Karl Böchel

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Karl Böchel , (born September 15, 1884 in Koblenz , † February 28, 1946 in Fjellhamar near Oslo ) was a social democratic resistance fighter and co-founder of the Working Group of Revolutionary Socialists (RSD).

Life

Karl Böchel was born as the son of a railroad worker and completed an apprenticeship as a locksmith after elementary school from 1899 to 1902. He then worked in Rheinhausen until 1913 . In 1905 he joined the German Metalworkers' Association (DMV) and in 1910 became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). From 1913 he worked for several social democratic newspapers. In 1913 he was editor of the Niederrheinische Arbeiter-Zeitung and the Niederrheinische Volksstimme in Duisburg . During the First World War he served as a soldier from 1914 to 1918. In November 1918 he was a member of the workers 'and soldiers' council of Duisburg. In April 1919 he joined the editorial staff of the Volksstimme in Chemnitz , from August 1919 he was its editor-in-chief until 1933. Böchel was a delegate to the DMV Association Days in 1921 and 1924.

Böchel was a member of the Chemnitz city council from 1924 to 1926. From 1923 on, he headed the left wing of the SPD in Saxony . From 1924 to 1933 he was chairman of the SPD district of Chemnitz-Erzgebirge and a member of the central SPD party committee. Böchel was elected to the Saxon state parliament in 1926. Böchel was initially co-chairman and from 1929 sole chairman of the SPD parliamentary group. From 1928 he was also chairman of the state working committee (state chairman) of the SPD Saxony. He took a decidedly left-wing position, was one of the founders of the magazine Der Klassenkampf in October 1927 and the Marxist Tribune in October 1931 . In 1931 he spoke out in favor of a merger of the KPD and SPD. He criticized the coalition policy of the SPD leadership and their support for the Brüning government.

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , he was severely abused in the Saxon state parliament on March 9, 1933 and fled to Czechoslovakia in May 1933 . He participated in the establishment of the Karlovy Vary border secretariat . On April 26, 1933, he was elected to the Reich Executive Committee of the SPD. Böchel, whose German citizenship was revoked on March 29, 1934 with the publication of the second expatriation list of the German Reich , joined the SPD exile organization Sopade in Prague and was a member of the Sopade board from August 1934. In the same month, together with Siegfried Aufhäuser , he founded the working group of revolutionary socialists and again advocated unity of action between social democrats and communists. On January 30, 1935, the Sopade expelled him from the Sopade board because of his comments that were critical of the party. This was followed by a two-year break with the Sopade and, together with Aufhäuser, the founding of the Revolutionary Socialists of Germany (RSD). Böchel was chairman of the RSD until 1937. In December 1936 he signed the appeal of the Popular Front Committee. After the RSD had moved closer to the Sopade top and thus to the politics criticized by Böchel, he resigned from their working group in 1937.

In 1938 Böchel went to Norway and was paralyzed by the end of 1939. He hid in a hospital during the German occupation of the country. In 1945 he returned to Oslo seriously ill and died in Fjellhamar in 1946.

Böchel's daughter was the author Rose Nyland (1929-2004).

Honors

Karl-Böchel-Strasse in Chemnitz is named after him. In 2015, a stumbling block was laid for him in front of the Georg Landgraf Forum in Chemnitz.

literature

  • Frank Heidenreich: Workers' Culture Movement and Social Democracy in Saxony before 1933 . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar 1995, ISBN 3-412-08495-6 , p. 422.
  • Mike Schmeitzner , Michael Rudloff: History of Social Democracy in the Saxon State Parliament. Representation and documentation 1877–1997 . 2nd edition 1998, ISBN 3-00-002084-5 , pp. 174-177.
  • Peter Steinbach , Johannes Tuchel (ed.): Lexicon of Resistance 1933–1945 . 2nd Edition. CH Beck, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-43861-X , p. 29.
  • Steffen Kachel: A red-red special path? Social Democrats and Communists in Thuringia 1919 to 1949 (= publications of the Historical Commission for Thuringia. Small series , Volume 29), Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-412-20544-7 , p. 215 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Hepp (Ed.): The expatriation of German citizens 1933-45 according to the lists published in the Reichsanzeiger . tape 1 : Lists in chronological order. De Gruyter Saur, Munich / New York / London / Paris 1985, ISBN 978-3-11-095062-5 , pp. 4 (reprinted 2010).
  2. ↑ City of Chemnitz: Stumbling block laying on September 30, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Böchel, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION social democratic resistance fighter and co-founder of the working group of revolutionary socialists (RSD)
DATE OF BIRTH September 15, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Koblenz
DATE OF DEATH February 28, 1946
Place of death Fjellhamar near Oslo