Franz Klingler

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Franz Klingler

Franz Klingler (born May 14, 1875 in Oettingen in Bavaria , † July 15, 1933 in Coburg ; full name Franz Xaver Klingler) was a German politician ( SPD ). Among other things, he was State Councilor and Head of Government of the Free State of Coburg , a member of the Bavarian State Parliament and editor of the social democratic Coburger Volksblatt .

Life

Franz Klingler was born in 1875 as the son of the court usher ("mounted gendarme ") Johann Michael Klingler and his wife Rosina Klingler, born in Lutz, in Oettingen in Bavaria ; born. The mother, who was born in Mindelheim , died in childbirth. His father, who came from Wüstensachsen in the Hessian Rhön, passed away in 1885. Franz Klingler grew up as an orphan from the age of 10 and received a Jesuit education at the grammar school in Oettingen. He successfully completed a commercial apprenticeship in Munich and after a wandering worked as a woodworker and packer and then as a commercial clerk in a wood goods factory in Ostheim before the Rhön . In 1903 he joined the Social Democratic Party and became a functionary of the German Woodworkers' Association , in 1906 he married his wife Ida, born in Lörzel (1883–1969), with whom he had five sons. In 1908 Klingler organized a strike and was subsequently fired.

Franz Klingler with Ida and his sons Otto, Erhard, Hermann, Franz jun. (back row from left) and Heinz (front center) 1931
Franz Klingler lived with his family in this house on Seidmannsdorfer Strasse. Photo: Ida with Otto and Heinz in the front garden around 1929

In 1908 Klingler moved to Coburg, where he was accepted into the Coburg Citizens' Association on April 8, 1910.

In Coburg he initially worked as an employee. In 1912 he was instrumental in founding the Coburger Volksblatt and also became its editor-in-chief ("Hauptschriftleiter"). In numerous articles he advocated a social democratic policy, but z. B. also for the peaceful coexistence with the Jews living in Coburg.

In the period from May 1915 to December 1918 he was a soldier and took part in the First World War. From December 22, 1918 to March 3, 1919 he was chairman of the Coburg regional association of the SPD. On February 9, 1919, Klingler was elected the fifth of seven SPD MPs in the eleven-member Coburg state assembly and on March 10, 1919, he was elected to the three-member government of the Free State of Coburg. From July 8, 1919, Klingler, now with the title "Staatsrat", was chairman of the government and, among other things, led the decisive negotiations that led to the unification of the Free State of Coburg with the Free State of Bavaria in 1920.

In the Reichstag election on June 6, 1920, Klingler ran for 10th place on the Franconian list. The candidacy was unsuccessful, as only two Frankish Social Democrats entered the Reichstag. In the by-elections to the Bavarian State Parliament in November 1920, Klingler was elected a member of the Bavarian State Parliament, and was re-elected in all subsequent elections up to 1932.

In 1910 Franz Klingler was accepted as the 91st member of the Workers' Choir in Coburg, and in 1919 in the Workers Press Support Association ; further memberships with the free gymnasts , the people's welfare , the consumer cooperative , the free thinkers . In 1926, Franz Klingler and Ernst Dalibor led the district festival of the 7th district of the Workers' Gymnastics and Sports Association, Freie Turnerschaft Coburg eV. He was also a board member of the Coburg State Foundation and a member of the administrative board of the Niederfüllbacher Foundation, as well as a co-founder of the “Coburg Heimatverein”, today's “Historical Society”. On May 1, 1932, the district singers' meeting took place in Coburg, Franz Klingler gave the speech in front of the State Theater under the title: "For the expansion of social laws".

State Councilor and MP

After the election for the first parliament of the Free State of Coburg on February 9, 1919, the SPD had an absolute majority with seven out of eleven seats. The new state government was formed on March 10, 1919. It consisted of the elected government members Franz Klingler and Reinhold Artmann , both SPD, and the former head of the Coburg department of the ducal state ministry, State Councilor Hermann Quarck (national liberal ). After Quarck's resignation, Klingler took over the chairmanship of the government, and MP Hans Schack (DDP) became a new member of the state government, just like his two colleagues .

Signatures under the State Treaty: Hoffmann, Klingler, Müller, Fritsch

During his reign, Klingler was particularly strongly and successfully committed to the unification of the Free State of Coburg with the Free State of Bavaria . He was a key figure, as parts of his local party, unlike him , voted for Thuringia . The differences of opinion with the leading Coburg Social Democrats on the follow-up question finally ended in a motion to expel Klingler from the SPD, which was withdrawn when it became clear that the majority of the social democratic base was leaning towards Bavaria. Also not to be underestimated is the fact that Franz Klingler had good contacts both in Munich with the Bavarian government, which was under Social Democratic leadership with Prime Minister Johannes Hoffmann at the time, and with the then Chancellor Hermann Müller (SPD), who like Klingler in Franken acted.

A first bill on the voting question was passed on August 11, 1919 by the SPD majority in the state assembly. However, Klingler and Schack refused to sign the law with the question of whether Coburg should be incorporated into Bavaria, as the interests of Bayern supporters did not appear to them to be protected.

The legal and constitutional committee of the state assembly played a central role in this question, in which the SPD MP Franz Klingler and the bourgeois democrats Hans Schack and Ernst Külbel were the supporters of a union with Bavaria against the two social democrats, Reinhold Artmann and Bernhard, who were inclined towards Thuringia Lauer had the majority. Among other things, the committee finally formulated the voting question: Should Coburg join the joint agreement with the Thuringian states? . Franz Klingler campaigned for his opinion in a large number of meetings. The result of the vote on November 30, 1919, in which 26,102 votes against and only 3,466 votes for Thuringia were cast, rewarded his commitment.

Letter from Ministerialrat Blum dated December 24, 1926: "Congratulations on the theater matter"

Negotiations then followed in Munich from February 12 to 14, 1920, in which Councilors of State Artmann, Klingler, Schack, Ministerial Director Ernst Fritsch and Government Councilor Doebel took part on the Coburg side. State Councilor Franz Klingler and Ministerialdirektor Fritsch were appointed as authorized representatives for the conclusion of the contract, who then signed the negotiated state contract and the final protocol. Prime Minister Johannes Hoffmann and Justice Minister Ernst Müller-Meiningen signed the document for the Free State of Bavaria .

Klingler's services to the unification of the Free State of Coburg with the Free State of Bavaria, also afterwards through his commitment as a member of the state parliament, emerge from a letter from the Bavarian Ministerial Councilor Blum dated December 24, 1926. Blum informed Klingler that the State Ministry in Munich had decided to make the unexpectedly large concession to take over 65% of the deficit of the Coburg State Theater.

Editor

The editors of the Volksblatt, called Coburger Volksblatt since July 1, 1920 (social democratic organ for the working population in the Coburg district and Lichtenfels district court), led Klingler from its founding in 1912 to 1933 as editor-in-chief, interrupted only by his military service (1915– 1918) and health-related restricted from July 1, 1931 to November 1932. The Coburger Volksblatt was located in rented rooms at Gerbergasse 6 in Coburg. In 1925 the printing and editorial offices moved to the newly built premises at Schenkgasse 17. Many letters to the MP Franz Klingler were sent to Schenkgasse 17 / I. His editorial office was on the first floor. On May 2, 1933, the Volksblatt was occupied by the SA and the company closed, and on April 28, 1933, it was registered as confiscated and closed. The edition of the sheet averaged 6,000.

The social democrat

Max Oskar Arnold about Klingler: "If a person gives himself and his life for the best of all, he will never lack hostility." (April 1, 1924)

Between 1919 and 1933, Klingler decisively determined the activities of social democracy in the city and district of Coburg . He was the main speaker in many meetings, so it is thanks in large part to his work and his spirit that social democracy had become a determining force in Coburg after the First World War. Klingler's constituency extended beyond Coburg to Sonnefeld , Neustadt bei Coburg , Rodach and Königsberg in Bavaria (electoral period 1924–1928) and Bamberg -Land, Höchstadt an der Aisch , Lichtenfels and Staffelstein (electoral period 1928–1932). At various party congresses and meetings of the party at all levels, the contacts and friendships that were so important for the political negotiations with the leading politicians in Munich and in the Reich, who were social democratic at the time, developed.

Letter from Chancellor Hermann Müller: "When we entered political life, it was still the custom that the fight was carried out with intellectual weapons." (January 17, 1930)

In 1921 the so-called " Coburg Blood Saturday " took place in Coburg . After the assassination of the center deputy and former Reich Finance Minister Matthias Erzberger on August 26, 1921, Coburg works councils and functionaries of the SPD and USPD, led by Franz Klingler and the union leader Otto Voye, decided on Saturday, September 3, a "demonstration meeting for the republic and Against Political Assassination ”, for which around 3,000 people gathered on Coburg Palace Square . During Franz Klingler's speech, trucks drove up in the vicinity, the crew of which, members of the Bavarian State Police equipped with steel helmets and machine guns, immediately began to erect roadblocks, which caused a great deal of excitement among the participants in the assembly and ultimately resulted in violent clashes became known as "Coburg Blood Saturday". Six out of 20 injured people had to be hospitalized. On the night of September 5, a worker there died of a gunshot wound.

In 1924, Klingler took part as a delegate at the SPD party convention in Berlin, and from May 22 to 27, 1927 at the party congress in Kiel. His impressions resulted in a speech manuscript of over 18 pages, closely typed, which served as the basis for his speeches in the constituency and for reporting in the Volksblatt. Even then it was important to him that a political party like the SPD needed a fight of the spirits, but that it had to be carried out with camaraderie. He stood up for freedom of opinion and for the tolerance and respect of those who think differently.

Klingler polarized because of his work as editor of the Coburger Volksblatt, especially in the election campaigns and as an advocate for the Coburg Jews. Klingler's opponents from the right-wing extremist camp did not shy away from death threats and violence. This resulted in him being ambushed and knocked to the ground several times. On January 15, 1930 at around 12:30 a.m., on the way home from the Volkshaus, he was attacked by two SA men in Coburg on Glockenberg and knocked unconscious. The perpetrators were not identified.

As a result, Klingler received numerous expressions of sympathy from contemporary comrades-in-arms of other stripes, but also from the German Chancellor Hermann Müller (SPD) and from the social democratic faction of the Bavarian State Parliament. On February 3, 1933, although he already had a high fever, he was speaking in a meeting and his last words at the time were: “Whoever votes for Hitler will vote for war!”. Shortly after he returned home, he was sent to the rural hospital that night. With the constant excitement, his health deteriorated day by day. The first arrests of social democrats, communists, democrats and Jews took place in Coburg on March 2, 1933. Only the reference to his fatal illness and the steadfastness of the responsible doctors prevented Klingler from being abducted from the hospital. On March 11, 1933, his son Otto was arrested and mistreated in his place. The Coburger Volksblatt appeared for the last time three days later. On July 15, 1933, Franz Klingler died after a long illness of complications from a heart condition in the Coburg rural hospital . Eulogy at his funeral was prohibited, and the police recorded the names of hundreds of mourners.

Honors

The city of Coburg thanks Franz Klingler and the other significantly involved Hans Schack, Max Oscar Arnold and Ernst Fritsch for their services in connecting Coburg to Bavaria with a bronze plaque in the town hall . Streets in Coburg (Franz-Klingler-Straße) and in Neustadt bei Coburg (Klinglerstraße) are named after him.

The SPD sub-district of Coburg honors the former chairman of the Coburg regional association Franz Klingler in the Coburg Willy-Brandt-Haus by dedicating a business space. In the entrance area there is an exhibition on the local and regional history of the social democratic labor movement, which also commemorates Klinglers. Ultimately from the payments it received from the reparation for the expropriation of the Volksblatt, the concentration GmbH, a company owned by the SPD, acquired the property in 1983.

Stumbling stone in memory of Franz Klingler in front of today's Coburg Regional Court

On June 1, 2010, a stumbling block donated by former member of the Bundestag Carl-Christian Dressel was relocated on the property at Ketschendorfer Strasse 1 (today's Justice Building I , formerly the seat of the State Ministry and State Assembly of the Free State of Coburg) .

literature

  • Detlef Beil, Stephan Klein (ed.): 75 years Coburg near Bavaria 1920-1995. The official chronicle. Coburg 1995.
  • Carl-Christian Dressel: The provisions of the State Treaty. Development, background, consequences - with special consideration of Franz Klingler's work. Technical thesis from the subject of history, Gymnasium Casimirianum Coburg, college year 1987/89. Self-published in Coburg 1989.
  • Jürgen Erdmann: Coburg, Bavaria and the Reich 1918–1923 . Druckhaus and Vesteverlag A. Rossteutscher, Coburg 1969.
  • Anton Großmann: Milieu conditions of persecution and resistance using the example of selected local SPD associations. In: Bavaria in the Nazi era - 5. The parties KPD, SPD, BVP in persecution and resistance. Eds. Martin Broszat, Hartmut Mehringer, R. Oldenbourg Verlag Munich Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-486-42401-7 .
  • Rainer Hambrecht (arrangement): Not through war, purchase or inheritance . Exhibition catalog of the Coburg State Archives on the occasion of the 75th return of the unification of Coburg with Bavaria on July 1, 1920, Munich 1995.
  • Günther Schmehle: Coburg and the German labor movement . Dissertation to obtain a doctorate at the University of Bamberg, Bamberg 1980.
  • Klaus Freiherr von Andrian-Werburg : The composition of the Coburg parliament at the unification of Coburg with Bavaria. In: Yearbook of the Coburg State Foundation 1969. Coburg 1969.

Web links

Commons : Franz Klingler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mother Rosina Lutz, b. in Mindelheim, died in Oettingen, Catholic; Father Johann Michael Klingler, b. in Wüstensachsen in the Hessian Rhön, died in Oettingen, court usher, mounted gendarme, Catholic.
  2. ↑ Harald Bachmann: Coburg's connection to Bavaria 75 years ago . In: Coburger Geschichtsblätter , 3rd year, issue 3, 1995.
  3. ↑ Franz Klingler: Letter of October 23, 1928 (in private ownership): "I came to Ostheim v.Rhön on the road and started to work there in the wood goods factory Junge & Jordan. When I came into the booth, three were with the woodworkers' association I started to agitate and gradually managed to organize the whole business, about 50-60 men and 20-25 women. Then came the Reichstag replacement election, and for the first time I stood up for the anti-Semitic candidate in a public meeting Schack from Hamburg (Triolenschack) across the street, the next morning the factory owner threw me out. The workforce expressed their solidarity, the strike broke out. After eight weeks the strike was lost, strikebreakers stabbed us in the back, and I came with three more Family fathers moved to Coburg and started here at Ruping & Fritz. I had barely been there for 4 weeks when the strike broke out in this booth. I can say that I got married in Ostheim, we only got the most essential household items and through ran out of money after the eight week strike. Now I had hardly any work and I am on strike again. I lasted another four weeks, then I had to take work where I could find it and I became a house servant in a ladies' fashion store. From my housekeeping position, I was elected editor-in-chief as co-founder of our Volksblatt. I am a member of the workers gymnast and = singer, public welfare, consumerism, free thinker and what else God knows. I supported and support all workers' organizations financially to the greatest possible extent. For the Reichsbanner z. B. I have already done all sorts of pecuniary payments. What financial contributions did I do for the young workers, especially before the war, how many poor, needy friends did I support; I don't like to talk about it, I don't make a being out of it. "
  4. ^ Hubert Fromm: The Coburg Jews - History and Fate . Evangelisches Bildungswerk Coburg eV and Initiative Stadtmuseum Coburg eV, 2nd edition Coburg 2001, ISBN 3-9808006-0-1 , pages 8, 22, 29.
  5. ^ Carl-Christian Dressel: The provisions of the State Treaty, development, background, consequences - with special consideration of the performance of Franz Klingler . Technical thesis from the subject of history, Gymnasium Casimirianum Coburg, college year 1987/89.
  6. ↑ Günther Schmehle: Coburg and the German labor movement , p. 135.
  7. ↑ Jürgen Erdmann: Coburg, Bavaria and the Reich 1918–1923 . P. 42.
  8. ^ Otto Schneider, Coburg - 30 years of Bavarian , New Press Coburg July 1, 1950.
  9. ^ Otto Schneider (contemporary): Coburg - 30 years in Bavaria . Special supplement Neue Presse and Coburger Tageblatt, July 1, 1950.
  10. ^ Walter Schneier: The connection of Coburg to Bavaria . Coburger Chronik, local supplement of the Neue Presse February 26, 1985.
  11. ^ Speech manuscript by Franz Klingler, 1927; privately owned.
  12. ^ Hubert Fromm: The Coburg Jews - History and Fate . Evangelisches Bildungswerk Coburg eV and Initiative Stadtmuseum Coburg eV, 2nd edition Coburg 2001, ISBN 3-9808006-0-1 , p. 50.
  13. ↑ Review by Ida Klingler, 1948; privately owned.
  14. ^ Otto Schneider, Coburg - 30 years of Bavarian , special supplement Neue Presse July 1, 1950.
personal data
SURNAME Klingler, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Klingler, Franz Xaver
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD)
DATE OF BIRTH May 14, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Oettingen in Bavaria
DATE OF DEATH July 15, 1933
Place of death Coburg