Hans Schwann

Hans Schwann (also Schwann-Schneider) (born July 5, 1884 in Munich ; † 1966 ) (pseudonym H. Tiefbauer) was a German journalist, publicist and pacifist.

Life and activity

Weimar Republic

Schwann became known as a pacifist in the 1920s: He advocated a reconciliation of the German Empire with France and Poland and the recognition of the former German eastern borders - and thus for a renunciation of the then widespread claims in Germany for the revision of the Versailles Treaty established border lines between Germany and Poland - a. According to Schwann, the attempt to "correct" Germany's eastern border by force entailed the risk of war that would end in catastrophe for Germany, as for Europe. In this sense, he also rejected all foreign policy steps leading to disputes with France: As early as January 1923, he spoke out against passive resistance to the French occupation of the Ruhr area and in favor of starting negotiations with France.

Schwann propagated his view in the magazine Menschheit, which he edited, and in numerous articles in magazines such as the waiting for human rights and Die Weltbühne (often under the pseudonym H. Tiefbauer).

As an activist, Schwann campaigned in the League for Human Rights and in the German Peace Cartel to promote pacifist ideas in Germany. He also sat for a few years on the Presidium of the German Peace Society , from which he resigned in November 1924 after disagreements with Ludwig Quidde .

From 1930 to 1933 Schwann finally gave his mentor on behalf Friedrich Wilhelm Foerster - the semimonthly in - whose pupil he had been around the turn of the century Wiesbaden appearing pacifist magazine Time Out.

Emigration and last years

After the National Socialists came to power in the spring of 1933, Schwann, who was now the target of persecution due to his pacifist activities, fled to France with his wife Nelly, where he settled in Paris . His apartment and his publishing house were destroyed.

In Paris, Schwann acted as an exile against the German regime by advising Foerster, who also came to Paris, on the analysis of economic and political events in the German Reich.

After his emigration, the National Socialist police officers classified Schwann as an enemy of the state: In the spring of 1940, the Reich Main Security Office in Berlin placed him on the special wanted list GB , a list of people who would be succeeded by the occupying forces in the event of a successful invasion and occupation of the British Isles by the Wehrmacht Special SS commandos were to be identified and arrested with special priority.

After the German occupation of France, Schwann was finally arrested, temporarily interned in Les Milles and then taken to a concentration camp.

Schwann lived in France in the post-war period. He campaigned for German-French and German-Polish reconciliation well into old age. During these years he wrote a. a. for the Schweizer Rundschau .

Fonts

As an author:

• German world politics in the light of Constantin Frantz , 1920.
• Culture and Power Politics , 1921.
• Unitary state, or, federal system , 1927
• The fairy tale of the cheaper unitary state , 1929
• Program of a life work. A publication by and about Friedrich Wilhelm Foerster , 1961.

As editor:

• Who is Fr W. Forster? A collection of articles , Berlin 1930.

literature

• "Hans Schwann", in: Helmut Donar / Karl Holl (ed.): The peace movement. Organized Pacifism in Germany, Austria and Switzerland , Düsseldorf 1983, pp. 346–348.