Emil Eichhorn

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Emil Eichhorn. Photography 1907

Robert Emil Eichhorn (born October 9, 1863 in Röhrsdorf near Chemnitz , † July 26, 1925 in Berlin ) was a German politician ( SPD , USPD and KPD ), member of the Reichstag and journalist . During the November Revolution he was appointed Police President of Berlin on November 9, 1918 . On January 4, 1919, he was deposed for supporting mutinous soldiers. This and Eichhorn's refusal to resign led to mass demonstrations a day later and culminated in the January uprising . During the Weimar Republic he was a member of the German Reichstag .

Life

Socialist politician in the empire

Eichhorn completed an apprenticeship as a mechanic from 1878 to 1881 and briefly studied at a private technical university. In 1881 he joined the SAPD (later renamed the SPD), which was then illegal on the basis of the Socialist Law, and began to write for social democratic newspapers. Since he had lost his job several times due to his political activities, he became a full-time party official in 1893 and was editor of the Saxon Workers' Newspaper until 1900 , then the Mannheimer Volksstimme and from 1905 to 1908 the state secretary of the SPD in Baden . In August 1908 he and four other SPD members rejected the budget, while Ludwig Frank and the rest of the parliamentary group approved the budget, contrary to the resolutions of the SPD party congress in Lübeck in 1901. Eichhorn was also a member of the Second Baden Chamber from 1901 to 1909 and, as a supporter of the left wing of the party, was in constant conflict with the regional party organization dominated by the revisionists .

From 1903 to 1912 Eichhorn was a member of the SPD parliamentary group in the German Reichstag as a member of the constituency of the Grand Duchy of Baden 9 (Ettlingen - Durlach - Pforzheim) . From 1908 to 1916 he headed the party's social democratic press office in Berlin. During the First World War Eichhorn opposed the truce policy of the party leadership and in 1917 joined the USPD, whose press service he headed. In 1917 he was sentenced to five months in prison for producing and distributing leaflets. In August 1918 Pavel Borissowitsch Axelrod asked him to head the Soviet Russian telegraph agency , from September to November 4, 1918 it was renamed ROSTA . Eichhorn was paid by her during his time as police chief, which he later justified by saying that the Prussian government had not paid him a salary.

Berlin police chief during the revolution months

In the November Revolution he became, as Lars-Broder Keil and Sven Felix Kellerhoff write, "more by chance" as the Berlin Police President: The Alexanderplatz Police Headquarters had been secured on the morning of November 9 by troops with machine guns who had received express orders to do so To defend "to the last man". Due to the shooting ban that Colonel General Alexander von Linsingen had imposed in the early afternoon, they did not fire at the approaching revolutionaries, who built a veritable siege ring around the building. Parliamentarians were sent to rectify the situation. Eichhorn, who joined them a little later, took over the negotiation and shortly afterwards also the building itself.

Eichhorn's balance sheet as police chief is inconsistent. According to Keil and Kellerhoff, he acted without the required party-political neutrality: the radical left was favored, while moderate or conservative forces were sometimes hindered. Harry Graf Kessler mockingly characterized him in his diary as a "figure like from an Offenbach operetta , who ensured public tranquility by armed the rebels in a riot and served the German government without giving up his monthly salary from Russia ". The specialist magazine Die Polizei described him in a malicious retrospect on March 13, 1919:

“President Eichhorn appeared as a neurasthenic of the highest degree: a softly blurred face, chewed, thin mustache, nervous finger movements, restless poking up and down. The salutation 'Mr President' visibly flattered him. He always spoke of the soldiers' councils as' my councilors' ... "

In 1921, Eduard Bernstein called him “the pacemaker of the extreme wing of the Berlin opposition that was working towards a violent proclamation of the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat ”.

Since Eichhorn's officials did not share the revolutionary vigor of their new police chief, but were loyal to the nation or the monarchy, his revolutionary work was limited. He had more success in the democratization and demilitarization of the Berlin police: The new freedom of assembly and speech for police officers was accepted with equanimity, as was the abolition of military forms of greeting . Eichhorn had the military units of the Schutzpolizei dissolved, and the police ranks were adjusted to those of the civilian civil service. Eichhorn invited workers to oversee the activities of all police stations as "Revierbeisitzer" and set up their own security guard. The 1,800 men of the “Greater Berlin Security Force” accompanied the police officers on patrols through the city. Since all these measures were obviously only temporary, there was no protest against them within the civil servants. The fact that Eichhorn was not even more successful was due to his inexperience and wrong setting of priorities: He spent a lot of time on questions of uniformity and the formulation of service regulations. His attempt to dissolve the political police and to integrate it into the criminal police failed due to the resistance of the police officers. At a meeting on December 5, they declared that they would not allow themselves to be "abused" for political purposes and insisted on their political neutrality. Eichhorn also acted unsuccessfully in terms of personnel policy, because the detective chief Erich Prinz he appointed proved to be incapable. There were also several cases of corruption during Eichhorn's tenure , usually a rarity in the Berlin police force.

Machine gun post of the People's Navy Division in front of the Berlin Palace, late 1918

In December 1918, the People's Naval Division, housed in the Berlin City Palace , mutinied . Out of annoyance about outstanding wages, she plundered and took the Berlin city commandant, MSDP politician Otto Wels, hostage. In the Christmas battles that broke out between the People's Navy Division and troops loyal to the government, Eichhorn and the security forces subordinate to him sided with the mutineers and organized demonstrations by sympathizers. This made him untenable as police chief. The MSPD-affiliated press published sharp polemics against the police chief and portrayed him as a putschist bribed from abroad . On January 1, 1919, the Vorwärts wrote : “Every day that Eichhorn remains in office for longer is a threat to public safety.” After the USPD's resignation from the Council of People's Representatives, Eichhorn was the last representative of this party in one Top position. He openly stated that he favored cooperation between the USPD and the Spartakusbund , from which the KPD emerged in those days.

On January 3, 1919, Eichhorn informed the Prussian Minister of the Interior and Prime Minister Paul Hirsch that he did not recognize him as authorized to issue instructions. The next day he released him with a brief letter of discharge. Although the dismissal of the Central Council of the German Socialist Republic and the Executive Council of the Workers and Soldiers Council of Greater Berlin was confirmed by a large majority, Eichhorn decided not to accept it: With the backing of the Berlin USPD and the Revolutionary Obleute , Eichhorn's dismissal was a “vile attack against the revolutionary workers ”, he refused to hand over the official business to his successor Eugen Ernst when he appeared at the police headquarters on Alexanderplatz. Because Eichhorn was supported by soldiers and demonstrators, Ernst, who carelessly appeared without a troop escort, had to leave the field. The Prussian Interior Ministry then forbade all Berlin police officers to carry out Eichhorn's orders. The security guard, which he himself had built, also moved away from him, as the government had promised her that she would continue to pay wages and she was afraid of a violent confrontation with the military.

On January 5, 1919, Die Rote Fahne , the central organ of the KPD, appeared with a report on the allegedly insidious dismissal of Eichhorn by the leading MSPD politicians Friedrich Ebert and Philipp Scheidemann , which allegedly killed the workers "for the last remainder of the revolutionary achievements" wanted to bring. This triggered a large demonstration for his reinstatement: Eichhorn's supporters met at the Germania Halls on Chausseestrasse , where he declared the compromise with the MSPD, which the USPD had agreed to over the past few weeks, to be a mistake. They moved southwards together to Siegesallee in the Tiergarten , where the demonstration marched together with another who actually demanded faster demobilization , but now joined the protest against Eichhorn's removal. Together they marched down the linden trees to Alexanderplatz , cheering for Karl Liebknecht , Rosa Luxemburg and Emil Eichhorn . Once there, Eichhorn gave a speech from a balcony of the police headquarters in which he exclaimed "I have received my mandate from the revolution and will only give it back to the revolution [...] I rely on the power of the proletariat." Liebknecht, Georg Ledebour and Ernst Däumig made speeches. This demonstration of tens of thousands of people was the largest since the beginning of the November Revolution. It was the trigger for the Spartacus uprising , which was bloodily suppressed by the Freikorps .

Member of the Reichstag in the Weimar Republic

After his deposition, Eichhorn, who had been wanted by arrest warrant since January 14, 1919, fled to Braunschweig . In the underground, he wrote a subjectively tinged justification for his two months in office as police chief, which was published in 1919. According to police historian Hsi-huey Liang, it reads "like a revolutionary pamphlet ". It is therefore only granted a limited source value. In the election to the Weimar National Assembly made possible by the suppression of the uprising , Eichhorn was elected on January 19, 1919, and then also to the Reichstag on June 6, 1920 . At the end of the year he joined the KPD as a member of the left wing of the USPD. In the parliamentary group in the Reichstag, it was no longer important. Although he was a supporter of the chairmen Paul Levi and Ernst Däumig and a temporary member of the Communist Working Group (KAG), he did not leave the party after the March 1921 campaign and was re-elected to the Reichstag in May and December 1924. Since Eichhorn was still wanted by the police, he had to go into hiding after every dissolution of parliament in 1920 and 1924 until he was re- elected, since he was only protected from arrests by his parliamentary immunity .

Fonts

  • Saxony's May Revolution . (Editing by Emil Eichhorn). Kaden, Dresden 1899.
  • The state elections of 1905 . Geck, Karlsruhe 1905.
  • Friedrich Engels . Forgotten letters . A contribution to the 100th anniversary. Birthday . Introduced by Emil Eichhorn. A. Seehof, Berlin 1918.
  • My work in the Berlin police headquarters and my part in the January events. Publishing cooperative "Freiheit", Berlin 1919, urn : nbn: de: kobv: 109-1-12285229
  • The Reich Electoral Law with constituencies and electoral regulations . Explained by Emil Eichhorn. Freiheit, Berlin 1920. (= Explanations of the law for workers and employees . Issue 4)
  • Parties and classes as reflected in the Reichstag elections. A study on d. Character d. Parties as class organs; With stat. Material about d. professional shift g ud results d. Reichstag elections from 1907 to December 7, 1924 . Productive co-operative fd district Halle-Merseburg, Halle 1925.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Horst Naumann: Emil Eichhorn . In: Karl-Heinz Leidigkeit (editorial director): Communists in the Reichstag. Speeches and biographical sketches . Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1979, p. 402.
  2. ^ Carl-Wilhelm Reibel: Handbook of the Reichstag elections 1890-1918. Alliances, results, candidates (= handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Volume 15). Half volume 2, Droste, Düsseldorf 2007, ISBN 978-3-7700-5284-4 , pp. 1291-1294.
  3. ↑ Horst Naumann (1970), p. 111.
  4. ↑ Eichhorn; My work in the Berlin police headquarters and my part in the January events , p. 60 f. ; Dominik Glorius: In the fight against criminality. The development of the Berlin criminal police from 1811 to 1925. A legal historical view. Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2016, p. 606.
  5. ↑ Dominik Glorius: In the fight with criminality. The development of the Berlin criminal police from 1811 to 1925. A legal historical view. Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2016, p. 564 f.
  6. ^ A b c Lars-Broder Keil and Sven Felix Kellerhoff: History: Emil Eichhorn. The left police chief started the Spartacus uprising . In: welt.de , January 6, 2019, accessed on January 17, 2019.
  7. ↑ Harry Graf Kessler: Diaries 1918–1937, ed. v. Wolfgang Pfeiffer-Belli. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1982, p. 91, quoted by Henning Köhler : Germany on the way to itself. A story of the century . Hohenheim-Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, p. 145.
  8. ↑ Quoted from Hsi-huey Liang: The Berlin Police in the Weimar Republic . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1977, ISBN 978-3-11-085377-3 , p. 47 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  9. ^ Eduard Bernstein: The German Revolution of 1918/19. History of the formation and first working period of the German republic. Publishing house for society and education}. Berlin-Fichtenau 1921, p. 131 ( marxists.org accessed on January 20, 2019), quoted in Dominik Glorius: Im Kampf mit dem Verbrechertum. The development of the Berlin criminal police from 1811 to 1925. A legal historical view. Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2016, p. 607 f.
  10. ↑ a b Hsi-huey Liang: The Berlin police in the Weimar Republic . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1977, ISBN 978-3-11-085377-3 , p. 41 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  11. ↑ Hsi-huey Liang: The Berlin Police in the Weimar Republic. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1977, ISBN 978-3-11-085377-3 , p. 44 f. (accessed via De Gruyter Online)
  12. ↑ Hsi-huey Liang: The Berlin Police in the Weimar Republic. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1977, ISBN 978-3-11-085377-3 , p. 146 (accessed via De Gruyter Online)
  13. ^ Henning Köhler : Germany on the way to itself. A history of the century . Hohenheim-Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, p. 148 f.
  14. ↑ Hsi-huey Liang: The Berlin Police in the Weimar Republic . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1977, ISBN 978-3-11-085377-3 , p. 46 (accessed via De Gruyter Online); Hans Mommsen : Rise and Fall of the Republic of Weimar 1918-1933 . Paperback edition, Ullstein, Berlin 1998, p. 54.
  15. ↑ Mark Jones : In the beginning there was violence: The German Revolution 1918/19 and the beginning of the Weimar Republic . Propylaea, Berlin 2017, p. 153.
  16. ^ Lars-Broder Keil and Sven Felix Kellerhoff: History: Emil Eichhorn. The left police chief started the Spartacus uprising. In: welt.de , January 6, 2019, accessed on January 17, 2019; The letter is printed by Eichhorn: My work in the Berlin police headquarters and my part in the January events , p. 66 f. ( online ).
  17. ^ Hagen Schulze : Weimar. Germany 1917–1933 (= The Germans and their Nation , Vol. 4), Siedler, Berlin 1994, p. 179 (here the quote); Lars-Broder Keil and Sven Felix Kellerhoff: History: Emil Eichhorn. The left police chief started the Spartacus uprising. In: welt.de , January 6, 2019, accessed on January 17, 2019.
  18. ↑ Hsi-huey Liang: The Berlin Police in the Weimar Republic . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1977, ISBN 978-3-11-085377-3 , p. 46 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  19. ↑ Mark Jones : In the beginning there was violence: The German Revolution 1918/19 and the beginning of the Weimar Republic . Propylaea, Berlin 2017, p. 154 f.
  20. ^ Heinrich August Winkler : The long way to the west . Volume 1: German history from the end of the Old Reich to the fall of the Weimar Republic. Beck, Munich 2000, p. 388 ff.
  21. ↑ Facsimile in: Illustrated history of the German revolution . Internationaler Arbeiter-Verlag, Berlin 1929, p. 391.
  22. ↑ Dominik Glorius: In the fight with criminality. The development of the Berlin criminal police from 1811 to 1925. A legal historical view. Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2016, p. 565.
  23. ↑ Otto Wenzel:  Eichhorn, Robert Emil. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 379 f. ( Digitized version ).
  24. ^ Letters from Friedrich Engels to Johann Philipp Becker .
  25. ^ Emil Eichhorn: Speech in the deliberation of the Reich budget for 19213 in the 301st session of the 1st electoral period on February 15, 1923.
personal data
SURNAME Eichhorn, Emil
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eichhorn, Robert Emil (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German electrician and politician (SPD, USPD), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH October 9, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Röhrsdorf near Chemnitz
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 1925
Place of death Berlin