Karl Schneck (politician)

Karl Ernst Schneck (born April 21, 1886 in Hagelloch , Württemberg ; † February 3, 1943 ) was a German politician ( KPD ). He was a member of the Landtag of the Free People's State of Württemberg .

Life

Schneck learned to be a carpenter . In 1907 he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Schneck belonged to the left wing of the party and from 1910 acted as chairman of the SPD in the Stuttgart-West district . From 1915 to 1918 he served as a soldier in World War I , most recently in the rank of non-commissioned officer .

In spring 1919 he joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) and became a full-time union secretary in Stuttgart . In 1920 he moved with the left USPD to the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), although he had initially opposed affiliation to the Communist International (Comintern). Schneck initially worked for a year as the editor of the Stuttgart KPD newspaper. In 1921 he became head of the communal department of the Württemberg district management of the KPD. On June 6, 1920 he was elected as a member of the state parliament of Württemberg. He belonged to it, first for the USPD, then for the KPD until 1932. In 1923 he became head of the International Workers Aid (IAH) in Württemberg.

In November 1922 he took part in the Fourth World Congress of the Comintern and the II World Congress of the Red Trade Union International in Moscow . In early 1924, Schneck was arrested as a member of parliament in violation of his immunity and sentenced to three years in prison on September 27, 1924 in the trial against leading Württemberg communists. After his release in 1925, Schneck was political leader (Polleiter) of the Württemberg district of the KPD from February to June 1926 and from 1927 organizational leader (organ leader) there. From 1928 to 1932 he was chairman of the communist group in the state parliament. At the meeting of the district leadership of the KPD on 16./17. January 1932 he and the Polleiter Joseph Schlaffer were relieved of their functions. They were accused of lacking activity against the “ social-fascist ” SPD. Then Schneck was a full-time secretary of the KPD in Westphalia and from the end of 1932 organ leader of the Baden district .

Schneck was arrested in Mannheim on February 8, 1933, shortly after the National Socialists “ seized power ” . Until the end of March 1934 he was imprisoned in the Heuberg and Kislau concentration camps as a so-called “protective prisoner”. After his release, he continued to work illegally for the KPD. In January 1935, Schneck emigrated to the Soviet Union via Czechoslovakia . Until the end of January 1940 he was a consultant in the Secretariat of International Red Aid under the name "Ernst Feldmann" . After the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, Schneck was first evacuated to the Volga region and later exiled to eastern Kazakhstan . He died there on February 3, 1943 of severe pneumonia , which he contracted while procuring timber.

family

His daughter Gertrud (1911–2002) represented the KPD in the first German Bundestag together with her husband Robert Leibbrand . The couple later moved to the German Democratic Republic .

literature

• Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss (ed.): Biographical manual of German-speaking emigration after 1933 . Volume I: Politics, Economy, Public Life . Saur, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-598-10087-6 , p. 656 f.
• Schneck, Karl . In: Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst (ed.): German communists. Biographical Handbook 1918 to 1945 . 2nd revised and greatly expanded edition. Karl Dietz Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 .