Karl Bräuning

Karl Bräuning (born January 5, 1886 in Ilversgehofen ; † September 14, 1962 in Darmstadt ) was a German lathe operator , trade unionist , party activist ( Spartakusbund / USPD / KPD / KPO ), Spain fighter and emigrant ( France , USA ).

Life

Bräuning came from a family of miners . After attending primary school, he learned the trade of metal lathe and then went on a hike . Organized in the German Metalworkers' Association (DMV) since 1903 , he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in 1906 . He found work at Carl Zeiss AG in Jena and became a member of the local works council . During the First World War he joined the Spartakusbund, in 1917 the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) and in 1920 the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). He was arrested in the fall of 1923 but released in January 1924. In 1925 he was sentenced to one year in prison for aiding and abetting high treason . From 1924 to 1928 Bräuning was the organizational leader of the KPD in Thuringia. In 1929 he was expelled from the KPD because he belonged to the "party right". He joined the Communist Party of Germany (Opposition) (KPO) and became its secretary in Thuringia.

After the Nazi regime began in 1933, he continued the KPO's illegal anti-fascist work. From June 1934 he took over the "political leadership" within the illegal KPO Reich leadership. Then he emigrated first to CSR and later to France. In 1936 Bräuning joined the International Brigades in Spain . He worked in a aircraft factory of the Republicans . As a result, his family in Germany was persecuted by the Nazi authorities. Because of his connection to the anti-Moscow POUM , he was arrested by the Soviet secret service . It is reported in the Spanish Black Book of Communism, Volume II . After the failure of the Spanish Republic , he managed to escape to France. Here he separated from the KPO and rejoined the exile SPD. In 1941 he emigrated to the USA, from which he returned to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1955 , where he abstained from any political activity.

literature

• Theodor Bergmann : Against the current. The history of the KPD (opposition) . Hamburg 2001. ISBN 3-87975-836-0
• Stefan Heinz : Karl Bräuning (1886–1962) , In: Siegfried Mielke , Stefan Heinz (eds.) With the collaboration of Julia Pietsch: Emigrierte Metallgewerkschafter in the fight against the Nazi regime (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - Resistance - Emigration. Volume 3). Metropol, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-86331-210-7 , pp. 466-470.
• 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, p. 542
• Bräuning, Karl . 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 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 17, 2011