union Hans”. Due to his father's social democratic influence, Hans Söhnker was critical of the Third Reich and its rulers.

Most recently, Edmund Söhnker lived with his wife in their own house in Hamburg-Wellingsbüttel . He died in Hamburg shortly before the outbreak of World War II .

Publications (selection)

• The Kiel Choir Association 1910–1930. Kiel 1930.

literature

• Hans Söhnker: and not a day too many. Glöss, Hamburg 1974.
• Peter Dannenberg: Whenever it gets evening. 300 years of theater in Kiel. 1983, p. 191.
• Eckard Opitz: Those who are our treasure and wealth. 60 portraits from Schleswig-Holstein. 1990, p. 318.
• August Rathmann: A working life. Memories of Weimar and afterwards. 1983, p. 12.

Web links

• Entry German biography (pdf)
• Biography in the district newspaper SPD Kiel-Süd
• spd-kiel.de
• Edmund Söhnker , SPD history workshop