Hugo Heimann

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hugo Heimann (before 1920)

Hugo Heimann (born April 15, 1859 in Konitz , Province of Prussia , † February 23, 1951 in New York ) was a German publisher, patron and social democratic politician.

Live and act

Heimann was the son of a Jewish businessman and attended the grammar school at the Gray Monastery in Berlin . He graduated from high school and did an apprenticeship as a bookseller. After a stay as a trainee in the book and publishing trade in London between 1880 and 1884, he returned to Berlin. At first he joined the J. Guttentagsche publishing bookstore as a junior partner and became its owner in 1890 (until 1900; merged with de Gruyter-Verlag in 1919 ). The sale of the publishing house brought him a considerable fortune which allowed Heimann to live as a reindeer .

He made a name for himself as a generous patron of the labor movement . After having traveled extensively through Algeria, Egypt and India, he donated Berlin's first public library in the Kreuzberg district in 1899 , which he donated to the city of Berlin in 1919. Another library was added later. He was also a member of the Berlin Asylum Association for the homeless. In 1901 Heimann had the so-called “ Red Houses ” built on Prinzenallee for Berlin Social Democrats. With the transfer of ownership to the comrades, they became house owners and could thus be elected to the city council.

Heimann was himself a member of the SPD and a friend and confidante of August Bebel and Paul Singer . From 1900 to 1932 Heimann was a city councilor of his party. From 1911 to 1925 he was chairman of the social democratic parliamentary group and from 1919 to 1932 head of city council. In addition, there were numerous other local political activities, for example within the framework of the Greater Berlin Association.

At the national level he was chairman of the party's central education committee between 1906 and 1917. In 1908 Heimann was one of the first eight Social Democrats to move into the Prussian House of Representatives despite the three-class suffrage (this remained until 1910). During the November Revolution he was people's representative in Berlin and was a member of the Weimar National Assembly in 1919/20 . He was then a member of the Reichstag from 1920 to 1932 . In the National Assembly as well as in the Reichstag, he was chairman of the budget committee without major interruptions. Heimann initially stayed in Berlin under National Socialist rule and emigrated to Great Britain in 1939 and later to the USA . After the war he did not return to Germany. One of Heimann's sons was the social and economic scientist Eduard Heimann .

Berlin memorial plaque in Gesundbrunnen (Prinzenallee 46a)

Honors and afterlife

In 1926 Heimann was made the 56th honorary citizen of Berlin. Because he was Jewish, the National Socialists revoked Heimann's honorary citizenship, which he received again in 1947. On the day of his funeral in New York, Berlin's public buildings were flagged at half-mast.

A memorial plaque in Prinzenallee , the Hugo Heimann Bridge, the Hugo Heimann Library, Hugo Heimann Street and the Hugo Heimann School in various parts of Berlin commemorate the deserving politician.

literature

  • Klaus Malettke :  Heimann, Hugo. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 272 ​​f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Wilhelm Heinz Schröder : Social Democratic Parliamentarians in the German Reich and Landtag 1867-1933. Biographies, chronicles, election documentation. A handbook (= handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Volume 7). Droste, Düsseldorf 1995, ISBN 3-7700-5192-0 , p. 495.
  • 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 .
  • Richard Sperl: Hugo Heimann (1859-1951) . In: Preserve, Spread, Educate. Archivists, librarians and collectors of the sources of the German-speaking labor movement . Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn-Bad Godesberg 2009, pp. 108–116 ISBN 978-3-86872-105-8 online (pdf; 287 kB)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Munzinger biography
  2. ^ Sperl, p. 115

Web links

Commons : Hugo Heimann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Heimann, Hugo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publisher, patron and politician (SPD), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1859
PLACE OF BIRTH Konitz , Province of Prussia
DATE OF DEATH February 23, 1951
Place of death New York City