Josef Kappius

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Josef Kappius (born November 3, 1907 in Bochum ; † December 30, 1967 ), also Jupp Kappius (pseudonyms J. Schmidt and Downend ), was a resistance fighter against National Socialism and a social democratic politician.

Life

Kappius worked as a technical draftsman and designer and joined the Socialist Workers 'Youth (SAJ) in 1924 and the German Metalworkers' Association (DMV), later the Federation of Technical Employees and Civil Servants (BuTAB) in the following year.

After the NSDAP came to power in 1933, Kappius joined the International Socialist Fighting League (ISK) and was involved in the Independent Socialist Trade Union initiated by the ISK , whose cell he headed in Bochum, where he was also responsible for the youth and educational work of the ISK. After moving to Berlin, he was a leader in the illegal youth and training work of the ISK. When the group was broken up in the spring of 1937, he had to flee to Switzerland , from here he went via France to Great Britain in 1939 , where he was interned after the outbreak of war and held in an internment camp in Australia until 1942 . Then Kappius returned to Great Britain and worked actively in the Union of German Socialist Organizations in Great Britain , an amalgamation of the exiled SPD and smaller left groups.

In the spring and summer of 1944 he completed a training course in cooperation with the OSS and in September 1944 he parachuted out of a plane over the Emsland and went to the Ruhr area, where he built on old contacts from the trade unions and the ISK, a network of contacts and resistance groups. He stayed mostly in Bochum until the end of the war. His wife Änne actively supported and prepared the campaign. She entered Germany illegally from Switzerland.

After the liberation from National Socialism, Kappius was initially a co-founder of a Union of German Socialists in Bochum, which wanted to overcome the division in the workers' movement during the Weimar Republic. But relatively quickly, Kappius and Willi Eichler negotiated with Kurt Schumacher about the integration of the ISK into the SPD . Kappius himself joined the SPD in August 1945 and a short time later the ÖTV . At the Wennigs conference on the re-establishment of the SPD after the war, he was one of the most resolute critics of the KPD's unified tactics.

In the following years Kappius was mainly active in education and cultural policy. From 1946 he was district secretary of the SPD for culture and education in the district of Western Westphalia. He was head of the district party school in Hemer and held numerous lectures, courses and seminars in the region. He was also responsible for women's policy. He was therefore a member of both the cultural policy committee and the women's committee of the federal party. In addition, he was for a long time chairman of the central committee of socialist educational communities in North Rhine-Westphalia and chairman of the working group for democratic educational institutions.

Kappius was also active in the Dortmund City Council, especially in the culture committee. From 1955 to 1966 he was a member of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia . Kappius was a member of the Justice and Culture Committee and the Reparation Committee. He was also a member of the WDR Broadcasting Council .

After the death of his first wife Änne, Josef Kappius married Ursula Maria Auguste Bücker on December 8, 1965, whom he left with two children when he died.

literature

  • 60 years of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia. The country and its deputies . Düsseldorf 2006, p. 370.
  • Udo Vorholt: Josef Kappius (1907–1967). Socialism as an educational and cultural task. In: Bernd Faulenbach u. a. (Ed.): Social Democracy in Transition. The district of Western Westphalia 1893–2001 . Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2001, ISBN 3-89861-062-4 , p. 146f.
  • Susanne Miller : Änne and Josef Kappius - acting according to socialist ethics. In: Bernd Faulenbach, Günter Högl (Hrsg.): A party in their region. On the history of the SPD in western Westphalia . Klartext-Verlag, Essen 1988, ISBN 3-88474-126-8 , pp. 176-182.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cordula Lissner: Go back the escape route . Remigration to North Rhine and Westphalia 1945–1955. In: Düsseldorfer Schriften on recent regional history and the history of North Rhine-Westphalia . tape 73 . Klartext Verlag , 2006, ISBN 978-3-89861-477-1 , p. 388 .
personal data
SURNAME Kappius, Josef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kappius, Jupp; J. Schmidt (pseudonym); Downend (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD), MdL, resistance fighter against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH November 3, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Bochum
DATE OF DEATH December 30, 1967