Ernst Graul

Ernst Graul (born July 10, 1886 in Zeitz , † February 25, 1958 in Merseburg ) was a German politician of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and later the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). He was Lord Mayor of Merseburg from 1945 to 1950.

Life

Graul, son of a bricklayer, learned the trade of a commercial clerk in Zeitz. In 1906 he became a member of the trade union and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). From 1911 to 1920 he was an employee of the management of the Eintracht consumer association in Essen . From 1915 to 1918 he fought as a simple soldier in the First World War . In 1918/19 he became a member of the Internationale Gruppe and the Spartakusbund . In September 1920 he joined the KPD.

In 1921 Graul became a full-time employee of the KPD as a secretary in Essen. In the early 1920s he was listed as a "well-known communist leader" in the police files. During the violent clashes in the KPD in 1924, Graul was expelled from the party for a few months as a legal deviator, but was reinstated in 1925.

In the same year Graul became secretary of the KPD in the Ruhr area . In 1926 he switched to Red Aid Germany (RHD) as District Secretary for the Ruhr Area and in 1928 became a member of their Central Committee in Berlin . From 1928 to September 1930 Graul was the managing director of the consumer and savings cooperative in Merseburg. In September 1930 Graul was again expelled from the KPD because of “right-wing opportunistic tendencies”. He then joined the Communist Party Opposition (KPO) and became its chairman in Merseburg.

Until 1932 Graul was unemployed and at times employed in his wife's tobacco shop. After the National Socialists came to power , Graul was imprisoned for two months in August 1933. During the Second World War he was assigned to the air raid police in Merseburg.

After the end of the war, Graul became treasurer of the AOK in Merseburg in June 1945 and rejoined the KPD. In 1946, after the forced unification of the SPD and KPD in the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany, he became a member of the SED. In August 1945 he became mayor and from April 1946 to December 1950 he was mayor of the city of Merseburg.

literature

• Graul, Ernst. In: Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German Communists. Biographisches Handbuch 1918 to 1945. 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 .