Max Frank

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Max Frank (born November 14, 1870 in Hameln , † May 10, 1933 in Berlin ) was a German lawyer and social democratic politician.

Life

Frank came from a middle-class Jewish family. The father was a grain dealer and banker . After graduating from high school, he studied law . During this time he had already joined the social democracy. He worked as a lawyer since the turn of the century and as a notary in Dortmund from 1926 . He had a partnership there with his brother-in-law Otto Elias.

Frank, also known as Frank I to distinguish it from the lawyer Paul Frank, was one of the busiest defense lawyers in the Ruhr area even in the pre-war period . He focused on the defense in criminal trials related to the labor movement . During the great miners' strikes of 1905 and 1912, he handled several thousand criminal cases.

Frank was also active as a speaker at party events. Alongside Max König , he was one of the speakers who spoke at the first SPD meeting in Arnsberg . In Dortmund he was a member of the city council in 1919 and was an unpaid magistrate from 1919 to 1925. Due to elections in the Reichstag constituencies 1 and 14 on February 20, 1921 Frank moved on the reserve list in the selected actually in 1920 on March 7 of this year Reichstag one. However, he had already resigned his mandate on April 9, 1921, because local politics gave him too little time. His mandate was taken over by Alfred Grotjahn .

In the Weimar Republic , Frank made a name for himself in political trials against social democrats and communists. In 1924 he defended the former Saxon Prime Minister Erich Zeigner against accusations of destruction of files and corruption. However, he could not prevent Zeigner's conviction. He also attracted public attention in a trial of two doctors who had aborted pregnancies to help poor patients. Frank obtained pardons in the appeal proceedings. In other cases, Frank obtained acquittals. He was also the syndic of the train drivers' association.

Immediately after the start of National Socialist rule , Frank was arrested on March 28, 1933 in the jury court room. On April 2, he was released from “ protective custody ” in the Dortmund Steinwache . A short time later he was briefly arrested again. Frank was severely ill-treated while in custody.

In the meantime, as a Jew, he had lost his right of representation in court and with it his livelihood. At the end of April 1933, Frank informed the Prussian Ministry of Justice about this treatment. There is no precise information about his death. According to a report in a local newspaper, he is said to have poisoned himself in May 1933.

A stumbling block in front of the house at Hansastrasse 50 in Dortmund, the last address of his law firm, reminds Max Frank today .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Westfälische Allgemeine Volkszeitung of November 28, 1918.
  2. ^ Changes in the alphabetical index of the members of the Reichstag occurred during the first electoral period 1920/1924. In: Negotiations of the Reichstag. I. electoral period 1920. Volume 380, Berlin 1924, pp. 7953–7956, especially p. 7954 ( digitized version )

literature

  • Board of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (ed.): Committed to freedom. Memorial book of the German social democracy in the 20th century. Schüren, Marburg 2000, ISBN 3-89472-173-1 , p. 97.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Frank, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and social democratic politician
DATE OF BIRTH November 14, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamelin
DATE OF DEATH May 10, 1933
Place of death Berlin