Emil Kirschmann

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Emil Kirschmann

Emil Kirschmann (born November 13, 1888 in Oberstein , † April 11, 1949 in New York City ) was a German social democratic politician .

Life until 1933

Kirschmann was a clerk and had lived in Cologne since 1912 . There he was employed in the administration of a consumer cooperative. Later he was the head of a trade union insurance company and a functionary in the clerks' association. He was a soldier in the First World War . Between 1919 and 1926 Kirschmann worked as an editor for the Rheinische Zeitung in Cologne. In 1922 he married Elisabeth Kirschmann-Röhl , a member of the Prussian state parliament . He was Marie Juchacz's brother-in-law . His wife died in 1930. From 1926 to 1932 Kirschmann worked as a ministerial advisor in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior. In 1927, he was called in to the meetings of the State Ministry several times over questions about the occupied Saar area .

Kirschmann joined the SPD in 1906. Between 1921 and 1926 he was a member of the board of directors of the Upper Rhine Province district. He was a member of the Reichstag between 1924 and 1933 . In view of the strengthening of National Socialism, Kirschmann and Carlo Mierendorff spoke to Willi Münzenberg about an anti-fascist united front. Munzenberg later announced that the leadership of the KPD had rejected this course.

exile

During the National Socialist era , he was in exile with Marie Juchacz and his partner Käthe Fey, initially in the Saar region . There he was active as a functionary of the Sopade in refugee aid. Since 1935 he lived in France and continued his refugee aid as head of the refugee advice center in Forbach ( Lorraine ). He was also a member of the “Working Group for Socialist Domestic Work.” At the end of the 1930s, he participated in a committee to prepare a German Popular Front , together with Heinrich Mann , among others . This never came about because of the internal dispute with the communists under Walter Ulbricht . In 1940 he fled to the USA via Marseille and Martinique .

Family grave in Cologne's southern cemetery

There he was a member of the executive committee of the German-American Council for the Liberation of Germany from Nazism. In 1944 he signed the declaration of the Council for a Democratic Germany . He also took part in a committee of German trade unionists that sought to support the American trade unions. After the war, he caused a public stir by his appearance against the expulsion and dismantling policies of the occupying powers in Germany. Together with nine other former members of the Reichstag, Siegfried Aufhäuser , Fritz Baade , Gustav Ferl , Hugo Heimann , Marie Juchacz, Gerhart Seger , Wilhelm Sollmann , Friedrich Stampfer and Hans Staudinger , he signed an "Appeal to conscience and humanity."

From the USA he helped his hometown, among other things, by arranging CARE packages . The planned return to Germany did not happen because of Kirschmann's unexpected death.

Emil Kirschmann was buried in the family grave of his wife Elisabeth and her sister Marie Juchacz in Cologne's southern cemetery (hall 65 no. 307).

Varia

Kirschmann christened one of the most important inner-city bridges “Emil-Kirschmann-Brücke” in his hometown Idar-Oberstein . Signs with his short biography hang on the bridge.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Acta Borussica. Volume 12 / I (PDF; 2.3 MB)
  2. ^ Bert Hoppe : In Stalin's allegiance. Moscow and the KPD 1928–1933. Munich 2007. P. 310 ( online ), Heinrich August Winkler: The way to the catastrophe. Workers and labor movement in the Weimar Republic 1930–1933. Bonn 1990. p. 648
  3. ↑ ed. Note on Socialist Communications No. 65/66 - 1944
  4. ^ Socialist communications January 1947

literature

  • Axel Redmer : Those who stand outside see some things better. Biography of the Reichstag member Emil Kirschmann. Foreword: Willy Brandt, Birkenfeld 1987.
  • 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 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kirschmann, Emil
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH November 13, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Oberstein
DATE OF DEATH April 11, 1948
Place of death New York City