Ernst Mehlich

This article deals with the social democratic editor and politician; for the German-Brazilian conductor and composer see Ernesto Mehlich (1888–1977).

Karl Ernst Mehlich (born March 14, 1882 in Ellsnig ( district Neustadt OS ), † August 19, 1926 near Leiferde ) was a German editor and SPD politician. After training and working as a printer , Mehlich worked as an editor for social democratic newspapers. Before the First World War he made a name for himself with contributions to the organization of the workers' libraries . As one of the leading Dortmund Social Democrats , he became a parliamentarian after the November Revolution. Carl Severing , at that time Reich and State Commissioner , brought him to Münster in 1919 as his deputy . In June 1920 Mehlich Severing's successor as Reich and State Commissioner for the Rhenish and Westphalian industrial areas.

Life

Training and social democratic engagement

After attending primary school , Mehlich completed an apprenticeship as a printer and typesetter and then worked as a journeyman in Switzerland , Württemberg , Hamm and Dortmund . In 1904 he was a member of the business commission of the Dortmund trade union cartel . He worked as an assistant in Lucerne , Stuttgart , Esslingen , Pforzheim , Zossen , Hamm and Dortmund. He also started his own business as a printer, but soon had to give up his business. In June 1905 he was briefly chairman of the local SPD association in Hamm. In 1906 he moved to Dortmund, where he became second chairman of the Dortmund SPD local association in November.

In 1907 Mehlich became editor of the Dortmund SPD newspaper Arbeiter-Zeitung , switched to the editorial staff of the Volksbote in Stettin in March / April 1907 and returned to the Arbeiter-Zeitung in February 1910 . Interrupted by his participation in the war in 1915/16, Mehlich stayed here until 1918 as editor or chief editor.

Mehlich got involved in the workers' abstinence union and wrote a brochure on the subject of community and alcohol (1908). At the party convention of the SPD in Leipzig , he and Simon Katzenstein presented a motion that the party of the Abstinenten-Bund should provide organizational and ideal support. Mehlich criticized the fact that there was a kind of compulsory drinking at party meetings and that the party executive had not done anything about it. The party's newspapers have not made any particular effort in the fight against alcoholism either. The party congress rejected with a large majority the demand for promotion and party official recognition of the abstinence movement.

Mehlich had acquired knowledge of socialist literature and fiction in self-study . He wrote reviews and gave speeches at party and union events. The Small Guide for Workers' Libraries was created in 1910 from lectures he had given at the Stettiner Bildungsverein . Mehlich advocated the amalgamation of the libraries of the party and trade unions in a town or district in order to create larger libraries with differentiated stocks. With the guideline and numerous essays on the subject, Mehlich became one of the most important champions of the workers' libraries in Wilhelmine Germany. The demand for central libraries with permanent librarians for the local workforce was taken into account at party conferences and trade union congresses. On the basis of the number of loans, Mehlich was critical of the fact that the workers' libraries were primarily interested in entertainment literature, while instructional literature took a back seat. He therefore called for readers to be interested in such literature. In 1917 he found that the workers' libraries had lost their original character and had moved closer to the communal public libraries. He therefore suggested that the workers' libraries should be closed, which he met with strong opposition. With the end of the First World War, Mehlich no longer commented on library issues.

After the November Revolution

On June 16, 1918, Mehlich was elected as the successor to Friedrich Henßler as the first chairman of the district electoral association for the Reichstag electoral district of Hörde . During the November Revolution took Mehlich November 10, initially chair the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council in the constituency Horde and took in December as a member of MSPD fraction at Imperial Council Congress in Berlin in part. On February 17, 1919 he became People's Commissar for the city and district of Dortmund and in the same year also head of the city council in Dortmund. From April 1919 he served as deputy Reich and State Commissioner in the area of ​​the VII Army Corps, which was commanded by Oskar von Watter . In June 1920, Mehlich succeeded Carl Severing as Reich and State Commissioner for Westphalia and the unoccupied area. Here he was mainly active as a mediator and mediator in collective bargaining disputes, where he made controversial slogans in favor of entrepreneurs.

Mehlich was a member of the Westphalia Provincial Parliament from 1919 and a member of the Prussian State Council from 1921 .

Mehlich was killed in the railway attack near Leiferde .

Fonts

• Community u. Alcohol. Task d. Community policy in the fight against d. Alcoholism. 1st edition. German Workers-Abst.-Bund, Berlin 1908.
• Something about private libraries. , Leipzig 1910.
• A little guide for workers' libraries. In addition to an appendix: A few things about private libraries. Verlag der Leipziger Buchdruckerei Aktiengesellschaft, Leipzig 1910.
• The beverage taxes, public health and the working people. Lecture; with e. Anh .: Statistical u. Remarks. Verl. Deutscher Arbeiter-Abstinentenbund, Elberfeld 1918.
• Handbook for the arbitration procedure in collective disputes. Comment and explanation on the ordinance on d. Arbitration from October 30, 1923. Gerisch & Co, Dortmund 1924.
• Ordinance on the arbitration system of October 30, 1923. Manual for the arbitration procedure in collective disputes. Come along with explanations of Ernst Mehlich. Gerisch, Dortmund 1924.

literature

• Alois Klotzbücher: Ernst Mehlich (1882–1926) . In: Günter Benser u. Michael Schneider (Ed.): "Preserve - Spread - Enlighten". Archivists, librarians and collectors of the sources of the German-speaking labor movement. Archive of Social Democracy of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation; Funding group archives and libraries for the history of the labor movement, Bonn-Bad Godesberg, Berlin 2009, ISBN 3868721053 , pp. 190–195. ( PDF )
• Matthias John: The Dortmund Social Democracy around 1900. Memories of Konrad Haenisch . In: Contributions to the history of the worker movement 47, 3 (2005), pp. 3-70.
• Sabine Roß: Biographical manual of the Reichsrätekongresse 1918/19. Droste, Düsseldorf, Berlin 2000.
• Carl Severing: A man of construction . In: Sozialistische Monatshefte 32 (1926), H. 10, October 11, 1926, pp. 679–681.
• Karin Jaspers / Wilfried Reinighaus: Westphalian-Lippian candidates in the January elections 1919. A biographical documentation , Münster: Aschendorff 2020 (Publications of the Historical Commission for Westphalia - New Series; 52), ISBN 9783402151365 , p. 133f.

Individual evidence

1. ^ According to other information * December 14, 1882 in Ellswig. Eg Franz Osteroth: Biographical Lexicon of Socialism . Vol. 1. Deceased personalities . Dietz, Hannover 1960, p. 305.
2. ↑ According to other information † on August 18, 1926. Alfred Bruns (Ed.): The Members of the Westphalia Parliament 1826–1978 (= Westphalian source and archive directories, Volume 2). Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe, Münster 1978, No. 1027.
3. ^ Franz Walter, Viola Denecke, Cornelia Regin: Socialist health and life reform associations . Dietz, Bonn: Dietz 1991, p. 194.
4. ^ Klotzbücher: Ernst Mehlich , p. 191.
5. ↑ Erhard Lucas: March Revolution 1920 , Vol. 3, attempts at negotiation and their failure; Counter-strategies of government and military; the defeat of the insurrectionary movement; the white terror. Verl. Roter Stern, Frankfurt (am Main) 1978, ISBN 3878770855 , p. 461f.