Erich Kuttner

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Stumbling stone at the house at Burgherrenstrasse 4, in Berlin-Tempelhof

Erich Kuttner (born May 27, 1887 in Schöneberg ; † October 6, 1942 in Mauthausen concentration camp ) was a German journalist, author, member of the state parliament in Prussia, emigrant and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Erich Kuttner was born on May 27, 1887 in Berlin at 9 Nollendorfplatz. His parents were the Jewish businessman Benno Kuttner and his wife Lina nee. Merchant.

He studied law from 1905 to 1909 in Berlin and Munich . From 1909 to 1910 he was a trainee lawyer. In 1910 he joined the SPD , for this reason he was dismissed from his legal clerkship and became a journalist for the social democratic newspapers Free People and Chemnitzer Volksstimme . In 1915 he volunteered for the military and was severely wounded in the arm in the First World War near Verdun on April 2, 1916 and was awarded the Friedrich August Medal in bronze.

In 1916 he became editor at Vorwärts and in 1917 founded the Reich Association of War Participants and War Disabled and became its chairman. As a supporter of the government of Friedrich Ebert , he organized the "Regiment Reichstag" during the Spartakus uprising in 1919 to protect it and was actively involved in the suppression of the uprising.

For the SPD, he was a member of the Prussian state parliament from 1921 to 1933 and was considered the best speaker in the SPD parliamentary group until the state parliament was dissolved in 1933. He also played a leading role in the parliamentary investigation into the feminine murders during the Weimar Republic. Kuttner, who belonged to the right wing of the party during this period, continued to be editor of the journal Die Glocke founded by Alexander Parvus from 1922 to 1923 and editor-in-chief of the social democratic satirical magazine Lachen Links from 1924 to 1927 .

On May 2, 1933, after illegal resistance activity in Germany, he escaped via Prague to the Netherlands , where he continued to work as a journalist. In exile, Kuttner turned left and joined the group Revolutionary Socialists of Germany in Amsterdam . Here he worked in resistance against the Nazi regime and advocated limited cooperation with the KPD . In the Lutetia district (1935–36) he was involved in the attempt to create a “ popular front ” against the Hitler dictatorship.

In 1936 he went to Spain to report on the civil war , he worked on the radio station Deutscher Freiheitsender 29.8 and was wounded in July 1937 during the Battle of Brunete east of Madrid and then returned to Amsterdam. On May 14, 1940, four days after the attack by German troops, he attempted suicide. After the German occupation of the Netherlands, Kuttner did not go underground.

On March 12, 1941 in Amsterdam, as a consequence of the persecution of Jews in the Netherlands , Kuttner converted to Judaism again; he had left the Jewish community in Berlin in 1911 because of his socialist ideology.

On April 10, 1942, he was arrested at home by the Gestapo and deported via the Amersfoort transit camp to the Mauthausen concentration camp, where he was murdered on October 6, 1942.

Honors

Street name in Berlin

Works

  • Class justice! Bookstore Vorwärts Paul Singer GmbH, Berlin 1913.
  • From there they marched ... A war diary. Published by Landgraf & Co., Chemnitz 1916.
  • The war disabled and the state. Publishing house for social science, Berlin 1918.
  • The German Revolution. The people's victory and future. Publishing house for social science, Berlin 1918.
  • From Kiel to Berlin. The triumphant advance of the German revolution. Publishing house for social science, Berlin 1918.
  • How do we get rich again? Publishing house for social science, Berlin 1919.
  • Philip Scheidemann. The rise of a German worker. Publishing house for social science, Berlin 1919.
  • The stabbed front. An accusation in verse . Verlag für Sozialwissenschaft, Berlin 1920.
  • Merits of the Hohenzollern. Vorwärts bookstore, Berlin 1921.
  • Victory was within reach! Irrefutable testimony against the lie about the stab in the dagger and the betrayal of the Social Democrats. Publishing house for social science, Berlin 1921.
  • Why is the judiciary failing? Publishing house for social science, Berlin 1921.
  • Balance of case law. Publishing house for social science, Berlin 1922.
  • With Franz Klühs : The political parties in Germany, with an appendix: German party development since 1848. A course disposition. Central Education Committee of the SPD, Berlin 1924.
  • The companion of fate. Roman, Dietz Nachf., Berlin 1924.
  • Otto Braun. R. Kittler Verlag, Leipzig 1932 [Series: Maenner und Maechte] [People's edition: Volksfunkverlag, Berlin 1932].
  • Under the pseudonym "Justinian": Reichstag fire. Who is condemned? Graphia Publishing House, Karlsbad 1934.
  • Hans von Marees. The tragedy of German idealism, Oprecht-Verlag, Zurich 1937.
  • Het Hongerjaar 1566. Amsterdamsche Boek- en Courantmaatschappij, Amsterdam 1949 [in German as: The year of hunger 1566. A study of the history of the early Dutch proletariat and its revolution. Edited and introduced by Maximilian Ingenthron (Mannheimer historical research 13), Mannheim 1997].

literature

Web links

Commons : Erich Kuttner  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Erich Kuttner  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Birth register Schöneberg I No. 297/1887 .
  2. ↑ Stumbling blocks on the B 96 (PDF).
  3. ↑ Erich-Kuttner-Strasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
personal data
SURNAME Kuttner, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist, author, member of the state parliament in Prussia, emigrant and resistance fighter, MdL
DATE OF BIRTH May 27, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Schöneberg
DATE OF DEATH October 6, 1942
Place of death Mauthausen concentration camp