Ludwig Frank (SPD)

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Ludwig Frank

Ludwig Frank (born May 23, 1874 in Nonnenweier ( Baden ); † September 3, 1914 at Baccarat in Lorraine ) was a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

Frank represented his party in the Baden state parliament and in the Reichstag . He was also active as an organizer of the socialist workers' youth movement and developed into a spokesman for southern German reformism in the SPD . He was keen to work with liberal politicians to push through improvements for the workforce in the given state and public institutions . For Frank, the elimination of discriminatory electoral law provisions was of particular importance . In large parts of social democracy outside of southern Germany, the reformist strategy met with decisive criticism.

On the eve of the First World War , he tried to reach an understanding between parliamentarians from France and Germany. At his suggestion, Swiss parliamentarians invited to a Franco-German understanding conference in Bern , which took place in May 1913. In August 1914, when the war broke out, Frank was one of the staunch advocates of a civil peace policy . He himself volunteered to work with the weapon and fell about a month after the war began.

Childhood and school days

The young Ludwig Frank, probably around 1893

Ludwig Frank was the second child of a Jewish couple. His father Samuel Frank (1841-1915) worked as a businessman. His mother Fanny, née Frank (1837–1926), already had a son with her husband. Ludwig was to be followed by another son and daughter. Both of Ludwig's grandmothers were daughters of rabbis .

From 1880, Ludwig attended the Simultanschule in his birthplace , an elementary school in which Christian and Jewish children were taught together. Prepared by the local evangelical pastor, he moved to the nearby Lahr grammar school in 1885 . In order to save the daily way to school, he moved into a room in the city. As a student, Ludwig joined the Lessing Association, which a Jewish elementary school teacher had founded in Lahr. One club member was a social democrat and steered the club in a socialist direction. In this way Frank got to know the writings of Friedrich Engels , August Bebel , Karl Kautsky , and Franz Mehring .

Frank passed the best high school diploma of his year at the Lahr grammar school . The Primus Omnium was given the task of delivering the high school graduation speech on July 20, 1893, for which he chose the topic “The importance of Lessing in his time” . He drew lines from Lessing to the demands of the then social democracy. With Lessing, the search for truth is not the only thing to be demanded; practical consequences also have to follow. Those who feel obliged to the poet must turn to the “sufferings of those below” and dedicate themselves to the good of all in the service of the community. This speech aroused people beyond Lahr. The Baden Ministry of Education initially refused to hand over the Abitur certificate because of this speech. It was only when the press advocated Ludwig Frank that he received his school leaving certificate.

Studies, legal clerkship, professional beginnings

In the winter semester of 1893/94 Frank began studying law at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg . He also attended lectures in sociology and zoology . As a one-year- old he did his military service from April 1, 1894 to April 1, 1895, also in Freiburg im Breisgau , which enabled him to continue his studies. In Freiburg he was one of the founders of the local “Social Science Student Association” , a community for socializing and intellectual debates. In the fall of 1895, the student moved to the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin . In addition to legal events, Frank also took part in lectures on German social legislation and the criticism of socialism. He completed his studies in Freiburg in 1897 by passing the first state examination in law.

From April 1897, Frank did his legal clerkship in Lahr, Staufen , Mosbach and Waldshut . From May 1898 he worked in Karlsruhe for a year , then in two Mannheim law firms . In those years Frank also published poems, aphorisms , short stories and fairy tales in Wahren Jakob .

On November 23, 1899, Frank received his doctorate from the University of Freiburg with a thesis on the Baden guilds . In July 1900 he passed the second state examination .

The fully qualified lawyer initially worked in a law firm in Mannheim, which he had already met as a trainee lawyer. In 1903 he opened his own law firm because his previous employer expressed concerns about his work for social democracy and shied away from extending his contract.

SPD career and participation in the intellectual and cultural life of Mannheim

Frank joined the SPD in 1900. In the autumn of 1903 he was a delegate at the SPD party congress in Dresden . In August 1904 he attended the international socialist congress in Amsterdam as a representative of the Baden social democracy . In October of the same year, he joined the Mannheim Citizens Committee for the SPD. In 1905 he was elected a member of the Second Chamber of the Baden Estates Assembly. In 1907 he finally entered the Reichstag as a member of the Mannheim parliament.

In Mannheim, the “stronghold of Baden social democracy” , Frank was not only active in SPD organizations, but was also involved in institutions that contributed to the intellectual and cultural life of the city. He was a member of the Association for Popular Education, which acted as the sponsor of a reading hall located in the working-class district of Neckarstadt . He frequented Bertha Hirsch's salon , where poets, artists and politicians met. Frank was a co-founder of the Mannheim Gartenvorstadt Cooperative, on whose supervisory board he sat. He belonged to the local group of the Peace Society as well as to the Jewish choral society Liederkranz . These and other local activities made him a person who was known and respected beyond party lines. In October 1904 Frank founded the "Association of Young Workers Mannheims".

Pioneer of the working class youth movement

Frank got to know the achievements of the Belgian working class youth movement at the international socialist congress in Amsterdam in 1904. He took this as a model for comparable activities in Baden. He first published two essays on the subject of youth and socialism, the first in the social democratic theory organ Die Neue Zeit , the second in the women's magazine Die Gleichheit . In the autumn of 1904, the Mannheim Young Workers Association was established under his direction. Based on this model, a number of other local workers' youth associations were established in Baden in 1905. These clubs met for the first time in February 1906 in Karlsruhe. They founded the Association of Young Workers Germany based in Mannheim. Frank immediately suggested the publication of an association magazine, which was to bear the title The Young Guard , and whose editorial management he took over himself. At the end of September 1906, the Association of Young Workers in Germany held its first general assembly in Mannheim. 37 southern German local associations were represented with 52 delegates representing around 3,000 members. No delegates came from Prussia because the political association of young people was prohibited there.

In connection with the international socialist congress in Stuttgart in 1907 , an international youth conference was also scheduled. The preparatory office for this meeting included Frank Karl Liebknecht and the Belgian Hendrik de Man .

From 1908, the tightening association legislation in the German Empire destroyed the efforts of socialist youth work. The political summary of the young people under 18 years of age was made a punishable offense nationwide, unless it served national purposes. Frank, who had spoken out sharply against the new law on associations in the Reichstag, accepted the changed legal situation and initiated the dissolution of the Association of Young Workers in Germany . The Young Guard , which at this point had around 9,000 subscribers, ceased to appear. However, the SPD did not give up its attempts at organization entirely. She set up youth committees on site, which were brought together in the Central Office of Working Youth in Germany .

Parliamentarians in Baden

Shaped by bipartisan politics

Behind his friend Wilhelm Kolb, Ludwig Frank held the position of deputy chairman of the parliamentary group in the Second Chamber of the Baden Council of Estates and from this position played a key role in shaping the political development in Baden. Cooperation with the bourgeois parties was formative for him and the entire Baden party structures. Contemporaries called the joint action of social democrats, liberals and national liberals a big bloc policy. It was widely accepted in the SPD in Baden and in southern Germany. In the Reich, especially in Prussia and Saxony , such a policy met with strong rejection, because the political conditions in these federal states were far less liberal.

Legislative period from 1905 to 1909

Report from the Frankfurter Israelitische Fremdblatt dated November 3, 1905 about Frank's entry into the Baden state parliament

In the autumn of 1905, Frank entered the Baden parliament as a member of the Karlsruhe parliament. Fundamental to its success was a local runoff agreement with the Center against the National Liberals. This local constellation differed significantly from other parts of the country. Because an absolute majority of the center and the conservatives was feared in parliament , social democrats, liberals and national liberals agreed to run-off agreements. This alliance constellation ultimately prevented a conservative Catholic majority and continued throughout the legislative period.

Frank in the circle of leading Social Democrats in Baden, probably admitted in 1906 in front of the old state hall in Offenburg . Sitting from right: Emil Eichhorn , Ludwig Frank, Wilhelm Kolb, Georg Monsch . Standing, first from the right: Adolf Geck . The other people are not known.

The election of the social democrat Adolf Geck as vice-president of the state parliament represented a first symbol of the alliance policy . For the first time in Germany a representative of the "revolutionary party" was promoted to a member of a state parliament presidium. After the Baden head of state, Grand Duke Friedrich I, died on September 28, 1907, Kolb and Frank attended the funeral of this regent popular in Baden . The social democratic press reacted with harsh criticism to this devotion to the throne. Dude did not appear at the funeral. The bourgeois parties therefore refused to allow him to be re-elected to the Presidium for the second parliamentary term in 1907/08. In his place, the MPs elected the central politician Constantin Fehrenbach .

The content of the cross-party cooperation in the large bloc extended in particular to school and civil servant policy. The SPD succeeded here in introducing some of its political ideas into legislative proposals. The pay of civil servants was raised. For Frank this was a step that would also result in wage increases for the state workers. For this reason, he justified his parliamentary group's approval of the budget on August 2, 1908 .

Legislative period from 1909 to 1913

In the autumn of 1909, elections for the second chamber of the Baden Estates Assembly took place again. In the main election, the SPD increased the number of votes to 86,078 (1905: 50,431). This success was expanded by renewed runoff agreements. The SPD won a total of 20 seats and thus formed the second largest parliamentary group behind the center, which only had 26 seats (1905: 28). The reasons for the Social Democratic election success were the imperial financial reform of mid-1909, which cost the center in particular votes, and the previous large bloc policy in Baden.

A Social Democrat - the Mannheim MP Anton Geiß - moved back into the Landtag presidium. Edmund Rebmann , who was counted on the left wing of the party, took over the chairmanship of the National Liberals . Frank worked closely with him in the following years.

Between 1909 and 1913, three subject areas shaped the parliamentary work of the SPD in the Second Chamber: school policy , the reform of the income tax and the reform of the municipal and town order with its three-class voting rights .

In connection with the school reform in Baden, Frank called for equal educational opportunities for all citizens. The general freedom from learning materials could not be enforced in 1910, but the local authorities were obliged to procure school books for children from poor parents' homes. For girls was from now on an eight-year compulsory education . All schools with more than ten teachers had to appoint a school doctor . The increased participation of citizens in local school activities was achieved through the obligation to set up a four to twenty-person school commission in all municipalities.

The additional expenses due to increased civil servant salaries and the school reform resulted in a reform of income taxes. The SPD agreed to the reform because it brought only a moderate increase for those earning middle incomes, and those with low incomes were also relieved.

In the course of the reorganization of the municipal and town order, the SPD sought to abolish the municipal three-tier suffrage. This did not work. Nevertheless, the electoral classes were redrafted. The weight of the lowest class increased significantly. In many cases, this increased the number of social democratic mandates at the municipal level.

Despite these partial successes of social democratic parliamentary work, the parliamentary group was initially not ready to approve the budget in July 1910. It was only when the Baden Interior Minister Johann Heinrich Freiherr von und zu Bodman outlined the prospect of a fruitful cooperation with the SPD in parliament on July 13, 1910, did it turn on Frank's initiative and approve the budget the following day.

The Baden alliance between national liberals and social democrats was particularly popular among left-wing liberals. Friedrich Naumann , an exponent of left-wing liberalism in Germany, propagated the transfer of the Baden example to the Reich in 1910 - a policy from Bassermann to Bebel . The creative power of the alliance of liberalism and social democracy also gradually decreased in Baden, because the intensifying, harsh anti-social democratic policy at the Reich level also cast its shadow in the south-west. The Baden government was noticeably distancing itself from the SPD, for example it disadvantaged workers' gymnastics clubs compared to religious gymnastics clubs. For this reason, the SPD parliamentary group rejected the budget in July 1912, a behavior that was also understood by some national liberal parliamentarians.

Legislative period from 1913

Far in the run-up to the elections for the second chamber of the Baden Estates Assembly, which were scheduled for autumn 1913, Frank and Rebmann, as leaders of their parties, got in touch in order to sound out electoral agreements. It showed that the Liberals of Baden were influenced by developments at the Reich level, where the SPD and National Liberals faced each other as opponents. The opposition was further fueled by the Social Democratic no to the military drafts of 1913. In the main elections on October 21, 1913, there was an increased influence of the conservatives and the center, so that despite the more difficult conditions, run-off agreements between social democrats and liberals still came about. The National Liberals, however, benefited to a greater extent from these agreements and became the second largest group (20 seats) behind the Center, which had 30 mandate holders. Four seats went to runoff candidates from the liberal party. The SPD fell significantly from 20 to 13 MPs. For the SPD, the election result was the first major absolute decline in votes throughout the Reich since the Reichstag election of 1881 .

The big bloc maintained a slim majority against the center and the conservatives. The inclination towards formative politics, hand in hand with social democrats, had, however, sunk significantly in the newly formed faction of the National Liberals. Many of its members had succeeded in entering parliament because there had been runoff agreements with the center. For its part, the Baden government demonstrated that it was openly disadvantaging social democrats. In June 1914, Bodman took the view that SPD members could not become honorary district councilors because they lacked public spirit. Frank immediately attacked this attitude in parliament as being retrograde and reproached the government for judging one-sidedly according to convictions . Against this background, the Baden Social Democrats rejected the state government's budget on June 26, 1914.

Controversies over budget approvals

Dispute at the Nuremberg Party Congress of 1908

Even before the Baden Social Democrats had approved budget drafts of the Baden government, the SPD had committed itself to a clear line across the Reich at its party conventions in 1901 and 1903. Corresponding templates are to be rejected in principle. A budget draft can only be approved if otherwise a budget threatens that would mean even worse conditions for the workers. In 1907, however, the comrades in Württemberg deviated from this line. The SPD parliamentary groups in the state parliaments of Baden and Bavaria also approved budgets in 1908. The Bavarian Social Democrats under Georg von Vollmar had approved a budget for the first time in 1891.

For this reason, the SPD party congress of 1908 in Nuremberg dealt intensively with the issue of budget approval. August Bebel himself gave the main speech and demanded a resolution from the party congress expressly disapproving of the behavior of the South Germans. According to Bebel, the South Germans had shaken the belief of the masses in the principles of the party.

Ludwig Frank took the floor after Bebel and contradicted the party chairman. He took the view that the North German Social Democrats would insist on the strict rejection of budget proposals mainly because undemocratic electoral rights prevented them from being adequately represented in parliament. Frank also referred to Ferdinand Lassalle , who had called out to the German workers that the state belonged to them. The founder of the General German Workers' Association did not perceive the state as a class state , but as an authority with which improvements could be implemented for workers in the present. A corresponding reform policy should not be hindered by the ban on approving budgets. After Frank, Karl Hildenbrand from Württemberg and Johannes Timm from Bavaria also expressed themselves in the interests of the southern Germans. Even they could not change the delegates' minds, the party congress decided with 258 against 119 votes to accept the proposal of the party executive committee and thus condemn the southern German budget approvals. 66 delegates from Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden and Hesse did not leave it at that. On their behalf, Martin Segitz stated that the southern German comrades would very well recognize the position of the party congress. However, budget issues in the states are to be decided at the respective discretion of the parliamentary groups and the state organizations.

Another confrontation at the 1910 Magdeburg Party Congress

Letter from Frank to Kautsky dated August 15, 1910, requesting that a defensive letter be printed out in relation to the budget approval conflict

Karl Kautsky, the guardian of Marxist orthodoxy in the pre-war social democracy , formulated in his periodical Die Neue Zeit in the summer of 1910 a sharp attack on the renewed budget approval by the Baden comrades. Kautsky described this voting behavior as breach of discipline and betrayal. In his reply, which also appeared in Die Neue Zeit , Frank emphasized that the parliamentary group in the Baden state parliament had only acted consistently. She helped to form the large bloc and helped shape the budget in question. The approval was conclusive under these circumstances. The radical left in the party attacked the Baden comrades personally because of their voting behavior. Paul Lensches described them in the Leipziger Volkszeitung as cretins and petty bourgeoisie .

The journalistic skirmishes were the prelude to a fierce controversy at the Magdeburg party congress in September 1910. Again, it was Bebel who founded the resolution drafted by the party executive. This condemned the actions of the Baden people as "deliberately brought about gross disregard" of the party congress resolutions, a behavior that endangers the unity of the party. In this context, Bebel spoke before the party congress that Ludwig Frank, who was once his “darling” , his “Benjamin” , had disappointed him seriously.

In his answer to Bebel, Frank argued similarly to his reply to Kautsky: The comrades in Baden had only acted consistently. In addition, it is wrong to read a vote of confidence in the government from the approval of the budget. However, Frank did not convince the delegates. The resolution of the party executive committee was passed with a large majority. The party left also felt provoked by Frank's appearance at the Magdeburg party congress. He did not want to rule out that the parliamentary group would continue to approve households in the future. He also emphasized that the actions of Baden did not contradict the SPD's resolution. The left therefore introduced a draft resolution that threatened a party expulsion procedure in the event of a renewed budget approval. This proposal also found a clear majority at the party congress. A scandal threatened, because the delegates from Baden, Bavaria and Württemberg were now considering boycotting the continuation of the party convention . It took Frank some effort to stop her. The fact that he succeeded in this was documented by his prominent position in the South German social democracy, which he had sworn to act as one before the Magdeburg party congress. The party did not break up in this controversy, although it had revealed fundamentally different views on the possibilities and necessities of social democratic parliamentary work.

Ludwig Frank, for his part, bet on time. He made it dependent on the concrete future constellations of politics in Baden whether the parliamentary group there would approve another budget. It is also conceivable that those who protested sharply against the South Germans at the party congress would give their approval for budgets even in a few years' time. For him, budget issues were not questions of principle, but matters of political tactics.

Member of the Reichstag

Judicial policy and foreign policy

Photo by Frank from the Reichstag Handbuch from 1907

Frank gained increasing influence in the SPD parliamentary group. This shows the development of the issues on which he spoke for the SPD in the plenary hall . As a representative of a practice-oriented policy, as a politician in action, his scope for development was limited, because the SPD had little opportunity in the Reichstag to actively participate in legislative projects due to its pariah position . Clear exceptions to this were the development of a constitution and the formulation of an electoral law for the Reichsland Alsace-Lorraine .

After his first entry into the Reichstag in 1907, Frank acted as spokesman for the SPD in judicial matters. Here he called for reforms in the judiciary on several occasions, including emphasizing that the growing number and work of workers' secretariats were evidence that lay people had valuable legal talents. Frank also criticized the Reichstag's limited control over the government several times. At the same time, Frank criticized the manifestations of class justice in the German Empire. He also criticized attempts to force journalists to disclose their sources of information. He also used these statements to expressly point out the considerable political disadvantage of the workforce in Prussia through the three-class suffrage there. Frank found himself in harmony with the party that had been calling for this regulation to be abolished for years.

Frank also occasionally spoke up on foreign policy issues. So he used the Second Morocco Crisis of 1911 to denounce the limited political scope of the Reichstag again. In France, the parliament is allowed to decide on foreign policy agreements, in Germany not. At the same time, on behalf of his group, he called for an understanding with France and Great Britain in view of this international crisis . The social democratic peace demonstrations during this crisis had impressively shown the will for peaceful understanding with neighbors.

Budget speeches

Plenary debates on budgets were one of the foremost tasks of parliaments in the German Empire. In 1912, Ludwig Frank was given the opportunity to hold budget speeches for the SPD parliamentary group in the Reichstag. In his speeches, Frank refrained from using empty phrases that conjured up the revolution , but called for necessary reforms. According to his speech of February 15, 1912, this included the change in the constituency division , which systematically disadvantaged the workers. He also referred to deficits in social legislation , especially social insurance . Here he demanded the lowering of the age limit for drawing old-age pensions and the introduction of state unemployment insurance . Frank also called for a change in the tax system - more direct and less indirect taxes are necessary.

With reference to the budget of 1913, Frank spoke to the members of the German Reichstag on December 4, 1912. In this speech he emphasized the cultural and organizational achievements of the workers and called for protective and support measures for the workers through laws and financial means.

Political reforms in the realm of Alsace-Lorraine

Due to the parliamentary position of the Social Democrats and the limited scope for shaping the German Reichstag, it was hardly possible for SPD members of the Reichstag to take shape. Her role was largely limited to the role of critics of the prevailing conditions in politics and society.

Things looked different when in 1911 a constitution and an electoral law for Alsace-Lorraine were due to be passed. Like the federal states, the Reichsland now also sent representatives to the Bundesrat . At the same time it received a parliament consisting of two chambers. The composition of the second chamber was the result of general, direct, equal, free and secret elections. The initiative for the reforms in the extreme south-west of the empire had come from the Reichstag. Frank belonged to the twenty-eight-member commission of members of parliament, which intensively discussed the drafts submitted by the Reich government. Although it did not succeed in converting the Reichsland to the status of a federal state, and although the Kaiser continued to appoint the governor and the members of the first chamber of parliament, Frank considered the electoral legislation for the second chamber in particular to be decisive. He hoped that this electoral law would give a boost to the demand for a reform of the Prussian three-class suffrage. It was possible to organize the approval of the constitution and the electoral law for the Alsace-Lorraine state parliament within the SPD parliamentary group. It was Ludwig Frank who justified the approval of the SPD parliamentary group in plenary on May 26, 1911.

Frank himself did not live to see the abolition of the Prussian three-class suffrage - it outlived him by four years. For Frank it was disappointing that the Reichsland did not give a boost to democratization. The Zabern affair demonstrated the opposite in late 1913: the illegal arrest and bodily harm of civilians by the military remained unpunished; The Reichstag expressed mistrust in the Chancellor , but Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg remained in office .

Army draft and military contribution 1913

After the budget for 1913 had been approved, the government presented the Reichstag with an army bill at the end of March 1913. This envisaged increasing the number of officers by 3,900, that of NCOs by 15,000 and that of ordinary soldiers by 117,000. The SPD strictly rejected this plan. On April 9, 1913, Frank spoke out against these plans on behalf of his parliamentary group in the Reichstag and called on the parliamentarians to look for ways out of the arms spiral with their colleagues from France . However, the majority of MPs approved the bill.

The army bill withheld any statement on the financing of the armaments project. After the army bill was passed, the government proposed that property taxes be levied . Social Democrats have long called for the tax system to be changed by increasing the proportion of direct taxes. The SPD agreed to this financing concept because it saw an entry into a more socially just tax system. For this she was violently attacked by the party left at the party congress in Jena in September 1913 . However, the majority of the party congress, before which Frank defended the ideas of the Reichstag parliamentary group, approved the parliamentary group's vote.

Prussian three-class suffrage and mass strike

The Prussian three-tier suffrage, in the words of the Baden historian Rolf G. Haebler, “the best bulwark of the Prussian reaction” , secured the rule of the traditional and conservative elites in what is by far the largest federal state in the German Empire. On January 11, 1910, Wilhelm II announced a reform of the three-class suffrage. However, it would only have led to insignificant changes. As a result, there were numerous demonstrations for the abolition of the three-class suffrage. In his Reichstag speech of February 19, 1910, Ludwig Frank took up these demonstrations, emphasized their resolute but peaceful character and stood behind them.

Ludwig Frank, oil painting by Lovis Corinth (1914)

Since 1912 there had been a number of attempts to make electoral successes for the SPD at the level of the individual states and municipalities more difficult by changing the electoral law. A series of elections also ended with a decline in votes and the loss of mandates, or led to changes in the respective state policies to the detriment of the Social Democrats. These circumstances increased the pressure on the representatives of reformism, who counted on active parliamentary work.

The elections for the Prussian House of Representatives on May 16, 1913 once again showed the problems in Prussia. The turnout was 32.7 percent, in the previous year it had been 84.5 percent in the Reichstag elections. Many of the eligible voters shied away from voting openly or, given the weighting of votes, saw little point in using their right to vote. On June 12, 1913, Frank called for a mass strike during a rally in Wilmersdorf . This is the only way to enforce the necessary democratization. Since 1905, since the popular movements in Sweden and Belgium and since the Russian Revolution , only the SPD left has propagated the instrument of the political strike in the so-called mass strike debate. She saw it as a means of educating and revolutionizing the masses. The party left did not side with Frank. At the Wilmersdorf event, Rosa Luxemburg emphasized that Frank wanted to combine the incompatible - large bloc politics in Baden and mass strike in Prussia. For his part, Frank replied that he had never advocated a “policy of phrase” , but always for a “policy of action” . Frank's proposal to force the abolition of the Prussian three-class suffrage through mass strikes sparked considerable debates in the social democratic workers' movement.

The free trade unions , however, had always rejected mass strikes as a political tool. At the party congress in Jena in 1913, it became clear that they did not change their stance just because the demand for mass strikes was now raised by Ludwig Frank, a representative of the reformists. Gustav Bauer , the second chairman of the general commission , rejected Frank's request. The question of the right to vote in Prussia is of only secondary importance. Instead, Bauer followed the tried and tested course: the organizational power of the party and the trade unions was to be strengthened. The majority of the delegates agreed with this view. Frank regretted this - as he saw it - lack of political will. As an avowed supporter of an alliance policy with reform-minded bourgeois parties, as the leader of southern German reformism on the Prussian electoral issue, to demand the mobilization of the masses - with this position Frank remained completely isolated in the pre-war social democracy.

German-French attempts at understanding

Bern Agreement of 1913

In 1913, domestic politics in France and Germany were concerned with two armaments projects that were complementary to one another. While German politics sought to expand the German army, France was concerned with reintroducing three-year service .

Ludwig Frank urged action in view of the increasing danger of war. On March 26, 1913, he wrote to his friend Emil Hauth, who worked for the social democratic daily Volksrecht in Zurich . He asked him to find out from the Swiss comrades whether a conference of French and German parliamentarians could take place in Switzerland , and possibly also in Belgium, to send a signal against rearmament. Politicians from other parties should also be invited to this conference. Frank hoped that this conference would not only provide a signal against the threat of war, but also a prelude to a sustainable improvement in Franco-German relations . This attempt was successful. The comrades in Switzerland took up the idea, also because Frank wrote to a number of other socialists, including Robert Grimm , directly and asked for support. Grimm succeeded in convincing 13 members of all parties represented in the Swiss National Council to jointly invite them to such an understanding conference in Bern on May 11 and 12, 1913. For his part, Frank convinced Bebel, who was initially unwilling to take part in a non-partisan meeting, to speak at this conference.

A total of 26 Social Democrats were present in Bern. Only a few other parties in the Reichstag brought individual members, five progressives , one representative of the Danish minority and two Alsatians. The French delegation was much larger. Of the 180 delegates, 110 belonged to civil parties. The French parliamentary group was led by Paul Henri d'Estournelles de Constant , the 1909 Nobel Peace Prize laureate , and the socialist leader Jean Jaurès . The conference called for an understanding between the Germans and the French as well as the primacy of diplomacy and Hague arbitration to resolve conflicts. A standing committee headed by d'Estournelles and Hugo Haase was also set up to prepare for further meetings .

Frank welcomed the results of the conference euphorically and regarded them as a sign of the beginning change in the relationship between France and Germany. In this confidence he looked over all the dark sides: the participation of non-socialist German parliamentarians remained the exception, the armament projects could not be stopped by the majorities in the parliaments.

Meeting of parliamentarians in Basel 1914

The standing committee invited to Basel on May 30, 1914, for another conference, this time on a smaller scale. From the French side 16 members took part, from the German side a total of 18 - seven Social Democrats, four delegates from the Progressive People's Party, three representatives of the Center, two National Liberals and two Alsatians. The value of arbitration was again emphasized. The conference also proposed that two interparliamentary assemblies be held simultaneously in Germany and France in 1914. German and French parliamentarians should meet together on the left and right of the Rhine and express their willingness to communicate. After the Basel conference, too, Frank expressed himself on several occasions extremely confident about the future prospects of Franco-German relations.

A few weeks later, both nations were at war with one another. The armaments projects could not be stopped beforehand, nor was there a change in public opinion - in France they longed for revenge for the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, in Germany the western neighbor was considered a hereditary enemy .

Outbreak of war and military service

Portrait of Ludwig Frank, lithograph by Hermann Struck

In the July crisis , just before the outbreak of the First World War, the socialist labor movement organized peace rallies across Europe. The German Social Democrats also called for peace to be maintained in corresponding events.

In Mannheim, Frank spoke at the local peace rally at the end of June 1914. He expressed his hope that despite the general danger of war, a great war would not take place. If such a war could not be prevented, however - so Frank - the social democratic workers, denigrated as " patriotic journeymen " , would fulfill their "national duty" and go to war for Germany.

The Reich leadership under Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg succeeded in pretending to the public and the Social Democrats that the real aggressor was tsarist Russia . The German Social Democrats always regarded their eastern neighbors as a refuge for reaction. It was imperative to prevent the tsarist reaction from spreading to the west. This was a major reason for the Social Democrats to agree to an alleged defensive war on August 4, 1914 and the war credits demanded by the Reich leadership . Ludwig Frank was the key figure in this approval. On August 2, 1914, he wrote to Wilhelm Kolb:

I'm leaving for Berlin tomorrow. The Reichstag meets on Tuesday. Under all circumstances I will try to get the parliamentary group to vote in favor of war credits. In an emergency, the southern Germans alone!

In the first days of August Frank gathered around him a number of Social Democratic members of the Reichstag who thought like him. They were willing to approve in any case, even if the majority of the SPD parliamentary group abstained or voted against. Frank considered it imperative to prove the national reliability of the SPD. In return for this loyalty to the fatherland , he hoped, like many leading social democrats, for a democratization of the empire.

Still from the Reichstag, Ludwig Frank volunteered to work with the weapon. In this way he wanted to add personal commitment to his political vote. As a member of the Reichstag and a member of the Landsturm , he did not have to expect to be called up immediately. Frank, who had campaigned for peace and understanding just a few weeks earlier, on the one hand added himself to the national frenzy of enthusiasm for war . He wrote in letters that he was looking forward to the war. On the other hand, he also saw strategic opportunities. He firmly believed in a victory and in the opportunities for transformation that would arise. He considered the war to be a lever to finally overcome the political stagnation in the interior of Germany. “The international idea has long been pushed back by the reality of a national labor movement. Instead of a general strike, we are waging a war for Prussian suffrage. "

He did not listen to warnings that he was endangering his life through his voluntary war effort. Frank was drafted on August 13th. In a letter dated August 23, he wrote:

(...) I don't know whether the French bullets also respect my parliamentary immunity. I have the ardent desire to survive the war and then help build the interior of the empire. But now for me the only possible place in the line is in rank and file.
The official notice of deaths used in Mannheim for Ludwig Frank

The social democratic newspaper in Mannheim reported a stormy ovation from the population for Frank when he left on August 31st. Already on September 3, 1914, the forty-year-old fell as a private in the 2nd Baden Grenadier Regiment "Kaiser Wilhelm I." No. 110 near Nossoncourt near Baccarat. Frank was the first of two members of the Reichstag (the second was Hans von Meding ) who died on the front lines during the First World War.

Literature situation and memory

At the end of 1914 Ludwig Thoma wrote a poem on the death of "Flügelmann Frank".

Gustav Mayer dedicated his work Friedrich Engels to him in 1920 . Writings from the early days : “The memory of Ludwig Frank fell in Lorraine on September 3, 1914”. Hedwig Wachenheim , with whom Frank had been in a relationship since late 1912, edited Frank's speeches, essays and letters in 1924 and included an introduction to this edition. Her view of her 17-year-old boyfriend was benevolent. At the same time she worked out essential political concerns of Frank.

"Young man with a stick" monument by Bernhard Bleeker , erected in 1950 in Mannheim's lower Luisenpark

Subsequently, it was remembered for many decades in the form of smaller memorial writings. They were often created on the protagonist's birthday or death anniversary or as the publication of speeches on such occasions. Carlo Schmid emphasized in a speech on the 50th anniversary of Frank's death in September 1964 that “the history of Baden state politics before 1914, the history of the Reichstag, the history of social democracy could not be imagined without it.” Much of what Frank had conceived and anticipated later generations could have realized. Theodor Heuss , who had been friends with Frank, remembered Franks in his memoirs and in his work To and About Jews: From Writings and Reden, 1906–1963 from 1964 and wrote: “The German people's future lost [with him] one of its strongest and most necessary guide. ”In 1995 Karl Otto Watzinger presented a study on Frank. It shows the current state of knowledge about this politician by evaluating the publications on Ludwig Frank published up to that point and by opening up further, previously unpublished sources.

Ludwig-Frank-Gymnasium in Mannheim

Ludwig Frank is also remembered in other ways. In Mannheim, the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold , which developed a real cult around Frank, erected a monument in the Luisenpark in September 1924 . The National Socialists destroyed it after their “ seizure of power ” in June 1933. In 1950, a figure of a young man was erected on the site of this destroyed monument, commemorating Frank. In April 1972, a Ludwig Frank committee was founded , to which 37 members of the Bundeswehr of all ranks belonged. It applied to Defense Minister Georg Leber to name a barracks after Ludwig Frank. On May 22, 1974, the former Liège barracks was renamed Ludwig Frank barracks , and the inauguration speech was given by Karl Wilhelm Berkhan . In 1995 the barracks were closed as part of a troop reduction. Today the Ludwig Frank student housing estate is located on this site . In addition, a street, a high school, a kindergarten and a building cooperative bear his name.

At his parents' house in Nonnenweier there is a memorial plaque pointing to Frank, the local elementary school is named after him. A senior workers' welfare center in Lahr bears his name. In Freiburg-Haslach a way was named after him.

literature

Overarching presentations

Specific literature and sources

  • Ludwig Frank: essays, speeches and letters . Selected and introduced by Hedwig Wachenheim . Publ. For Social Science, Berlin 1924.
  • Saly Grünebaum: Ludwig Frank. A contribution to the development of German social democracy . Unterbadische Verlagsanstalt, Heidelberg 1924.
  • Rolf G. Haebler : In Memoriam Ludwig Frank. City councilor in Mannheim, member of the Baden state parliament, member of the German Reichstag. A contribution to the history of Baden and German social democracy and international democratic socialism . Printing and publishing company Mannheim AZ Allgemeine Zeitung, Mannheim 1954.
  • Ludwig Frank . In: Franz Osterroth : Biographical Lexicon of Socialism . Volume 1: Deceased Personalities. JHW Dietz Nachf. GmbH, Hanover 1960, pp. 84-85.
  • Werner Blumenberg : Ludwig Frank . In: the same: fighters for freedom. JHW Dietz Nachf., Berlin / Hanover 1959, pp. 109–115.
  • Erich Matthias :  Frank, Ludwig. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 343 ( digitized version ).
  • Alex Möller : In memoriam Ludwig Frank . In: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (Hrsg.): Ludwig Frank - a warning for peace. The two addresses were given at a memorial service in honor of Ludwig Frank on September 15, 1984 in Mannheim . Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn 1984, pp. 13–36.
  • Sylvia Neuschl-Marzahn: Ludwig Frank (1874-1914) . In: Reinhold Weber, Ines Mayer (Hrsg.): Political minds from Southwest Germany . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-17-018700-7 (= writings on political regional studies of Baden-Württemberg . Volume 33), pp. 54–63.
  • Carlo Schmid : Active spirit, figures from history and politics . Verlag JHW Dietz Nachf., Hanover 1964, pp. 141-168.
  • Karl Otto Watzinger : Ludwig Frank. A German politician of Jewish origin. With an edition Ludwig Frank in the mirror of new sources. Edited by Michael Caroli, Jörg Schadt and Beate Zerfaß. Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1995, ISBN 3-7995-0902-X (= sources and representations on Mannheim city history . Volume 3).
  • Gerhard Widder : Ludwig Frank and Mannheim . In: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (Hrsg.): Ludwig Frank - a warning for peace. The two addresses were given at a memorial service in honor of Ludwig Frank on September 15, 1984 in Mannheim . Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn 1984, pp. 5–12.

Web links

Commons : Ludwig Frank  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On Frank's childhood and youth, see Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , p. 11 f.
  2. ↑ Ludwig Frank, high school graduation speech on July 20, 1893 ( Memento from January 28, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Internet presence of the Scheffel-Gymnasium (Lahr).
  3. ↑ On Frank's studies, see Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , p. 13.
  4. ↑ On Frank's legal traineeship and first professional steps, see Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , p. 13 f.
  5. ↑ On Frank's literary experiments, Neuschl-Marzahn, Ludwig Frank (1874–1914) , p. 56.
  6. ↑ a b Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , p. 14.
  7. ↑ See Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , p. 14, note 18.
  8. ↑ Widder, Ludwig Frank and Mannheim , p. 8. There, key words.
  9. ↑ On Hirsch see the corresponding article in: Karl Otto Watzinger: History of the Jews in Mannheim 1650–1945 , with 52 biographies (publications of the Mannheim City Archives, Volume 12), 2nd edition. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart, Berlin, Cologne, Mainz 1984, ISBN 3-17-008696-0 , p. 102 f.
  10. ^ On the Franks network in Mannheim see Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , p. 15.
  11. ^ Chronicle of the German Social Democracy. Hanover 1963, p. 109.
  12. ↑ On the organization of the young workers by Frank see Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , pp. 17–21 and Neuschl-Marzahn, Ludwig Frank (1874–1914) , pp. 56–58.
  13. ↑ Number of subscribers according to Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , p. 20. Haebler, In Memoriam Ludwig Frank (p. 21) deviates from the number of 11,000 subscribers.
  14. ↑ For the central office, see Neuschl-Marzahn, Ludwig Frank (1874–1914) , p. 57.
  15. ↑ For the first time, men of voting age voted according to the general, equal, secret and direct right to vote. Women were excluded. On Frank's work in Baden's state parliament between 1905 and 1909 see Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , pp. 22–24.
  16. ↑ On Frank's work in the Baden state parliament between 1909 and 1913 see Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , pp. 24–28.
  17. ↑ On the situation in Baden's state parliament from 1913 see Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , pp. 28–31. On the significance of the election defeat of 1913 see Groh, Negative Integration und revolutionärer Attentismus , p. 475.
  18. ↑ On the controversy at the Nuremberg party congress see Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , pp. 32–35.
  19. ↑ On the controversy at the party congress in Magdeburg, see Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , pp. 35–40. Comprehensive Groh, Negative Integration and Revolutionary Attentism , pp. 163–185.
  20. ↑ On this, Grünebaum, Ludwig Frank , p. 17
  21. ↑ Quoted from Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , p. 36.
  22. ↑ Bebel quotes about Frank after Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , p. 36
  23. ↑ On Frank's work in questions of justice see Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , pp. 41–44, compact also Grünebaum, Ludwig Frank , p. 26.
  24. ^ Ernest Hamburger: Jews in Public Life in Germany , p. 451.
  25. ↑ On Frank's foreign policy contributions to the Reichstag, see Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , p. 46.
  26. ↑ On Frank's budget speeches, see Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , pp. 48–51.
  27. ^ For an introduction to the Alsace-Lorraine question, cf. Born: From the founding of the Empire to the First World War , p. 247 f. For Frank's contributions to this question, see Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , pp. 44–46.
  28. ↑ On Frank's action on the issues of army submission and military contribution, see Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , pp. 51–53.
  29. ^ Haebler, In Memoriam Ludwig Frank , p. 40.
  30. ↑ See Born: From the foundation of the Reich to the First World War , p. 246 f.
  31. ↑ For the reaction of the party links to Frank's Wilmersdorfer initiative see Groh, Negative Integration und revolutionärer Attentismus , p. 477 f. There (p. 477) also Frank's quotations.
  32. ^ About Frank's involvement in the Prussian question of electoral law Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , pp. 57–62. On the mass strike debate from June 1913 cf. Groh, Negative Integration and Revolutionary Attentism , pp. 477–503.
  33. ↑ On the Bern conference and Frank's initiative, see Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , pp. 63–66.
  34. ↑ Cf. Organizing Committee (ed.): Stenographic minutes of the Franco-German understanding conference, held on Pentecost Sunday, May 11, 1913 in Bern, Bern: Unionsdruckerei 1913.
  35. ↑ On the meeting of Basel and Frank's position on this, see Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , pp. 66–69.
  36. ^ Hannes Siegrist: Advokat, Bürger und Staat: Social history of lawyers in Germany. Klostermann 1996, ISBN 3465026993 , p. 639 .
  37. ^ Ludwig Frank to Wilhelm Kolb, August 2, 1914; quoted from Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , p. 164. Letter published for the first time by Grünebaum, Ludwig Frank as a facsimile . However, Grünebaum dates the letter to August 1, 1914 (p. 37).
  38. ↑ On Frank's leading role in determining the SPD parliamentary group to agree to the war credits, see Miller: Burgfrieden und Klassenkampf , pp. 46–48.
  39. ↑ Ludwig Frank to Gustav Mayer , August 27, 1914, quoted from: Ludwig Frank: Essays, Speeches and Letters , selected and introduced by Hedwig Wachenheim, p. 358.
  40. ↑ Quoted from Rolf Vogel: A piece from us. German Jews in German armies 1813–1976. A documentation , Hase & Koehler, Mainz 1977, ISBN 3-7758-0920-1 , p. 376.
  41. ↑ On Frank in the July crisis and in the August days of 1914 see Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , pp. 70–75.
  42. ^ Albert Grzesinski : In the struggle for the German republic. Memories of a Social Democrat, ed. by Eberhard Kolb , Oldenbourg, Munich 2001, p. 304, note 6.
  43. ↑ “When he dedicates this volume to the memory of Ludwig Frank, who fell in the first, more hopeful days of the war, the editor remembers with wistful memories the warm sympathy that the departed friend always showed in his studies of the history of the German labor movement (Gustav Mayer (ed.): Friedrich Engels. Early writings . Julius Springer, Berlin 1920, p. XII.)
  44. ↑ Schmid, Active Spirit , p. 148.
  45. ↑ Memories 1905–1933 , Wunderlich, Tübingen 1963; Fischer 1965
  46. ^ Theodor Heuss: An und über Juden: Aus Schriften und Reden, 1906–1963 , compiled and published. ed. by Hans Lamm. Foreword by Karl Marx Econ 1964, p. 15.
  47. ^ Stefan Vogt: National Socialism and Social Democracy. The Social Democratic Young Rights 1918–1945 , JHW ​​Dietz Nachf., Bonn 2006, ISBN 3-8012-4161-0 , p. 122.
  48. ↑ Rolf Vogel: A piece from us. German Jews in German armies 1813–1976. A documentation , Hase & Koehler, Mainz 1977, ISBN 3-7758-0920-1 , pp. 368-373.
  49. ↑ References to forms of remembrance in Mannheim and other places in Watzinger, Ludwig Frank , p. 89.
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on August 21, 2008 in this version .
personal data
SURNAME Frank, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and politician (SPD), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH May 23, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Nunsweier
DATE OF DEATH September 3, 1914
Place of death at Baccarat , Lorraine