Heinrich Mertens

This article deals with the publicist Heinrich Mertens.

• For the mayor of the city of Salzburg see Heinrich von Mertens .
• For the German naturalist see Karl Heinrich Mertens .

Heinrich Mertens (born February 6, 1906 in Düsseldorf ; † June 16, 1968 in Austria ) was a publicist and editor of the monthly “The Red Sheet of Catholic Socialists” and Lord Mayor of Halle and Jena . In 1947 he fled the Soviet occupation zone .

Life

Heinrich Mertens came from the Rhine - Catholic working class ; he was born on February 6, 1906 in Düsseldorf. The father was a steel worker, his mother came from a Jewish family of craftsmen. For financial reasons he was denied attendance at the grammar school. After his commercial apprenticeship (1919–1922) and a six-month stay in the mission school of the Franciscan Order in Moresnet (Belgium) (1923), he went to Vienna at the age of 18 to the “ Herrgottsknechten ”. These were young Catholics who did free craft social work. They renounced the statutes and organizational structure and deliberately led a modest life. In 1925/26 Mertens published the workbook “ Call for the Wende - Sheets for Catholic Renewal ” for them. In Vienna he joined a circle around the Catholic social reformer Anton Orel (1881–1959) and his weekly newspaper “ Das neue Volk ”. But Mertens considered Orel's social-romantic anti-capitalism to be outdated and unsuitable for everyday practice. He was more confident that socialism could overcome capitalism , although he rejected the materialistic and atheistic elements of Marx's teaching . So Mertens turns away from Orel, also because of the "anti-Judaism" represented by him.

In 1926, through the mediation of the People's Association for Catholic Germany, he found a position in the mission department of the Düsseldorf headquarters of the Catholic Young Men's Associations . Due to his open commitment to socialism, he was soon dismissed at the instigation of General President Ludwig Wolker (1887–1955). He then came across Wilhelm Sollmann (1881–1951) to the editorial staff of the social democratic " Rheinische Zeitung " and was editor of the supplement " Die Tribüne ", a pronunciation sheet between Christians and socialists. Presumably in the same year he joined the SPD, but remained critical of it.

In 1928 he founded the “ Association of Catholic Socialists in Germany ” and gave it a forum with the monthly “ Red Sheet of Catholic Socialists ”. The federal headquarters was in Cologne . The members came mainly from the ranks of the social democrats. Some young chaplains also joined under pseudonyms. The Rote Blatt, which appeared for the first time in January 1929 and for the last time in November / December 1930, had around 1,800 subscribers, mainly Catholic corporations, intellectuals and Catholic, but also some Protestant theologians. From January 1931 the “Rote Blatt” was merged with the “ Zeitschrift für Religion und Sozialismus ” published by Georg Wünsch since 1929 , the scientific organ of the Protestant religious socialists. Wünsch remained the editor, Heinrich Mertens took over the editing.

A prominent member of the federal government and an intellectual leader was Ernst Michel , head of the " Academy of Work " founded by the trade unions in Frankfurt in 1921 . But the goal of combining Catholic faith with socialist ideas was only achieved to a limited extent. The Social Democrats showed little interest because they could not see any increase in membership. The papal encyclical " Quadragesimo anno " in 1931 emphasized the incompatibility of Christianity and socialism.

As a scholarship holder of the Abraham Lincoln Foundation , Heinrich Mertens studied philosophy, economics, education and psychology in Frankfurt from the summer semester of 1932. Because he had passed the gifted test, he was admitted to the course in the spring of 1932 without a school leaving certificate. In the Main metropolis, he then worked in particular at the " Institute for Social Research ", where he also made contacts with Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer . However, the politically motivated withdrawal of the scholarship in 1933 forced him to drop out prematurely.

He later got a job at the Frankfurt broadcaster. In this position he even joined the SA . He hoped in vain for a "second revolution" within National Socialism , namely the uprising of the socialists against the nationalists.

In February 1936, Mertens was arrested by the Gestapo in connection with the high treason trial against the Catholic priest Joseph Rossaint (1902–1991) on charges of illegal Marxist activities, but released after eight and a half months of solitary confinement for lack of evidence. During the Second World War, Mertens found a job in the office of the Berlin partnership publisher. Here he made contact with various resistance groups and participated in supporting Jews in hiding.

With the end of World War II, Heinrich Mertens was appointed mayor of Eisleben by the US armed forces on April 14, 1945, but only stayed in office for a good six months until October 31. He took part in the founding of the liberal LDP , for which he succeeded Theodor Lieser as Lord Mayor of Halle (Saale) and - after the SED's victory there - of Jena on September 26, 1946 . In 1947 he fled to the West with his wife Maria (whom he married in 1929) and his two daughters because of concern for his personal safety. a. Correspondent at Die Welt , then head of the press department of the DGB, then employee at WDR and publisher of the magazine “ Ost-West-Handel ”. During this time he also resumed his engagement in the SPD, which had been interrupted in the meantime. He was close to the later Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Heinz Kühn (SPD). In 1968 he died in a traffic accident in Austria.

Fonts

• (Ed.): The red sheet of the Catholic socialists. Year 1 and 2. Mittelrheinische Druckerei und Verlagsanstalt, Cologne 1929 / Verlag der religious socialists, Mannheim 1930. Unchanged reprint: Auvermann, Glashütten im Taunus 1972.
• Catholic socialists . Publishing house of the religious socialists, Mannheim 1930.
• with Heinz Kühn and Walter Dirks : Unforgotten bridges. Edited by the Central Committee of the Socialist Educational Communities of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Reddigau, Cologne 1962.

items

• The position of the Catholic socialist. In: The shield comrades . 8, 1928, No. 5, pp. 422-434.
• We see that - we want that! Call to the Catholics. In: The Red Sheet of the Catholic Socialists. 1, 1929, No. 1, p. 1.
• Balance sheet. Our origin - Catholic criticism - What will be? In: The Red Sheet of the Catholic Socialists. 1, 1929, No. 11/12, p. 69.
• Problems of the Catholic Social Movement and the Position of the Catholic Socialists . In: Journal of Religion and Socialism. 2, 1930, pp. 20-34.
• The right and the task of the Catholic socialists in church and working class . In: Journal of Religion and Socialism. 2, 1930, pp. 351-365.
• The encyclical "Quadragesimo anno" and the latest Catholic criticism of socialism. In: Journal of Religion and Socialism. 3, 1931, pp. 389-397.
• Stand or class? In: Rhein-Mainische Volkszeitung. No. 96 of April 26, 1928, pp. 1f. and No. 97 of April 27, 1928, pp. 1f.

literature

• Georg Humbert: Catholics and religious socialists in the Weimar period - especially Heinrich Mertens, Ernst Michel and the red sheet of the Catholic socialists. Unpublished thesis. Bochum 1975.
• Georg Humbert: Catholic Socialists in Weimar. The red sheet and the circle around Ernst Michel and Heinrich Mertens . In: "Christian and Socialist". Sheets of the Federation of Religious Socialists in Germany eV 2nd quarter. Bielefeld 1984, pp. 34-40.
• Wolfgang Klein: The red sheet of the Catholic socialists. In: Yearbook for Christian Social Sciences. 16, 1975, pp. 139-159.
• Klaus Kreppel : Fire and Water. Catholic Socialists in the Weimar Republic. In: “ Critical Catholicism . Newspaper for theory and practice in society and the church. ”Formerly Rothenfelser Hefte. 4th year Cologne 1971. No. 6, p. 4.
• Ulrich Bröckling : Catholic intellectuals in the Weimar Republic. Criticism of time and social theory with Walter Dirks, Romano Guardini, Carl Schmitt, Ernst Michel and Heinrich Mertens. Fink, Munich 1993.
• Andreas Lienkamp : Theodor Steinbüchel's reception of socialism. A Christian-Social-Ethical Relecture. Schöningh, Paderborn, Munich, Vienna, Zurich 2000, pp. 275–353 ( digitized version ).

photos

Photos by Heinrich Mertens can be found in:

• Ulrike Nyassi: Wilhelm Sollmann. Part 2: For the hundredth birthday on April 1, 1981. Exhibition of the historical archive of the city of Cologne in the hall of the historical town hall from April 2 to May 30, 1981. (Cologne Biographies, Vol. 16). Histor. Archive, Cologne 1981, p. 56.
• Archive of Social Democracy. Image archive. 3 photos from 1947.

predecessor	Office	successor
Theodor Lieser	Lord Mayor of Halle (Saale) 1945–1946	Karl Pretzsch

predecessor	Office	successor
Heinrich Troeger	Lord Mayor of Jena 1946–1947	Johannes Herdegen