Gustav Steinbrecher

Gustav Steinbrecher (born February 3, 1876 in Groß Beckern near Liegnitz , † January 30, 1940 in Mauthausen concentration camp ) was a German printer, workers secretary and social democratic minister.

life and work

The trained typesetter worked in Liegnitz, Vienna and Breslau. In 1910 he went to Braunschweig with his family after he had been elected the second workers secretary of the local union cartel . In 1917 he was one of the founders of the MSPD and headed its local association from 1918 to 1920. He had previously spoken out in favor of splitting off from the radical wing of the party, the later USPD .

Braunschweig State Minister

From 1918 to 1933 Steinbrecher was a member of the Braunschweig State Parliament . From February to April 1919 he was State Minister for Schools and Churches, then Minister for Labor in the Jasper Cabinet (until June 1920), in the Oerter Cabinet (until November 1921), in the Junke Cabinet (until March 1922), in the Antrick Cabinet (until May 1922) and in the 2nd Jasper cabinet (until December 1924). From 1925 to 1927 he was again chairman of the Braunschweig Federation of Trade Unions . After the SPD's election victory, he headed the Ministry of the Interior in the 3rd Jasper cabinet from December 1927 to October 1930 . In 1928 Steinbrecher's dismissal of right-wing officials was criticized by the bourgeois parties.

Escape and persecution

After the NSDAP had been involved in the state government in the Free State of Braunschweig since September 1930, after the " seizure of power " in March 1933, social democratic state parliament members were arrested and mistreated. They were forced to renounce their political mandate as part of the wave of "mandate renunciation". Steinbrecher escaped persecution by fleeing to Hamburg in March 1933, from where he left for Copenhagen in September . In early 1935 he returned to Hamburg, where he was arrested on June 11, 1936 and then imprisoned in Braunschweig. From June 1936 to September 1939 he was imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp before he was transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp. Forced labor in the quarries and a dysentery disease led to his death on January 30, 1940.

His son Kurt (* 1908) was also a member of the SPD before 1933 and after 1945.

In Braunschweig, Seesen and Helmstedt streets were named after Steinbrecher.

literature

Gustav Steinbrecher . In: Franz Osterroth : Biographical Lexicon of Socialism . Volume 1: Deceased Personalities. Verlag JHW Dietz Nachf. GmbH, Hanover 1960, pp. 301-302.
Luitgard Camerer , Manfred Garzmann , Wolf-Dieter Schuegraf (eds.): Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon . Joh. Heinr. Meyer Verlag, Braunschweig 1992, ISBN 3-926701-14-5 , p. 88 .
Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Günter Scheel (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 19th and 20th centuries . Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1996, ISBN 3-7752-5838-8 , p. 587-88 .

Individual evidence

^ Biography of Gustav Steinbrecher . In: Wilhelm H. Schröder : Social Democratic Parliamentarians in the German Reich and Landtag 1876–1933 (BIOSOP)
↑ Memorial book of the formerly persecuted social democrats, SPD Hamburg ( Memento of December 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 500 kB)

personal data
SURNAME	Steinbrecher, Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German printer, workers secretary and minister
DATE OF BIRTH	February 3, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH	Groß Beckern near Liegnitz
DATE OF DEATH	January 30, 1940
Place of death	Mauthausen concentration camp

[1] Biography of Gustav Steinbrecher . In: Wilhelm H. Schröder : Social Democratic Parliamentarians in the German Reich and Landtag 1876–1933 (BIOSOP)

[2] Memorial book of the formerly persecuted social democrats, SPD Hamburg ( Memento of December 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 500 kB)