Louis Cohn

Munich Post 1916

Louis Cohn (born January 10, 1852 in Halle ad Saale , † October 23, 1927 in Munich ) was a German politician , publisher , publicist and social democrat . Louis Cohn came from a wealthy Jewish merchant family. His father Elias Cohn was married to Julie Cohn nee Gottschalk.

Life

He began his school days in 1858 at the Francke Foundations in Halle. According to his father's wishes, he completed a commercial apprenticeship in a wholesaler in Frankfurt am Main in 1867 . After only a year he was supposed to continue his education in Leipzig because his parents had moved to Leipzig. Differences with his father over his job broke out and he should move to a business friend in Liverpool and work as a volunteer .

In England the real turning point in his life took place. It tied him to socialism and German social democracy for his entire life . How do you become a socialist as quickly as possible to answer this question, he consolidated Karl Marx . Cohn also wanted to go to America, and Marx gave him a letter of recommendation to Friedrich Adolph Sorge . After a stormy crossing, he reached New York in July 1870. There he turned to Sorge, who immediately accepted him as a member of the International Workers' Association . In a section meeting, Cohn met Carl Vogt , who made him a Social Democrat. Vogt appeared to him as the embodiment of the Lassallean idea, the cooperation of science and workers.

After a two-and-a-half year stay in New York, Cohn had to leave to meet in Leipzig for a medical examination, if not, he would be considered a deserter . It was just as difficult for him to say goodbye to his comrades as to leave his commercial position. The study of economics and socialism, combined with his commercial activity, had given his mind a whole new direction. His view and aversion to the commercial profession changed completely. He recognized the importance of good business people in building the socialist economy. With these results he started his return trip to Europe.

Cohn was declared unfit for duty, not because of his health, but because there were enough year olds. So he wanted to go back to New York. At the insistence of his parents, however, he entered his father's business in Leipzig. At that time, the workers' education association was the focus of party meetings . There he met Wilhelm Liebknecht , whom he often visited in his apartment. The Bebel family occasionally took part in long walks in Connewitz . The writers' association met regularly and informally in the rifle house. Cohn met like-minded people there. There he met the Lassallean Heinrich Wuttke , the old Cramer editor of the Vaterlandsblätter and his son Richard, known as a poet by the name of Rudolf Lavant .

With the relocation of his parents' business from Leipzig to Berlin and the subsequent liquidation due to large losses abroad, Cohn lost his independence. He gratefully accepted an offer from Erfurt to work for the Thüringer Tribüne magazine . Over several articles by Cohn on the shoemaker's strike in Erfurt in 1891 in the tribune, with Cohn taking a clear stand for the workers, some shoe manufacturers complained to his editors that they thought he should hold back more on this matter. Because of this restriction of his political and journalistic activity, he gave up this position. Bebel, informed of his situation, offered him to take over the management of a party newspaper. He could choose between Magdeburg and Munich . Cohn chose Munich, which offered more inspiration to his individuality.

After the end of the Socialist Law and Georg von Vollmar's keynote speeches in 1891, the " Münchener Post " finally put itself in the service of the reform policy propagated by the Bavarian Social Democrats. As the full-time managing director, Louis Cohn was to manage the newspaper on October 1, 1892, on behalf of the entire party. His son Arthur and Adolf Müller supported him in this. He should rehabilitate it economically and act as a watchdog for the Berlin party headquarters. He succeeded in turning the newspaper's publishing house, the "Firma Birk & Co", into an efficient company. With his attempts to influence the editorial office and the politics of the Bavarian social democracy, however, Cohn failed. He held the post of managing director of the Münchner Post until 1918.

Works

• Louis Cohn. Criticism of the drafts of the Reich Law regarding the safeguarding of the building requirements and the Prussian Implementation Law together with an appendix regarding the position of building creditors according to the future Civil Code. Berlin: Siemenroth & Troschel, 1898.
• Louis Cohn: The Housing Question and Social Democracy: A Chapter Social Democratic Community Policy / Munich: M. Ernst 1900, 76 p. Digital
• Louis Cohn: Urban rent and housing question in: The new time: Weekly of the German social democracy. 19.1900-1901, 2nd vol. (1901), no. 32, pp. 177-181. digital

obituary

• Obituary Louis Cohn in: Vorwärts from 10.26.1927 No. 506 page 3

Individual evidence

1. ↑ State Archives Saxony-Anhalt, Merseburg Department, extract from the birth register of the synagogue community in Halle (Saale)
2. ↑ Memories of a Social Democrat by Wilhelm Blos, page 147.
3. ^ Socialist apprenticeship and wandering years of Louis Cohn:
   • Socialist apprenticeship and wandering years I / Forward of November 12, 1925, No. 535, page 7
   • Socialist apprenticeship and wandering years II / Forward of November 24, 1925, No. 554, page 11
   • Socialist apprenticeship and wandering years III / Forward of November 28, 1925, No. 562, page 11
   • Socialist apprenticeship and wandering years IV / Forward of December 9th, 1925, No. 580, page 7
   • Socialist apprenticeship and wandering years V / Vorwärts of December 15, 1925, No. 590, page 9
   • Socialist apprenticeship and wandering years VI / Forward of December 22nd, 1925, No. 602, page 7
   In: Forward digital
4. ^ The left intellectual milieu in Germany, its press and its networks (1890-1960) Michel Grunewald, Hans Manfred Bock, page 320.

Web links

• Louis Cohn in the Historical Lexicon of Bavaria: Munich Post