Max Bock (politician, 1881)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Max Bock

Max August Bock (born October 29, 1881 in Altona ; † March 15, 1946 in Heidelberg ) was a German politician ( USPD / KPD ). He was a member of the state parliament of the Republic of Baden and in 1946 Minister of Labor of Württemberg-Baden .

Life

Bock, son of an innkeeper , learned the trade of blacksmith after elementary school . Until 1900 he lived in Berlin, where he was involved in the German Metalworkers Association . During his traveling years , Bock took part in the Russian Revolution of 1905 . Together with Russian revolutionaries, he fled to Switzerland , where he worked as a trade union secretary in Zurich and Basel from 1911 to 1915 . In Switzerland he met August Bebel , among others , and was one of Lenin's regular listeners .

During the First World War , Bock was expelled from Switzerland in 1915 because of his contacts with socialist groups. In Germany he was drafted into the Landsturm in 1916 . In 1917 Bock joined the USPD, became party secretary in South Baden in 1918 , secretary of the workers 'and soldiers' council in Lörrach in 1918/19 and in 1919 a member of the state headquarters of the workers ', peasants' and people's councils of the Republic of Baden . In April 1919 Bock was a delegate of the USPD parliamentary group to the second Reichsrätekongress in Berlin and 1920 delegate of the USPD splitting party conference. In December 1920 Bock joined the KPD with the left wing of the USPD and was a delegate at the Unification Party Congress, which elected him to the party's central committee.

In 1921 Bock was elected to the state parliament of the Republic of Baden , to which he belonged continuously until 1933. Until 1929 he was chairman of the KPD state parliament group, then deputy chairman. As a member of parliament, Bock used "an extremely pithy language that had not been heard before in the state parliament". From 1922 to 1924 he was a member of the city ​​council of Lörrach, next to Mannheim one of the strongholds of the KPD in Baden.

Bock was one of the negotiators during the September riots in Loerrach, which resulted in shootings between the police and supporters of the KPD in Loerrach on September 17, 1923 . The unrest had developed out of primarily economically motivated strikes during the height of inflation . On October 30th, Bock was arrested in connection with preparations for a communist uprising. The Reich Public Prosecutor took over the investigation. A complaint was initially unsuccessful, but at the end of March 1924 Bock was released from custody and appeared at the 9th session of the Baden state parliament on April 3, 1924, where he vehemently defended himself against allegations of the German nationalists who conspired with France had assumed. After the end of the session, Bock was supposed to be arrested again, but this was not done because he was incapable of imprisonment for health reasons. On December 18, 1924, the state parliament unanimously decided not to lift its immunity and requested the Reich Public Prosecutor to suspend the criminal proceedings and detention in the case of MP Bock for the duration of the session. Only at the end of May 1926 did the trial against him and Frieda Unger take place before the Leipzig State Court , whereby the proceedings against him were discontinued due to the amnesty law of 1925 . In 1930, weapons and a “regular general staff plan” were found on a plot of land previously used by Bock on Tüllinger Berg .

After the handover of power to the National Socialists , Bock was arrested in March 1933 and held for several months in the Kislau and Heuberg concentration camps . Bock was arrested two more times by 1945 and severely abused in the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps . After 1939 Bock moved to Heidelberg , where - according to contradicting statements - he worked as a woodcarver or as a commercial clerk.

After the liberation from National Socialism , Bock participated in the establishment of a unified trade union in Heidelberg; Plans for this were developed in 1944 in the Dachau concentration camp by Social Democrats, Communists and trade unionists from Heidelberg imprisoned there. Bock was the union's secretary. Together with Franz Böning , Bock was one of the re-founders of the KPD in Heidelberg in August or September 1945. In 1945, he was city councilor and welfare officer in Heidelberg. In January and February 1946 he was the first labor minister of Württemberg-Baden . For health reasons, Bock had to give up his post after only two months and died in March 1946 in Heidelberg, where he was buried in the mountain cemetery.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Kitzing, Bock , p. 36.
  2. ^ See arrests in Lörrach In: Freiburger Zeitung of October 31, 1923, 2nd sheet and arrested in Lörrach. In: Freiburger Zeitung of November 2, 1923, 1st sheet
  3. ↑ see The Communist Unrest in the Baden Oberland. In: Freiburger Zeitung of December 13, 1923, 2nd sheet
  4. ↑ see the minutes of the session of the Landtag on April 3, 1924, columns 364-365
  5. ↑ see the minutes of the session of the Landtag on December 18, 1924, columns 115-123
  6. ↑ see judgment in the trial against communist members of the Baden state parliament. In: Freiburger Zeitung of June 1, 1926, 1st sheet
  7. ↑ Kitzing Badische Biographien reports a long prison sentence without any evidence. The role of Bock in the September riots in 1923 and the preparations for the German October is represented there without evidence.
  8. ↑ Kitzing, Bock , p. 37; Max Bock at the Heidelberg History Association at www.haidelberg.de
  9. ^ Weber, Communists
  10. ↑ Kitzing, Bock , p. 37
personal data
SURNAME Bock, Max
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bock, Max August (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (KPD), Minister of Labor in Württemberg-Baden
DATE OF BIRTH October 29, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Altona
DATE OF DEATH March 15, 1946
Place of death Heidelberg