Georg Gradnauer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Georg Gradnauer
SPD member of the Reichstag from Saxony from 1903
Stumbling block at the house, Wendenmarken 108, in Kleinmachnow

Georg Gradnauer (born November 16, 1866 in Magdeburg , † November 18, 1946 in Berlin-Schlachtensee ) was a German politician ( SPD ).

Life

Gradnauer, the son of a businessman of Jewish origin, studied history , literature and philosophy from 1885 to 1889 in Geneva , Berlin , Marburg and Halle / Saale after having passed the Abitur at the monastery high school . After receiving his doctorate in Halle in 1889 , a thesis on "Mirabeau's thoughts on the renewal of the French state", he was editor of the Saxon workers' newspaper until 1897 . As a senior editor, he asked Friedrich Engels for a contribution to May 1, 1893. From 1896 to 1905 he was editor of Vorwärts in Berlin and then until 1918 senior editor of the Dresdner Volkszeitung in Dresden .

Gradnauer completed his military service from 1889 to 1890. He joined the SPD in October 1890. 1898–1906 and 1912–1918 he was a member of the Reichstag (MdR). After the end of the First World War , Gradnauer became chairman of the Council of People's Representatives in the Free State of Saxony . He held this position from January 22, 1919 to March 14, 1919.

His party became the strongest party in the elections to the People's Chamber on February 2, 1919. After the passing of a provisional Basic Law for the Free State of Saxony, the members of parliament elected him Prime Minister on March 14, 1919 . He was also a member of the Weimar National Assembly until April 1919 .

The extremely unsettled political situation in Germany in the course of the reorganization after the end of the monarchy found its inglorious climax in Saxony in the “ Chemnitz blood bath ”, the temporary declaration of a state of emergency by General Maercker and the lynching of War Minister Gustav Neuring . Gradnauer did not see any meaningful work any more. He therefore resigned on April 22, 1920 together with Interior Minister Karl Otto Uhlig . His successor was Wilhelm Buck (SPD) on May 4, 1920 .

Gradnauer was then again MdR from 1920 to 1924 and in 1921 for a short time Reich Minister of the Interior . From 1921 to 1932 he headed the Saxon legation in Berlin. In this capacity Gradnauer was also deputy representative of Saxony in the Reichsrat . In 1933 he was taken into “ protective custody ” by the Nazi regime . After his release, he first lived in Berlin-Lichterfelde until he and his wife moved to Kleinmachnow in 1934 . In 1940 Anna Gradnauer died. As a result, the privilege of mixed marriage expired. In 1941 he had to sell his property and he did not receive the proceeds from the sale. On January 21, 1944 a second arrest and deportation to the Theresienstadt concentration camp took place . He was imprisoned there until May 8, 1945, where he belonged to the group of Jewish "celebrities". Gradnauer became a member of the SED after the unification party conference .

A stumbling block was laid in Kleinmachnow .

Publications / works

  • Mirabeau 's thoughts on the renewal of the French state . Karas Hall a. P. 1889 (= Hallesche Treatises on Modern History 23)
  • Sociopolitical soap bubbles . In: The new time . Review of intellectual and public life . 15.1896-97, Volume 1 (1897), Issue 18, pp. 566-570. Digitized
  • The misery of the penal system . Vorwärts bookstore, Berlin 1905.
  • The suffrage movement. In: Socialist monthly books . 12 = 14 (1908), issue 18/19, pp. 1143-1149. Digitized
  • The constitution and constitutional struggles in Germany . Vorwärts bookstore, Berlin 1909.
  • The Saxon elections and imperial politics . In: Socialist monthly books . 13 = 15 (1909), issue 21, pp. 1342-1346. Digitized
  • After the Saxon elections in 1909 . In: Socialist monthly books . 13 = 15 (1909), issue 23, pp. 1466-1471. Digitized
  • Election campaign! Social democracy and its opponents . Kaden, Dresden 1911.
  • Georg Gradnauer, Robert Schmidt : The German national economy. An introduction . Vorwärts bookstore, Berlin 1921.
  • Georg Gradnauer, Rudolf Breitscheid (ed.): The prehistory of the world war . The work of the committee of inquiry of the German constitutional assembly and the German Reichstag. German Publishing Society for Politics and History, Berlin 1919–1930.

literature

  • E. Herbig: Gradnauer, Georg. In: History of the German labor movement. Biographical Lexicon . Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1970, pp. 162-163.
  • Martin Schumacher (Hrsg.): MdR The Reichstag members of the Weimar Republic in the time of National Socialism. Political persecution, emigration and expatriation, 1933–1945. A biographical documentation . 3rd, considerably expanded and revised edition. Droste, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-7700-5183-1 .
  • Mike Schmeitzner : Georg Gradnauer and the establishment of the Free State of Saxony 1918–1920. Parliamentarization and democratization of the Saxon revolution . In: State history in Saxony. Tradition and innovation . Saxon. Landeszentrale f. political education, Dresden 1997, pp. 249–270.
  • Mike Schmeitzner: Georg Gradnauer. The founder of the Free State of Saxony (1918–20) . In: ders., Andreas Wagner (Ed.): Of power and powerlessness. Saxon Prime Minister in the Age of Extremes 1919–1952. Sax-Verlag, Bucha 2006, ISBN 978-3-934544-75-8 , pp. 52-88.

Web links

Commons : Georg Gradnauer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Joachim Lilla : The Reichsrat. Representation of the German states in the legislation and administration of the Reich 1919–1934. A biographical manual. With the involvement of the Federal Council November 1918 – February 1919 and the State Committee February – August 1919. (Series of Handbooks on the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties. Volume 14), Droste, Düsseldorf 2006, ISBN 978-3-7700-5279-0 , p 115 *.
  2. ^ E. Herbig: Gradnauer, Georg .
  3. ^ Stumbling blocks in Kleinmachnow
personal data
SURNAME Gradnauer, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH November 16, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Magdeburg
DATE OF DEATH November 18, 1946
Place of death Berlin