Karl Hense

Karl Hense

Karl Hense (born January 8, 1871 in Langenthal in the Weser Uplands ; † February 3, 1946 in Hamburg ) was a trade unionist and senator in the Hamburg Senate .

Life and work

After attending primary school , Hense began an apprenticeship as a bricklayer and plasterer in 1885 . Hense worked in this profession in the following years and also joined the trade union movement and the SPD . From 1905 onwards, Hense worked exclusively in trade unions, as a paid union secretary in Hamburg, a position he held until 1919. From 1909 Hense was elected chairman of the trade union cartel for Greater Hamburg and he was a member of the party executive of the Hamburg SPD. Along with Otto Stolten and Berthold Grosse , he was one of the most influential people in the Hamburg SPD. He held all of these offices until 1919. From 1914 to 1918, Hense took part in the First World War.

November Revolution

When the November Revolution broke out in Kiel, Hense tried to prevent it on November 5, 1918, because the trade unions in Hamburg at that time were not interested in revolutionary changes. In this case, however, Hense could not achieve anything. A workers and soldiers' council for Greater Hamburg was formed under the "Red Dictator" Dr. Heinrich Laufenberg . In January there was tension in the Council over policy. In the course of this, revolutionary shipyard workers protested against the policies of the SPD and occupied the trade union building in Hamburg on January 9, 1919. On the same day Laufenberg had the union offices occupied and their coffers confiscated. In the following days, on Hense's initiative, workers close to the SPD demonstrated and pushed through new elections for the workers 'and soldiers' council. On January 20, Laufenberg had to resign and Hense, together with Berthold Grosse, became chairman of the workers 'and soldiers' council. Hense and Grosse were the first to issue new electoral regulations for the citizens and prepared new elections. Hense was de facto the ruler in Hamburg until the new election of the citizens and their constituent meeting on March 26, 1919 . With a solemn declaration on March 26th, Hense handed political power back to the citizens.

MP and Senator

Hense was elected to the Hamburg parliament in 1909 , which he belonged to until 1933, with an interruption from 1924 to 1927. Hense was also an elected member of the Weimar National Assembly from 1919 to 1920.

On March 28, 1919, Hense was elected to the Hamburg Senate , to which he belonged until his resignation on May 26, 1924. In 1919 he was active in the following senate commissions and colleges: commercial recourse matters and club affairs, commission for urban and suburban railways, supervision of mining, construction deputation and in the war supply office. From 1920 he held the office of police chief and thus de facto the office of interior senator. In memory of Hense, the Henseweg in Hamburg-Bergstedt was named after him.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ursula Büttner: Hamburg at the time of the Weimar Republic, six essays. State Center for Political Education, Hamburg 1996, p. 57.
2. ↑ See Leo Lippmann: My Life and My Official Activity. Hamburg 1964, p. 279.
3. ^ Rainer Fuhrmann: Distribution of offices in the Senate 1860-1945. Typescript, Hamburg State Archives.
4. ^ See Official Journal of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, No. 80, dated Wednesday April 2, 1919, pp. 542-543.

literature

• Ursula Büttner : Hamburg at the time of the Weimar Republic, six essays. State Center for Political Education, Hamburg 1996
• 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 (short form on the Internet as a biography of Karl Hense . In: Wilhelm H. Schröder : Social Democratic Parliamentarians in the German Reich and Landtag 1876-1933 (BIOSOP) ).
• 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 .
• Anne Lena Meyer: Karl Hense, union secretary. In: Olaf Matthes / Ortwin Pelc : People in the Revolution. Hamburg portraits 1918/19. Husum Verlag, Husum 2018, ISBN 978-3-89876-947-1 , pp. 61-64.

Web links

• Karl Hense in the database of members of the Reichstag
• Karl Hense in the online version of the Reich Chancellery Edition Files. Weimar Republic
• Karl Hense biography . In: Heinrich Best and Wilhelm H. Schröder : Database of Members of the National Assembly and the German Reichstag 1919–1933 (Biorab – Weimar)