Hermann Runge

Hermann Runge (born October 28, 1902 in Konradsthal ; † May 3, 1975 in Düsseldorf ) was a German SPD politician .

Life and resistance

Runge's father was a miner who died early in an underground accident. His mother, widowed and on her own with four children, had to support the family as a farm worker. In 1913 the family moved to Moers . Hermann Runge learned the metalworking trade and joined the SPD in 1920. As early as 1921 he was chairman of the socialist youth workers in the sub-district of Moers. From 1929 Runge was a community representative and member of the district council in Moers and from 1931 SPD party secretary. He was also involved in the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold . As chairman of the " Iron Front ", Runge coordinated the fight against the emerging National Socialism in the Moers area. With the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists in 1933, he lost his previous professional existence.

In the first years of the dictatorship Runge built a resistance group between the Lower Rhine and the Ruhr area. As bread-takers for the “Germania” bread factory, a number of Moers social democrats (with the knowledge of the company boss) formed a distribution network for leaflets and illegal publications. In addition, information flowed from the Reich on the exile board of the " Sopade " in Prague. The group was discovered in 1935 and brought to justice. Runge was one of 19 defendants and was sentenced to nine years in prison by the People's Court in 1936 for “preparing a particularly treasonous enterprise”. He served his time in prison in Lüttringhausen (now Remscheid JVA). After his end of detention in 1944, he was threatened with transfer to a concentration camp . Runge could only avoid this with the help of the prison director.

After the end of the war, Runge became involved again in the SPD, was again party secretary in Moers and, in 1946, district secretary in Düsseldorf.

Parliamentary activity

Runge was a member of the Parliamentary Council in 1948/49 and was a member of the German Bundestag from its first election from 1949 to 1957. In 1949 he won a direct mandate in the constituency of Remscheid - Solingen and in 1953 he entered parliament via the state list of the SPD North Rhine-Westphalia. He was also a member of the state parliament in North Rhine-Westphalia in 1946/47 and 1958–1966 .

The "Hermann Runge Comprehensive School" in Moers was named after him in honor of Hermann Runge.

literature

• Social Democratic Party of Germany (ed.): Committed to freedom. Memorial book of the German social democracy in the 20th century. Marburg, 2000. pp. 280f.

Web links

• Short biography of the German Resistance Memorial Center
• Hermann Runge at the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia
• Hermann Runge held in the archive of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung