Ernst Heilmann

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Memorial plaque for Ernst Heilmann in Berlin-Kreuzberg . The bronze relief was made by Ludmilla Seefried-Matejkowa in 1987 and attached to his house at Brachvogelstraße 5 two years later.

Ernst Heilmann (born April 13, 1881 in Berlin ; † April 3, 1940 in Buchenwald concentration camp ) was a German lawyer and social democratic politician .

Before the First World War , Heilmann was particularly active as a journalist for the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). During the war he was one of the staunch supporters of the truce policy and was one of the right wing of the party, who openly advocated annexations . After the November Revolution, Heilmann shifted his focus of work from journalistic to parliamentary activities. As chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the Prussian state parliament, he secured the Weimar coalition , which had firm parliamentary support in the Free State of Prussiathe government for many years. From 1928 Heilmann was also a member of the Reichstag . A few months after the National Socialists " seized power " , Heilmann was imprisoned. He spent the following years in concentration camps until he was finally murdered in Buchenwald.

Origin, youth, studies

Ernst Heilmann grew up in a middle-class Jewish family in which the Jewish faith played no special role. His father Max owned a paper shop in Berlin. His mother Flora was born Mühsam, the anarchist and poet Erich Mühsam was Ernst Heilmann's cousin.

Ernst Heilmann attended the Cölln High School in Berlin from 1888 to 1900 , where he was often the best in his class. The later writer Alfred Döblin was one of the students who passed the Abitur with him . Another classmate, Moritz Goldstein , described Ernst as a high school student with a keen interest in politics. Heilmann also showed talent in the game of chess . He could play several games at the same time and blind . In the 1900s he took part in several tournaments, including in 1903/04 the first tournament for the championship of Berlin . In February 1907 it reached its highest historical rating of 2516.

From 1900 to 1903 Heilmann studied law and political science at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin . He graduated with the first state examination. He was denied preparatory service for political reasons because he had already joined the SPD as a seventeen-year-old high school student. This form of professional ban for supporters of social democracy was quite common in the empire .

Political activity

Work for the SPD until the First World War

Soon after joining the SPD, Heilmann became the leader of a group of socialist youthful workers. This first step in his party career was followed by work as a parliamentary reporter for social democratic newspapers after 1903.

In 1909 he joined the editorial team of the social democratic Chemnitzer Volksstimme as editor- in- chief and moved from the imperial capital to Chemnitz . Gustav Noske also worked in the editorial office of the newspaper, which was counted among the right wing of the party . Heilmann himself hired Erich Kuttner , who would later sit with him in the Prussian state parliament. The newspaper, which had previously found itself in an economic crisis, experienced an upswing under Heilmann's direction. In addition to extensive advertising measures, the topicality of the articles for which Heilmann ensured.

As the leading editor of the paper, Heilmann took responsibility if the editorial office violated the law and statutes from the point of view of the authorities . In connection with the reporting of a local strike , Heilmann was sued in 1911 for libel of majesty . So he was serving a six-month in the second half of this year imprisonment .

In addition to his journalistic work, Heilmann often spoke in election meetings and especially in social democratic educational events. In the last years before the war he was the party official in Chemnitz who had the most lecturing commitments. With his events he reached the educationally interested, socialist minded Chemnitz workers and young people. The topics on which Heilmann lectured were wide-ranging. In 1912, for example, he analyzed the results of the Reichstag elections and spoke about the First Balkan War , imperialism , peace and disarmament . Justice issues and general economic life were also among his subjects. Historical objects related to the 50-year history of social democracy and the liberation wars of 1812 were in the foreground in 1913.

Another result of Heilmann's time in Saxony was the publication of the history of the workers' movement in Chemnitz and the Ore Mountains . The publication took place on the occasion of the SPD party congress that met in Chemnitz in September 1912 and was accomplished by Heilmann in just under three months. The text was the first comprehensive account of this topic and at the same time, after the publications by Eduard Bernstein and Heinrich Laufenberg on the Berlin and Hamburg and Altona workers 'movement history, the third regional historical study of the workers' movement at all.

Politics under the sign of the truce

In the July crisis of 1914, the SPD, like many other socialist parties in Europe, organized rallies against the impending war. Heilmann was one of the speakers at such an event in Chemnitz on July 26, 1914. Here he made a commitment to socialism and peace. Three days later, the Volksstimme also committed to these goals. However, on August 1, 1914, after the Russian mobilization and the murder of the French socialist leader Jean Jaurès , the newspaper underwent an abrupt change. She called for the fulfillment of the duties towards the fatherland , that any criticism of politics and the leading figures in Germany should now be silenced.

Like the majority of social democratic officials, Heilmann was one of the supporters of the truce policy during the First World War. What is more, he exposed himself as a representative of a social-imperialist policy within the party. On July 30, 1915, he wrote in the Volksstimme : “The enemies must be beaten so crushingly that their ring breaks, the coalition breaks [...] Only one thing helps us against these enemies: a thumb on the eye and the knees on the chest . ”For the radical left, the verdict on Heilmann based on such theses was clear, from then on they rejected it and could refer to Lenin , who in 1917 had described Heilmann as an“ extreme German chauvinist ”.

After he had called on young workers to use the weapon in the first months of the war, Heilmann volunteered for the military in 1915. This ended his time in Chemnitz. In 1916 he returned from the front, seriously wounded and blind in one eye, and chose Charlottenburg as his place of residence.

He continued to be publicist in the spirit of majority social democracy through contributions in the socialist monthly issues . Heilmann also wrote articles for the magazine Die Glocke . This magazine was the organ of the Lensch-Cunow-Haenisch group and was considered the "mouthpiece of the distinctly national right wing of the SPD". On August 12, 1916, Heilmann openly called for annexations by the German Reich in a Glocke article . He also exerted influence through the management of the press service for International Correspondence , later renamed Socialist Correspondence . He also founded the Reich Association of War Disabled with Kuttner .

Prussian parliamentarian

Ernst Heilmann, portrait photo in the Reichstag Handbuch from 1928.

In the weeks of the November Revolution , Heilmann tried to influence events through pamphlets and newspaper articles in line with party rights, which feared a development along the lines of the October Revolution and instead sought parliamentary democracy . After the revolution, Heilmann became a member of the SPD in the city council of Charlottenburg in 1919, and in 1919 he also had a seat in the Prussian state assembly . He then belonged to the SPD parliamentary group in the Prussian state parliament throughout the years of the Weimar Republic , and since autumn 1921, after the Kapp Putsch , he has been its chairman. From 1928 to 1933 he was also a member of the Reichstag. In 1929 the SPD party congress assigned him the editing of the weekly magazine Das Freie Wort , in which he published articles under his own name and under the pseudonym "Illo".

personality

Hildegard Wegscheider , a member of the parliamentary group in the Prussian state parliament, reported on Heilmann's rhetorical skills, saying that he was able to “speak with tremendous force and with brilliant clarity” and thus had “tremendous influence” on the masses. He kept parliamentary speeches free, and he made only a few notes on official statements on behalf of the parliamentary group. Occasionally he quoted Lassalle or Bismarck from memory. He dictated his articles for The Free Word directly into the typewriter without any written records. His writings were also repeatedly characterized by sharp polemics and a high intellectual level.

With his talent for speech, Heilmann not only made friends, but also enemies. In the second half of the 1920s, for example, this was evident in the Barmat scandal . In the course of a corruption process against the Barmat brothers, three Jews who immigrated from Eastern Europe, SPD and center politicians came under pressure. Representatives of the German National People's Party (DNVP) tried to pin Heilmann's misconduct as well. The SPD politician, however, emerged largely unscathed from the negotiations of a specially established committee of inquiry. Nevertheless, his German national, ethnic and communist opponents continued their defamation and slander that he was involved in the scandal until 1933.

Heilmann also made himself vulnerable by expressly seeing himself as a bohemian in his private life . He enjoyed entertainment, games and cigars in his favorite bar, Café Josty on Potsdamer Platz . He was also a frequent guest on the capital's racecourses . In addition, there were always rumors about women's stories. All of this irritated political opponents. Party comrades, who often attach importance to external moral rigor, were just as unapproving of such a way of life.

Heilmann was always open to new possibilities of political propaganda . He recognized the importance of radio as a medium early on . In 1923 he founded the stock corporation for book and press execution , which was converted shortly afterwards into the Drahtloser Dienst AG Dradag . It was the central newsroom for all new radio broadcasting companies in the republic. When it passed 51 percent into the hands of the state, Heilmann was a member of the supervisory board until 1931. He also had a seat and vote in the supervisory bodies of Westdeutsche Rundfunk AG , Mitteldeutsche Rundfunk AG and Funk-Hour Berlin . The right-wing editors of the radio magazine Der Deutsche Sender were a thorn in the side of Heilmann in his radio function:

“The tendency of the program is completely anti-national and Marxist, yes, it only seems to serve the cultural and political disintegration of the German people. The SPD “Führer” Heilmann sits on the monitoring committee or advisory board of the Berliner Funkstunde, Mirag and Deutsche Welle. Thus the workers 'leader' and multimillionaire Heilmann, as the most powerful man of Marxism, is at the same time the German radio dictator. "

Free spaces in the Free State

Map of the German Empire at the time of the Weimar Republic. Prussia, the largest member state, in blue.

In the Free State of Prussia , Heilmann found conditions that differed significantly from those in the Reich. They formed the framework for his political development. First of all, this included the absence of conflicts, which repeatedly placed heavy burdens on the level of the empire. The Versailles Peace Treaty , foreign policy and social policy were issues that were primarily to be negotiated in the Reichstag and the Reich government , not in the Prussian Landtag or the Prussian State Ministry .

The freedom of the SPD parliamentary group in the Prussian state parliament was also significantly greater than that of the Reichstag parliamentary group, which traditionally had to give an account before the SPD party congress, due to the lack of an internal party control body. In Prussia there was no SPD regional association, no regional executive committee and also no party congress. The parliamentary group, above all Heilmann, rejected all attempts to limit their freedom.

The Prussian three-tier suffrage had ensured that only ten Social Democrats were represented in the House of Representatives until the November Revolution. Before the First World War, however, the SPD became the largest parliamentary group in the Reichstag. Nevertheless, she was also excluded from political participation there and therefore maintained the strict opposition course until August 1914 . For many SPD members of the Reichstag, the fight against the government was the norm even after the war and revolution. The situation in Prussia is different: of 114 Social Democrats (1921) only four held seats in the Prussian House of Representatives before the World War. The SPD parliamentary group in the Prussian state parliament, led by Heilmann, was therefore able to adjust more quickly to the new division of roles between parliament and government.

The homogeneity of the Prussian parliamentarians was also greater. The clear majority was reform-oriented and not revolutionary. In the Reichstag parliamentary group, on the other hand, there were many party intellectuals, political writers and editors. They showed a higher degree of individualism , criticism and enthusiasm for theory. Another characteristic of the Prussian parliamentary group was the lack of a left wing. In the Reichstag faction, on the other hand, the left wing certainly had weight. Against this background Heilmann succeeded in securing the position of power of the Prussian Prime Minister. He swore the SPD parliamentary group on Braun , so that this was spared the humiliating experiences that social democratic chancellors repeatedly experienced.

Ultimately, the close alliance between the social democratic labor movement and political Catholicism, the center, was fundamental to the stability of the political situation in the Free State of Prussia . The cooperation between these two parties succeeded because Heilmann, as chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, and Joseph Hess , the parliamentary group manager and later parliamentary group chairman of the center, got along very well politically and personally. Both had their respective factions firmly under control and set them to the support of the state government, both coordinated regularly, especially on personnel policy and tactical issues. It was not least thanks to their cooperation that the black-red alliance lasted until 1932 despite a number of crises. This alliance was supplemented by the German Democratic Party (DDP), which represented the liberal, republican-minded bourgeoisie.

Parliamentary leader

Heilmann was of the opinion that strong leaders were needed to support the parliamentary system of the Weimar Republic. In this regard, he publicly praised Otto Braun , the long-time Prime Minister of Prussia. On Braun's 60th birthday, he wrote:

“Otto Braun […] is a real leader . With your own will and with your own determination, which prefers to decide for itself rather than long questions. But he is nothing less than a dictator. He does not need dictatorship, which is enforced with the brutality of force; he knows how to convince, and if his reasons are not conclusive, he can also be convinced. It is an example of how democracy in particular creates leadership personalities [...]. "

In the same way he saw in Joseph Hess a "real leader".

This appreciation of the political leadership abilities of his political companions is at the same time a characterization of Heilmann's own strengths in this area. He knew how to assert himself in conflicts. This was evident in important personnel decisions. After Carl Severing resigned as Prussian Minister of the Interior in 1926, the SPD parliamentary group wanted to succeed Robert Leinert , whom Heilmann did not consider suitable. Braun initially flirted with Hans Krüger , the then district president of Lüneburg . Heilmann, for his part, preferred Albert Grzesinski . Because he was unable to assert himself in the group, he resigned as group chairman just before the parliamentary summer break. After the summer break, the group re-elected him chairman. A little later, Otto Braun appointed Grzesinski as Minister of the Interior. Heilmann had prevailed against both the parliamentary group and Braun. Three and a half years later, in February 1930, Grzesinski left. His direct successor Heinrich Waentig remained only a man of transition. Heilmann and Braun brought Carl Severing back in mid-October 1930; the parliamentary group was also left out in this personnel decision.

Heilmann played a key role in the overthrow of the Minister of Education, Carl Heinrich Becker . The minister, although independent , was generally assigned to the DDP, which in this way came to three ministers, just like the center. The SPD, by far the strongest parliamentary group in the state parliament, only had two: the prime minister and the interior minister. In 1928, after the state elections, considerations arose to expand the Weimar coalition of the SPD, the Center and the DDP into a grand coalition by bringing in the German People's Party (DVP). In this situation the SPD pushed for a victim of the DDP - Becker was targeted. Heilmann supported the demand for this minister to be replaced. Even after the plans for the grand coalition became obsolete, the SPD parliamentary group and its chairman stuck to the replacement plans and, from the summer of 1929, demanded the office of minister of education for a social democrat. The comrades' candidate was Christoph König , high school councilor, member of the SPD state parliamentary group and with strong support from the elementary school teachers among the SPD state parliament members. Heilmann and his parliamentary group kept up the pressure on Braun on this issue, who at the beginning of 1930 felt compelled to drop Becker, although the rumors of the resignation of this minister had already raised the liberal public - celebrities such as Thomas Mann , Heinrich Mann , Alfred Döblin, Ernst Barlach , Max Liebermann , Albert Einstein and Theodor Wolff protested. Heilmann was able to record Becker's resignation as a success, but not the succession plan in the Ministry of Culture. Braun decided without further consultation with the parliamentary group for Adolf Grimme , a Social Democrat who did not belong to the parliamentary group and who had been proposed by Becker as his successor. Because he quickly proved himself as a minister, the turmoil around Becker was soon forgotten.

Hedwig Wachenheim , before the First World War, personal and political companion of Ludwig Frank , the charismatic top politician of the South German Social Democracy, experienced Heilmann up close as a member of the SPD parliamentary group in the Prussian state parliament. Looking back, she judged his leadership qualities:

“Alongside Stresemann and Otto Braun, and along with Joseph Wirth for a short distance, Heilmann was one of the great political figures of the Weimar Republic. He understood the tasks of a parliamentary leader and knew how to bring the parliamentary groups together to form a coalition. As chairman of the Social Democratic parliamentary group in the Prussian state parliament, he cleared up all the difficulties that Otto Braun might have faced in the parliamentary group or in the state parliament itself, and thus contributed to the long maintenance of the Weimar coalition in Prussia. Yes, I would like to say that he - and not the leaders of the Reichstag parliamentary group - created the model of a parliamentary leader in the Weimar Republic. "

- Hedwig Wachenheim

Heilmann also succeeded in gathering a circle of close confidants from the parliamentary group who helped to keep the parliamentary group's work smooth. This group included Wachenheim, Kuttner, Grzesinski, Ernst Hamburger , Toni Sender , Hans Staudinger and Wilhelm Siering .

Heilmann was unable to work out a leadership role in the Reichstag such as he held in the Prussian state parliament. The motive for striving for a mandate in the Reichstag in 1928 was an attempt to strengthen democratic Prussia through the Reich. The same applied to Joseph Hess's mandate in the Reichstag. With this step, both wanted to better dovetail the Reich and Prussia - plans for a personal union of Prussian and Reich offices were in circulation. Their ideas were unsuccessful: on June 11, 1928, Hess returned the seat in the Reichstag that he had won on May 20, 1928; In the SPD, Heilmann's ideas about stronger personal ties between Prussia and Reich met with a lack of understanding.

Nation, Republic and Socialism

Heilmann presented himself as a nationalist during the First World War . During the years of the republic, like all leading German politicians, he rejected the Versailles Treaty, at first he even thought it possible to refuse ratification . His patriotism also showed in later years . He is always happy when he returns to Germany from a trip abroad, said Heilmann. His behavior shortly before his arrest in 1933, the refusal to consider fleeing, also resulted from this commitment to Germany.

Heilmann stood not only by his fatherland, but also by the republic. It angered him when in 1930 the party's youth opposition operated with the catchphrase: “Republic, that's not much, socialism remains the goal”. The attitude expressed in such slogans is "complete nonsense". Supporters of such slogans are hardly familiar with basic social democratic terms. Both republic and socialism are equal goals. The republic is more than just a cheap battleground. At around the same time he identified “a deliberate disdain and degradation of democracy” and considered this to be incompatible with membership of the SPD.

Parliamentary democracy opened up the best opportunities for Heilmann to gradually achieve the goals of social democracy. In his opinion, however, this required the will to power, the will to govern. That could not be done from the opposition banks. In 1927 he spoke to the comrades at the Kiel party congress:

“We have [...] to ensure that the republic is not disgusted for the worker, and that would have to happen if the monarchists were to rule in it all the time. If only the bourgeois bloc ruled the German republic , how did you want to arouse the enthusiasm of the workers! If you want and need this enthusiasm, say yes to the need for social democratic participation in government. "

At the SPD's Prussian Day on February 14, 1928, Heilmann described the democratization of the administration as a particular success of the coalition in Prussia. Only if the SPD was permanently involved in the government and the governments did not change at short intervals would this personnel policy be continued - which he positively dubbed System Severing . Heilmann was convinced that the Prussian police force had become a "reliable republican instrument". Heilmann also looks back on the crisis year 1923 with a certain pride:

"If in those days the Reich was saved from the danger of bloody unrest and threatening fragmentation, then Prussia as a bracket of the Reich, so the Social Democrats as the leader of the Reich unity and protector of the republic can take credit for this."

Consequently, Heilmann criticized the tendency in parts of the social democracy to strive for the opposition role in political crises. He became particularly clear after the break up of the Müller government in the spring of 1930 and saw the anti-social austerity measures of the successor government as a learning opportunity for the SPD:

"So the experience with the Brüning cabinet will be a lesson for broad circles of the party to think more deeply about the advantages and disadvantages of coalition policy than has been the case so far."

Just a few days after the end of the grand coalition at Reich level, the SPD parliamentary group he led had adopted a resolution in the Prussian state parliament that openly criticized the behavior of the sister parliamentary group in the Reichstag - a very rare occurrence.

Heilmann hardly took part in theoretical discussions about socialism and how to get there. He was interested in practical success. For him, socialism could not be created in a single act of political will, instead he assumed a process that would take decades. It was important to him, on this path of change, to push back more and more elements of the capitalist economy through forms of the public economy. The promotion of the common economy was a central demand of the reform-oriented strategy of socialism , which was formulated essentially by Rudolf Hilferding and Fritz Naphtali under the catchwords " organized capitalism " and " economic democracy ".

The Prussian Social Democrats tried to implement this concept little by little under Heilmann and Braun's leadership. This included the targeted commitment of the Prussian state as an entrepreneur. Established companies such as Preussag , Preußische Elektrizitäts AG or Vereinigte Elektrizitäts- und Bergwerk AG belonged here. The Hibernia AG was operated with this perspective. The support of the agrarian-cooperative settlement system by the Prussian State Bank (sea trade) was part of these economic policy initiatives. Corresponding projects of the Prussian municipalities were also supported.

Socialism should not only be fought for in the economy, but at the same time through the expansion of social policy and improved educational opportunities. Heilmann pushed this plan forward with Braun, Grzesinski and Grimme. The promotion of housing construction and reforms in the education system were the most important cornerstones.

Fight against opponents of the republic

Ernst Heilmann turned sharply against the Conservatives , Communists and National Socialists, in whom he saw opponents of democracy. On the Prussian Day of the SPD in February 1928 he presented the politics of the ruling party and emerged more clearly and militantly than Braun. He sharply criticized the right-wing parties from the DNVP to the DVP and the economic party to the Völkische. Since 1925 they had tried again and again together with the communists to overthrow the government. The communists had thereby supported the goals of the conservatives and proved to be an “auxiliary force of the reaction”. “It is really not the merit of the communists that the old Junker rule has not been reestablished in this Prussia .” However, the opposition from right and left is only united in negation . The brackets are hatred of social democracy. The opposition would never have attempted to form a joint government. Heilmann was aware that, despite many successes, the republic was still threatened in Prussia. “There are still thousands of strongholds of reaction in the east and west. The musty air of the old bureaucratic spirit from the authoritarian state is still blowing through countless offices. We must never give in to the mistake that we can master this backwardness with Parliament alone. "

In Free Word he described the system of rule in the Soviet Union as a hideous caricature of socialism; He considered it impossible to join forces with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), which from his point of view depended entirely on Moscow, and in 1930 called such demands an “unforgivable naivete”. In the same year Heilmann attacked the party's own youth organization, the Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ), after it had organized Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg celebrations. He emphasized that Liebknecht was an irreconcilable opponent of Social Democracy in January 1919 and in this respect comparable to Adolf Hitler . Celebrations for Liebknecht are "completely impossible and intolerable" for Social Democrats.

The Socialist leader attacked the KPD also because these with their social fascism agitation to fascism umbog -term into an instrument of struggle against social democracy and the threat posed by the Nazis, playing down.

Heilmann considered such a sharp demarcation to the left to be necessary in order to be able to fight resolutely against the growing danger of the emerging National Socialism. Since 1930 Heilmann has repeatedly warned against this new political force. He emphasized that the National Socialists' declarations of legality were just as worthless as their theories. Rather, it depends on their political practice, and that is "unlimited rudeness and unrestrained slander". National Socialism is "a relapse into brutality and barbarism". In 1931 Heilmann outlined the consequences that a conquest of power by the NSDAP would have for the socialist labor movement:

“Fascism is the violent dissolution of all workers' organizations, the destruction of the workers' parties, the trade unions, the consumer associations, the workers' press. Fascism is the bloody persecution not just of violent attempts to overthrow, but of all thoughts, words, and programs of freedom. Fascism is the death of freedom and the elimination of the working class as an independent factor from politics and economy, life and culture. "

Elsewhere he summarized: "The whole labor movement would be outlawed ."

Heilmann, who had left the Jewish community when he joined the SPD, did not explicitly address the persecution and extermination of the Jews who were threatened by the National Socialists. Heilmann had already made a note of these. In 1929 - the NSDAP only had 12 seats in the German Reichstag at the time - the later Reich Minister of the Interior, Wilhelm Frick , announced Heilmann's death from the tribune of parliament:

"We National Socialists will be the first to have Mr. Heilmann [...] hanged in a completely legal manner in the coming Third Reich on the basis of a law against popular treason and corruption by a German state court [...]."

The President of the Reichstag, Paul Löbe , did not reprimand Frick's threats, nor did the Vorwarts react to the National Socialists' remarks.

In the era of the presidential cabinets

The end of the Müller government and the change to the first presidential cabinet under the central politician Heinrich Brüning in the spring of 1930 brought considerable problems for the Social Democrats. Brüning no longer relied on parliament, but on the powers of the Reich President . In addition, the measures he implemented to reorganize the budget put a strain on the supporters of the SPD. At the same time, it became clear with the Reichstag election of September 14, 1930 that the radical parties emerged stronger from the ballots, especially the NSDAP, which was able to increase its number of seats from 12 to 107 by almost nine. In order to prevent further growth of the radicals, the SPD in the Reichstag largely tolerated Brüning's austerity and deflationary policies based on cuts in social spending , which, however, exacerbated the economic crisis.

Ernst Heilmann was one of the leading Social Democrats in Prussia and in the Reichstag, who campaigned for this policy of tolerance among his comrades. In his opinion there was no alternative to the preservation of the republic. The key medium in his advocacy of this strategy was The Free Word . Between the autumn of 1929 and the end of February 1933, when he was banned by the National Socialists, he published more than 200 articles and comments in this social democratic discussion body, around half of them in 1931 and 1932. Already in his first comment after the Reichstag elections in 1930 explained Heilmann:

“This Reichstag election is a tremendous political and economic blow to Germany's rebuilding. In spite of all this, our task remains to mitigate the consequences of this catastrophe for the German people as much as possible [...] [Social democracy will continue to be ready for any positive achievement] if the workers' interests it represents are given due consideration. "

In his other contributions, Heilmann often took the government's specific legislative proposals as an opportunity to plead for maintaining the course of tolerance towards Brüning, which was highly controversial in the SPD. The Berlin party district and many other largely left-wing party branches were toying with a Hitler-Hugenberg government. As Heilmann sneered in Freie Wort on October 12, 1930, they would attach “the most naive and delightful fantasies” to these, namely that they would eliminate the Young Plan , which is unpopular all over Germany , and then soon be ruined.

Heilmann's central question, however, was always whether approval of the draft laws presented by von Brüning was compatible with the interests of the workers. The result was consistently: There is no election, significant changes compared to the first government plans have already been implemented by the Social Democrats, vital interests of the Social Democrats are taken into account in this decision.

According to Heilmann, the toleration of the Brüning government should also stabilize the Weimar coalition in Prussia, since otherwise the center faction in the Prussian state parliament would terminate its longstanding cooperation with the SPD. Joseph Hess had given Heilmann clear warnings in this regard. In order to secure democratic Prussia, politicians in the Weimar coalition, above all Ernst Hamburger and Ernst Heilmann, developed new rules of procedure for the state parliament. It stipulated that a prime minister could only be elected with an absolute majority - and not, as before, with a relative majority in the second ballot. The background to this was the upcoming state election on April 24, 1932, which raised concerns that a negative majority of the wing parties KPD and NSDAP would emerge in Prussia . Indeed, the fears were justified. The SPD fell to 21.2%. The DDP (now called the German State Party) shrank to 1.5%, almost insignificant. In contrast, the NSDAP grew from 2.9% to 36.3% and, with 162 seats, became the strongest parliamentary group. The Weimar coalition had lost its majority and together only had 163 seats. The changed rules of procedure nevertheless ensured Braun's remaining in the office of prime minister. After the election, Heilmann vehemently advocated actually taking advantage of the changed rules of procedure; He pushed aside votes from the parliamentary group to seek salvation in the opposition, as did all the concerns of Otto Braun, who was seriously disappointed by the outcome of the election.

There was not much room for maneuver in parliament. Most likely, a coalition of the NSDAP and the center seemed to be, which together with 229 MPs could form a majority coalition. Braun and Severing also considered this solution to be likely. On the other hand, Heilmann rightly expected that such negotiations would fail due to the intransigence of the NSDAP, among other things. "The only possibility of continuing state life would then be for the Braun-Severing government to continue to serve as the executive cabinet." The precondition for a permanent minority cabinet would have been tolerance by the KPD. Heilmann therefore appealed:

“The KPD now has to decide again whether it will continue to chase the phantom of an immediate revolutionary decision and thus make fascism master in Germany and kill itself or not. If only the German workers' interests played a role in the KPD, this decision would not be in doubt for a second. "

Heilmann only campaigned for the KPD in a cautious manner, so as not to drive the coalition partner Zentrum into the arms of the NSDAP. Tolerance by the KPD was not entirely out of the question, as the KPD had begun to change its united front policy. But in the end, neither an alliance between the center and the NSDAP nor a minority government supported by the KPD came into being.

Franz von Papen , June 1932.

Heilmann's advocacy of tolerance policy at the Reich level led to success within the SPD. The party supported the center chancellor. However, this strategy did not achieve the goal it pursued - preservation of democracy. Brüning kept the influence of the SPD on government decisions low; he did not approach SPD positions as Heilmann had hoped. Moreover, the voters did not honor this policy - in particular the growth of the NSDAP could not be prevented in this way. Even the Weimar coalition in Prussia was doomed to swoon, as the putsch of the Papen government on July 20, 1932 showed. The decision of the State Court of 25 October 1932 to formally reinstate the ministers did nothing to change that.

The fact that the SPD campaigned for Hindenburg in the 1932 presidential election, as Heilmann had also called for, led to a similar result. Hindenburg asserted himself against Hitler and the KPD chairman Ernst Thälmann . However, he did not use his power to strengthen parliament and the republic, as the SPD had hoped.

Nevertheless, Heilmann spread confidence after both the Reichstag election of July 31, 1932 and the Reichstag election of November 6, 1932 . He thought the attack by the National Socialists on the republic had been repulsed. First of all, in the second half of 1932, he saw Hindenburg's refusal to appoint Hitler as Reich Chancellor as a good sign. Heilmann then welcomed the November election because the NSDAP suffered losses for the first time in this election. Heilmann rejoiced on November 13, 1932 in The Free Word : “No normal person can believe in the Hitler dictatorship today.” At the same time, this election result embarrassed the presidential government under Franz von Papen , which Heilmann had viewed as a prelude to fascism. Heilmann's optimism was premature. On January 30, 1933, Hitler was finally appointed Chancellor by Hindenburg.

From seizure of power to arrest

In accordance with the tradition of German social democracy, Heilmann also oriented his comrades to March 5, 1933, the day of the Reichstag elections . Here he hoped for a victory over the new government. The fixation of party work on election campaigns, agitation, membership canvassing and organizational expansion was not questioned by him after the seizure of power - parliament continued to be the starting point and reference point for political action. Extra-parliamentary strategies, such as the mobilization of the Iron Front or the preparation of the underground struggle , had little weight.

Heilmann himself neither went illegally nor fled abroad. Hedwig Wachenheim, who avoided going to Switzerland, asked him to also go into exile . He refused: "It is not for me to live abroad as an emigrant and a private person". Victor Schiff , long-time editor of Vorwärts , offered him a diplomatic passport , which Heilmann also turned down. He couldn't escape. "Our members, the workers cannot run away either."

Rather, he continued the fight against the National Socialists with the parliamentary means with which he was familiar. The famous speech with which party chairman Otto Wels justified before the Reichstag on March 23, 1933 why the Social Democratic MPs rejected the Enabling Act , was based on a joint draft by him, Wels, Kurt Schumacher and the editor-in-chief of Vorwärts , Friedrich Stampfer .

Heilmann showed himself publicly during these weeks and continued to visit his regular café. He also took part in the Reich Conference of the SPD on June 19, 1933. At this conference, the domestic SPD tried to find its position on the executive committee in exile around Otto Wels, who had called on the party from Prague to resist National Socialism . Heilmann did not come to the fore at this conference, but - like the majority of participants - spoke out in favor of severing ties with the exile executive. He rejected resistance. Instead, the comrades should "continue to weave the thread of legality as long as it can be spun". This legality tactic came to an end quickly. Three days later, on June 22, 1933, the National Socialists banned the SPD.

Detention

In concentration camps

Ernst Heilmann (1st from right) with Friedrich Ebert junior , Alfred Braun , Heinrich Giesecke , Hans Flesch and Kurt Magnus as prisoners in the Oranienburg concentration camp , August 1933

On June 26, 1933, the Gestapo arrested Heilmann in Café Josty. She took him to the Columbia concentration camp and a few days later to the Berlin police headquarters on Alexanderplatz . Heilmann was severely mistreated during the first few days of imprisonment. Further stations internment followed suit: prison Plötzensee , KZ Börgermoor , KZ Esterwegen , Oranienburg , Sachsenhausen , Dachau concentration camp and finally in September 1938, the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Registration card of Ernst Heilmann as a prisoner in the National Socialist concentration camp Dachau

In Börgermoor Heilmann tried to put an end to his torment by crossing the chain of guards formed by the guards to provoke fatal shots from the guards. However, they only shot him in the right leg.

Communist prisoners in Buchenwald met Heilmann with suspicion and hatred. They saw in him a right-wing opportunist and SPD bigwig . Their rejection was fueled by Heilmann's refusal to submit to their political intentions in the camp. Younger Social Democrats who had rejected the policy of tolerance also kept aloof from Heilmann.

In Buchenwald, after years of imprisonment, not much remained of the former parliamentary leader's political strength. Walter Poller , doctor's clerk in Buchenwald, retrospectively reported in 1946 on an encounter with Heilmann at the end of 1938:

“The traces of suffering and all the agony that this man had to endure during the five and a half years of concentration camps were carved deep into his furrowed face. His tattered clothes were dirty and mended. His gait was bent and slow, his hands cracked, brittle, worn. That was no longer the person Heilmann, that was just a pitiful human wreck. "

- Walter Poller

Heilmann spoke to Poller about a coming war that could mean a chance for the non-Jewish prisoners because they would be needed. For Jews, on the other hand, he saw little chance of survival. After the beginning of the Second World War , Heilmann calculated according to the information provided by the Jewish prisoner Dr. Gustav Bauer, later assigned to the prisoners' office in Buna / Monowitz , daily with his murder.

All attempts by his friends and relatives to avert or mitigate his fate failed. Heinrich Himmler , the Reichsführer SS , had reserved the decision for himself personally.

death

On March 31, 1940, Heilmann was called out at the evening roll call and taken to the bunker of the Buchenwald concentration camp. On the morning of April 3rd, SS-Hauptscharführer Martin Sommer, notorious as the "executioner of Buchenwald", killed him with lethal injection . In the report to the commandant's office of the camp it was said that Heilmann had died at 5:10 o'clock “of heart failure due to heart defects (dropsy)”. The official SS protocol, however, claimed that pronounced old age was the cause of death.

Heilmann left behind his wife Magdalena, with whom he had been married since 1920, and four children, including Peter Heilmann .

Aftermath

Research situation

The historiography has hardly concerned by the mid-1970s with Heilmann. For the first time, the historian Hagen Schulze emphasized the importance of Heilmann in his biography of Otto Braun published in 1977. He saw in him a decisive personnel factor for the longstanding cooperation of the Weimar coalition in the Free State of Prussia. "Without Ernst Heilmann, Otto Braun's political position would not have been possible (...)."

In the early 1980s, the political scientist Peter Lösche published a number of smaller papers on Heilmann. The historian Horst Möller also came out with a corresponding article. The occasion for these publications was Heilmann's hundredth birthday. What all these representations had in common was that they concentrated on the high phase of Heilmann's work: on his work as a parliamentary group leader of the SPD in the Prussian state parliament. Lösche considers Heilmann to be one of the "ten most important and influential politicians of the Weimar Republic" . Möller calls him one of "the most prominent defenders of the republic" and one of the "most clairvoyant fighters () against National Socialism in Germany" . According to Horst Möller, Heilmann is also one of the “few Weimar parliamentarians of outstanding stature” . The historian and journalist Rainer Krawitz wrote a radio feature about Heilmann that Deutschlandfunk broadcast in April 1981.

In 1993 the archivist Stephan Pfalzer published a short article on Heilmann's activities in Chemnitz. Wolfgang Röll, employee of the Buchenwald Memorial, dealt with the fate of Heilmann in this camp on some pages in his work on social democratic prisoners in the Buchenwald concentration camp. A comprehensive biography of Ernst Heilmann has not yet been written.

memory

Memorial plaques on the Reichstag
Grave of the Heilmann couple and grave of their son Peter

Ernst Heilmann was largely forgotten for decades. In the memorabilia of his colleagues such as Braun, Severing, Grzesinski or Stampfer, he only led a shadowy existence or was not mentioned at all. Even in Brüning's memoirs and in Arnold Brecht's memoirs , he is either not addressed or only marginally addressed.

Heilmann is remembered in various places. In Berlin in particular, his name can be found in different places. These include the Heilmannring near the Plötzensee execution site and the Ernst-Heilmann-Steg to the Kreuzberg Lohmühleninsel . In the Berlin House of Representatives , the building of the former Prussian Landtag, the most important place of work of this politician, there is an Ernst Heilmann Hall. A memorial plaque for Heilmann has been attached to his former home at Brachvogelstrasse 5 in Kreuzberg since 1989. Since 1992 one of the 96 memorial plaques for members of the Reichstag murdered by the National Socialists has been commemorating Heilmann in Berlin near the Reichstag . His grave, an honorary grave of the city of Berlin in field H III-UW-72, can be found in the Wilmersdorfer Waldfriedhof Stahnsdorf .

There are Ernst Heilmann Streets in Chemnitz, Forst (Lausitz) , Bergkamen and Niederheimbach . In Cottbus the Ernst-Heilmann-Weg is named after him, in Hildesheim the Ernst-Heilmann-Grund.

literature

Specific literature

  • Klaus Malettke :  Heilmann, Ernst. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , pp. 260 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Alex J. Kay : Death Threat in the Reichstag, June 13, 1929: Nazi Parliamentary Practice and the Fate of Ernst Heilmann . In: German Studies Review 35.1 (2012), pp. 19–32.
  • Jens Flemming : Heilmann, Ernst. In: Democratic Ways. German résumés from five centuries , ed. by Manfred Asendorf and Rolf von Bockel: JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1997, ISBN 3-476-01244-1 , pp. 242–244.
  • Ernst Menachem Heilmann: Reflections and experiences as well as personal fates and life pictures of a persecuted family In: Lorenz Gösta Beutin , Wolfgang Beutin, Ernst Menachem Heilmann (ed.): In Nuremberg they made a law (Bremen contributions to the history of literature and ideas), Peter Lang GmbH- Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, Frankfurt / Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-61534-8 .
  • Rainer Krawitz: Prussia's uncrowned king. For the 100th birthday of the SPD politician Ernst Heilmann. Broadcast by Deutschlandfunk on April 7, 1981, manuscript ( unpaginated ).
  • Peter Lösche : Ernst Heilmann - Social Democratic Parliamentary Leader in Prussia during the Weimar Republic. In: GWU , 33rd vol. (1982), H. 7, pp. 420-432.
  • Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann (1881-1940). Parliamentary leader and reform socialist. In: Peter Lösche, Michael Scholing, Franz Walter : Keep from being forgotten. Life paths of Weimar Social Democrats. Colloquium Verlag, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-7678-0741-6 , pp. 99-120.
  • Horst Möller : Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. In: Yearbook of the Institute for German History. Volume XI, 1982, pp. 261-294. (Newly published in: Horst Möller: Enlightenment and Democracy. Historical Studies on Political Reason . Ed. By Andreas Wirsching. Oldenbourg, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-486-56707-1 , pp. 200–225 ( books.google.de ) ).
  • Stephan Pfalzer: Ernst Heilmann in Chemnitz. In: Helga Grebing , Hans Mommsen , Karsten Rudolph (eds.): Democracy and emancipation between Saale and Elbe. Contributions to the history of the social democratic labor movement until 1933 ( publications by the Institute for Research on the European Labor Movement , Series A: Representations, Volume 4). Klartext Verlag, Essen 1993, ISBN 3-88474-032-6 , pp. 139-146.
  • Siegfried Heimann : Ernst Heilmann - parliamentarian, social democrat . Berlin House of Representatives, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-922581-02-4

Further representations

  • Horst Möller: Parliamentarism in Prussia. 1919–1932 (Handbook of the History of German Parliamentarism, edited by Gerhard A. Ritter on behalf of the Commission for the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties ), Droste, Düsseldorf 1985, ISBN 3-7700-5133-5 .
  • Wolfram Pyta : Against Hitler and for the Republic. The conflict between the German Social Democrats and the NSDAP in the Weimar Republic ( Contributions to the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties , edited by the Commission for the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties, Volume 87). Droste, Düsseldorf 1989, ISBN 3-7700-5153-X .
  • Wilhelm Ribhegge: Prussia in the West. Struggle for parliamentarism in Rhineland and Westphalia 1789–1947 (special edition for the state center for political education in North Rhine-Westphalia), Münster 2008; Pages identical to (…) Verlag Aschendorff, Münster 2008, ISBN 978-3-402-05489-5 .
  • Wolfgang Röll: German Social Democrats in the Buchenwald concentration camp. 1937-1945. Including biographical sketches . Published by the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation, Wallstein, Göttingen 2000, ISBN 3-89244-417-X .
  • Robert Sigel: The Lensch-Cunow-Haenisch Group (Contributions to a Historical Structural Analysis of Bavaria in the Industrial Age, Volume 14). Duncker and Humblot, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-428-03648-4 .
  • Hagen Schulze : Otto Braun or Prussia's democratic broadcast. A biography. Ullstein, Propylaen, Frankfurt am Main and others 1977, ISBN 3-550-07355-0 .
  • Heinrich August Winkler : The way to catastrophe. Workers and labor movement in the Weimar Republic 1930 to 1933 , Verlag Dietz JHW Nachf., Bonn 1990, ISBN 3-8012-0095-7 (= history of the workers and the labor movement in Germany since the end of the 18th century , volume 11).

Web links

Commons : Ernst Heilmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Games by Ernst Heilmann at 365chess.com (English)
  2. ↑ Ernst Heilmann's historical Elo numbers at chessmetrics.com (English)
  3. ↑ Information on origin, youth and studies with Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann (1881–1940) . P. 100f and from Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic . P. 266f. After Horst Möller, Heilmann was already a student when he joined the party. For the characterization of the student Heilmann by Max Goldstein, see in particular the quote from Goldstein in Rainer Krawitz: Prussia's uncrowned king (without page number).
  4. ↑ In the articles about Ernst Heilmann it is often said that he went to Chemnitz as early as 1907 and then worked there as an employee of the Volksstimme . Stephan Pfalzer: Ernst Heilmann in Chemnitz. P. 140, contradicts this based on local sources.
  5. ↑ On Heilmann's lectures, see Stephan Pfalzer: Ernst Heilmann in Chemnitz. P. 143.
  6. ↑ Information on Heilmann's activities in Chemnitz before August 1, 1914 according to Stephan Pfalzer: Ernst Heilmann in Chemnitz .
  7. ↑ Quoted from Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann (1881–1940). P. 103.
  8. ^ VI Lenin: The tasks of the proletariat in our revolution (draft of a platform for the proletarian party) . In: VI Lenin: Works , Volume 24 (April – June 1917). Dietz Verlag, Berlin (O) 1959, pp. 39-77, here p. 66.
  9. ↑ Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. P. 267. For the bell see Robert Sigel: Die Lensch-Cunow-Haenisch-Gruppe , pp. 58–65 and passim .
  10. ^ Robert Sigel: The Lensch-Cunow-Haenisch group . P. 64.
  11. ↑ On Heilmann's activities in World War I see Stephan Pfalzer: Ernst Heilmann in Chemnitz. P. 145 and Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann (1881–1940) , p. 102f.
  12. ↑ Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. P. 270.
  13. ^ Stations in Heilmann's career in the Weimar Republic after Peter Lösche. Ernst Heilmann (1881-1940) , p. 103; on “Illo” see Heinrich August Winkler: The Path to Disaster. P. 207.
  14. ↑ Hildegard Wegscheider: Wide world in a narrow mirror, memories . Berlin-Grunewald 1953, p. 59, quoted by Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A Social Democrat in the Weimar Republic , p. 272.
  15. ^ Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann (1881-1940). P. 103; Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann - Social Democratic Parliamentary Leader in Prussia during the Weimar Republic , p. 422.
  16. ↑ So the verdict with Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. P. 272.
  17. ↑ On the defamation of Heilmann in the course of and in the aftermath of the Barmat scandal, see Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. Pp. 271-273. On the related allegations of the KPD against Heilmann briefly Hagen Schulze: Otto Braun , p. 942, note 199.
  18. ↑ On Heilmann's way of life and his echo, see Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann (1881–1940). P. 104f; also Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A Social Democrat in the Weimar Republic , p. 271.
  19. ↑ On Heilmann's radio activities, see Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann (1881–1940). P. 104.
  20. ↑ Der Deutsche Sender , Edition 4, Volume 3, January 1932, p. 4.
  21. ↑ The following remarks on the structural prerequisites and conditions of social democratic politics in Prussia are based on Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann (1881–1940). Pp. 105-110. However, this idea was first carried out by Hagen Schulze: Otto Braun , pp. 384–388.
  22. ↑ Hagen Schulze: Otto Braun. P. 390. Schulze alludes here in particular to the dispute over the construction of the armored cruiser A (p. 942, note 205).
  23. ^ Wilhelm Ribhegge: Prussia in the west. P. 325.
  24. ↑ a b Quoted from Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann (1881–1940). P. 110.
  25. ^ So Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann (1881-1940). P. 111.
  26. ↑ On Braun's initial preference for Krüger see Hagen Schulze: Otto Braun. P. 512 and Rainer Krawitz: Prussia's uncrowned king (without page number).
  27. ↑ See Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann (1881–1940) on Heilmann's influence in filling the post of Interior Minister . P. 111f.
  28. ↑ On the replacement of Becker, see Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. Pp. 273-276; Schulze, Otto Braun , pp. 558-561.
  29. ↑ Hedwig Wachenheim: From the upper middle class to social democracy. Berlin 1973, p. 111, quoted in Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A Social Democrat in the Weimar Republic , p. 279.
  30. ^ Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann (1881-1940). P. 111 and Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann - Social Democratic Parliamentary Leader in Prussia during the Weimar Republic , p. 423.
  31. ↑ On Heilmann as a member of the Reichstag, see Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. P. 277f.
  32. ↑ On the subject of Heilmann and Germany, briefly Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. P. 269.
  33. ↑ Quotations from Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. P. 286.
  34. ↑ Quoted from Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann - Social Democratic Parliamentary Leader in Prussia during the Weimar Republic. P. 425.
  35. ↑ Quoted from Wilhelm Ribhegge: Prussia in the West. P. 418.
  36. ↑ Quoted from Heinrich August Winkler: The way to the catastrophe. P. 135f; see also Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A Social Democrat in the Weimar Republic , p. 290.
  37. ↑ Hagen Schulze: Otto Braun. P. 625; Heinrich August Winkler: Workers and the labor movement in the Weimar Republic. The appearance of normality. 1924 to 1930 , Dietz, Berlin / Bonn 1985, ISBN 3-8012-0094-9 , p. 811.
  38. ↑ For the following statements with regard to reforms of the economic system and with regard to social policy, see Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann (1881–1940). P. 115.
  39. ^ Wilhelm Ribhegge: Prussia in the west. Pp. 416–419, all quotations there.
  40. ↑ On Heilmann's assessment of Soviet communism and the KPD, briefly Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. P. 284, note 66. There also the Heilmann quote.
  41. ↑ For the criticism of the SAJ celebrations for the founders of the KPD see Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. Pp. 284-286. The quote can be found on p. 286.
  42. ↑ On Heilmann's criticism of the social fascism theory, see Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann (1881–1940). P. 117.
  43. ↑ Quoted from Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. P. 263.
  44. ↑ Quoted from Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann (1881–1940). P. 117.
  45. ↑ Quoted from Wolfram Pyta: Against Hitler and for the Republic. P. 105.
  46. ^ Wilhelm Frick on June 13, 1929 in the German Reichstag, quoted from Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. P. 261; Original: Negotiations of the German Reichstag, Volume 425, p. 2424 reichstagsprotocol.de; Retrieved September 5, 2008.
  47. ↑ See also Alex J. Kay : Chronicle of an announced murder. Seventy years ago the social democrat Ernst Heilmann was murdered in the Buchenwald concentration camp. Nazi leader Wilhelm Frick threatened this in 1929 in the Reichstag. In: Friday No. 11 of March 19, 2010, p. 12.
  48. ↑ Information on Heilmann's attitude towards tolerance and his activities for The Free Word according to Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. P. 282.
  49. ↑ Quoted from Heinrich August Winkler: The way to the catastrophe. P. 207f, emphasis there.
  50. ↑ Heinrich August Winkler: The way into the disaster. S. 215. There also the Heilmann quote.
  51. ↑ On Heilmann's argumentation of tolerance see Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. P. 288.
  52. ↑ On the connection between the policy of tolerance and the Weimar coalition in Prussia see Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. P. 290.
  53. ↑ Heilmann is often named as one of the leading politicians who sought this change in the rules of procedure. The literature here also emphasizes Hamburg's contribution. These assessments can be found, for example, with Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann - Social Democratic Parliamentary Leader in Prussia during the Weimar Republic. P. 425 or Wilhelm Ribhegge: Prussia in the west , p. 325. See also Horst Möller: Parlamentarismus in Preußen , p. 387, note 253. In contrast to this, there is nothing to be found about Heilmann's significant influence on this question in Hagen Schulze . He also places ideas for changing the rules of procedure at the center, but without naming names; Independent of the center, Hamburger had ventilated this idea in the SPD (Hagen Schulze: Otto Braun , p. 727).
  54. ↑ To change the rules of procedure, see Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann (1881–1940). P. 112f. Comprehensive Hagen Schulze: Otto Braun , p. 726f and Horst Möller: Parlamentarismus in Preußen , p. 386–388.
  55. ↑ Overview of the state elections from 1919 to 1932 in Prussia (accessed on August 30, 2008, 9:30 a.m.).
  56. ↑ On this, Hagen Schulze: Otto Braun. Pp. 727-729.
  57. ^ Heinrich August Winkler: Weimar 1918–1933. The history of the first German democracy . Beck, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-406-37646-0 , pp. 459f; the Heilmann quotes there on p. 459.
  58. ↑ On the balance sheet of the policy of tolerance see briefly Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. P. 292.
  59. ↑ Quoted from Wolfram Pyta: Against Hitler and for the Republic. P. 188.
  60. ↑ On Heilmann's assessment of the danger of National Socialism in the second half of 1932 see Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. P. 293f.
  61. ↑ For Heilmann's orientation towards the March election of 1933, see Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann (1881–1940). S. 117. On the attitude of the SPD in the first weeks after January 30, 1933, see an exemplary and brief example of Detlev Lehnert: Social Democracy between Protest Movement and Governing Party 1848 to 1983 (edition suhrkamp, ​​new series, volume 248). Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1983, ISBN 3-518-11248-1 , p. 155.
  62. ^ Heilmann, quoted by Hedwig Wachenheim, Vom Großbürgertum zur Sozialdemokratie. Berlin 1973, p. 111f, quoted here from Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. P. 265.
  63. ↑ Quoted from Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann (1881–1940). P. 119.
  64. ↑ Heinrich August Winkler: The way into the disaster. P. 903.
  65. ^ Plenary minutes of Otto Wels' speech on the rejection of the Enabling Act, March 23, 1933. Negotiations of the German Reichstag , Volume 457, p. 32 ff .; Retrieved October 28, 2008.
  66. ↑ Quoted from Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. P. 264.
  67. ↑ Information on the stations of imprisonment according to Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann (1881–1940). P. 119 and Wolfgang Röll: Social Democrats in Buchenwald Concentration Camp , p. 94. The information given by the two authors is not identical.
  68. ↑ On the incident in Börgermoor, on the behavior of communist prisoners towards Heilmann and on the appearance of younger social democrats towards him, see Wolfgang Röll: Social Democrats in Buchenwald Concentration Camp. P. 94.
  69. ^ Poller, quoted from Wolfgang Röll: Social Democrats in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. P. 96f.
  70. ↑ On Heilmann's assessment of the Jewish fate, see Wolfgang Röll: Social Democrats in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. P. 97.
  71. ↑ See Werner Renz in Newsletter No. 26 (autumn 2004) of the Fritz Bauer Institute (accessed on August 30, 2008, 7:00 p.m.).
  72. ↑ On Poller's testimony, see Wolfgang Röll: Social Democrats in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. P. 100.
  73. ↑ a b Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. P. 262.
  74. ↑ Information on Heilmann's death according to Wolfgang Röll: Social Democrats in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. P. 101f and Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann (1881–1940) , p. 119. Quotation on "Heart Defects" by Wolfgang Röll: Social Democrats in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp , p. 102.
  75. ↑ She later received the Federal Cross of Merit for her services in the reconstruction of the Workers' Welfare , see Jessica Hoffmann, Helena Seidel, Nils Baratella : History of the Free University of Berlin. Events - Places - People , Verlag Frank & Timme, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86596-205-8 , p. 142.
  76. ↑ Rainer Krawitz: Prussia's uncrowned king (without page number)
  77. ↑ Grunert / Stolz / Bauschke: founding students - entry Eva Furth, née Heilmann . In: Jessica Hoffmann (ed.): History of the Free University of Berlin . Frank & Timme, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86596-205-8 , pp. 142-143.
  78. ↑ For the daughter Eva see the biographical information in Jessica Hoffmann, Helena Seidel, Nils Baratella: Geschichte der Freie Universität Berlin. Events - places - people . Verlag Frank & Timme, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86596-205-8 , p. 142 f .
  79. ↑ a b On this delete: Ernst Heilmann (1881–1940). P. 99; Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann - Social Democratic Parliamentary Leader in Prussia during the Weimar Republic , p. 420 and p. 430, note 2 and 4; Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A Social Democrat in the Weimar Republic , p. 266, and there also note 17.
  80. ↑ Hagen Schulze: Otto Braun. Pp. 388-390, cited on p. 389.
  81. ↑ See the overview in the catalog of the library of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Bonn (enter “Ernst Heilmann Lösche” in the search mask).
  82. ↑ Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic .
  83. ^ Peter Lösche: Ernst Heilmann (1881-1940). P. 99.
  84. ↑ Horst Möller: Ernst Heilmann. A social democrat in the Weimar Republic. P. 266.
  85. ^ Rainer Krawitz: Prussia's uncrowned king .
  86. ^ Stephan Pfalzer: Ernst Heilmann in Chemnitz .
  87. ^ Wolfgang Röll: Social Democrats in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Pp. 89-102.
  88. ↑ Heilmannring. In: Street name dictionary of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on November 2, 2008 in this version .
personal data
SURNAME Heilmann, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD), MdR and lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH April 13, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH April 3, 1940
PLACE OF DEATH Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar