Fritz Soldmann

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Fritz Soldmann (born March 8, 1878 in Lübeck , † May 31, 1945 in Wernrode ) was a German politician of the USPD and later the SPD .

Live and act

1878 to 1933

Soldmann was born the son of a tailor . After attending elementary school, he learned the trade of a shoemaker . After the journeyman's migration ended , he joined the SPD and the free trade unions in 1897 . Living in Schweinfurt since 1903 , he became involved in the shoemaker's association there in 1905. Between 1905 and 1909 he was chairman of the union cartel . From 1913 Soldmann was an employee of the Schweinfurt AOK and between 1914 and 1933 its part-time chairman. In 1914 he became a workers' secretary . Between 1915 and 1917 he took part in the First World War as a soldier . In 1917 he joined the USPD from the SPD . Between 1912 and 1919 Soldmann was authorized representative in Schweinfurt.

During the November Revolution he was the second chairman of the workers', peasants' and soldiers' councils in Bavaria. In April 1919 he became the People's Representative for the Interior in Munich in the Bavarian Soviet Republic . He was one of the 13 abductees of the Palm Sunday coup against the Soviet Republic of April 13, 1919. The coup failed due to the resistance of the Red Army under construction under the command of the communist sailor Rudolf Egelhofer , but Soldmann remained in custody for the time being because the revolutionaries had no access to the places of detention. After the Soviet republic was finally broken up by the Freikorps and Reichswehr associations in early May 1919, Soldmann was interned for three months. After his release he became State Secretary of the USPD in Bavaria and served as city councilor and mayor in Schweinfurt until 1933. Since 1922 a member of the SPD again, he campaigned in particular to improve the living situation of the unemployed and was a vehement supporter of the introduction of unemployment insurance.

In the Reichstag elections in June 1920 Sold man was 29 (francs) as a candidate of the Independent Socialists for the constituency in the Reichstag voted, which it initially belonged to the 1924th In 1922, during the first legislative period of the Weimar Republic, Soldmann returned to the SPD. In the Reichstag at that time he joined the SPD parliamentary group. In addition, from 1922 Soldmann began to work for the SPD as state party secretary in Bavaria, before he again served as workers secretary in Schweinfurt from 1924 to 1933. In the Reichstag elections in July 1932 , Soldmann was re-elected to the Reichstag, which he subsequently belonged to as a member of the SPD for constituency 26 (Franconia) until 1933.

time of the nationalsocialism

After the start of National Socialist rule , Soldmann, a prominent social democrat, was exposed to persecution by the new rulers. Although Soldmann's parliamentary mandate was confirmed in the Reichstag elections of March 1933, he was taken into protective custody as a parliamentarian that same month, regardless of his immunity . As a result of his imprisonment, he was no longer able to participate in the vote on the Enabling Act , which formed the legal basis for the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship.

In the following months Soldmann came to Dachau concentration camp through several stations . After he was released, he changed residence several times. Most recently he lived in Erfurt , where he worked as a sales representative for tobacco products. He used his job-related travel activity to establish illegal contacts. In 1936, after a denunciation, incriminating literature was found on him, and charges of high treason and “despising the Reich government” followed. The proceedings were overturned by a special court in Schweinfurt. Nevertheless, Soldmann remained in custody until 1937. After his release he worked in a department store in Graefendorf . However, the Gestapo still classified him as potentially dangerous. He was suspected of participating in resistance activities.

As part of the special war campaign , he was arrested again in September 1939 and held in Sachsenhausen concentration camp until spring 1941 . He was arrested again in August 1944 as part of the grating action . He came to Buchenwald Concentration Camp via various intermediate stops , where he was liberated from captivity. He died a few weeks later as a result of his imprisonment.

Commemoration

Memorial plaques on the Reichstag

A street in Schweinfurt is named after Soldmann. Furthermore, memorial plaques remind of Soldmann one in Schweinfurt and one in Berlin, which is part of the memorial in memory of 96 members of the Reichstag murdered by the National Socialists on Platz der Republik.

literature

  • Fritz Soldmann . In: Franz Osterroth : Biographical Lexicon of Socialism . Volume 1: Deceased Personalities. Verlag JHW Dietz Nachf. GmbH, Hanover 1960, p. 293.
  • Benedikt Hotz: Fritz Soldmann (1878-1945). In: Siegfried Mielke , Stefan Heinz (eds.) With the collaboration of Julia Pietsch: Trade unionists in the Oranienburg and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. Biographical Handbook, Volume 4 (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - Resistance - Emigration. Volume 6). Metropol, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86331-148-3 , pp. 193-212.
  • Social Democratic Party of Germany (ed.): Committed to freedom. Memorial book of the German social democracy in the 20th century . Marburg 2000, p. 310f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Displaced persons from the Palm Sunday coup ; Article on muenchenwiki.de with a list of the 13 members of the Central Council and others arrested by the Republican Protection Force. a. Supporters of the Soviet Republic (accessed on March 20, 2017)
personal data
SURNAME Soldmann, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (USPD, SPD), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH March 8, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Lübeck
DATE OF DEATH May 31, 1945
Place of death Wernrode