John Wittorf

John Friedrich Wittorf (born September 5, 1894 in Stellingen , † June 19, 1981 in Hamburg ) was a Hamburg communist politician and one of the main characters in the so-called Wittorf affair .

Life

The dock worker Wittorf joined the USPD in 1917 and belonged to the left wing, which merged with the KPD to form the VKPD at the end of 1920 .

Ernst Thälmann's close friend (the popular rumor that Wittorf and Thälmann were related by marriage is proven to be false) had been a full-time KPD functionary since 1925, a member of the Wasserkante district management and from 1927 to 1928 political director in the Wasserkante district. In 1927 and 1928 he was also a member of the Hamburg citizenship and the central committee of the KPD.

In 1928, the Hamburg KPD condensed evidence of embezzlement of party funds (between 1800 and 3000 Reichsmarks according to various sources) by Wittorf. First, Wittorf was protected by Thälmann and other leading Hamburg officials and the district administration's cashier Richard Dehmel (who was not involved in the embezzlement) was prosecuted. After the internal party opposition group of " conciliators " belonging to Central Committee members Hugo Eberlein and Gerhart Eisler had begun investigations, Wittorf was from the KPD in September 1928 ruled .

The revelations about the embezzlement of Wittorf and its cover-up triggered the " Wittorf Affair ", which at the end of September 1928 led to the brief impeachment of the then KPD chairman Ernst Thälmann.

Wittorf himself withdrew completely from politics after the affair.

literature

• Wittorf, John Friedrich . In: Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German Communists. Biographisches Handbuch 1918 to 1945. 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 .