Max Westphal

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Max Westphal (born September 30, 1895 in Hamburg , † December 28, 1942 in Berlin ) was a social democratic politician. In the Weimar Republic he was chairman of the Socialist Workers' Youth for many years . After that he was a member of the party executive. He played an important role in 1933 in the conflict between the rump executive committee in the Reich and the exile executive committee of the SPD.

Early years

Westphal's father was a dock worker. After graduating from elementary school, Westphal joined a social democratic youth group in 1910. He became an office messenger and was later a commercial clerk at the Hamburg branch of the Benz & Cie automobile company until 1915. In the First World War , Westphal lost an arm in the summer battle . He was dismissed from the military in 1917 as a severely disabled person. He volunteered for some social democratic papers. After the war he married Alice Düsedau. One son was the later Federal Minister for Labor and Social Affairs Heinz Westphal . Between December 1918 and March 1919 Westphal was an employee of the employment record for young people at the employment office in Hamburg.

Socialist youth movement

Stumbling block at Paradestrasse 22 in Berlin-Tempelhof

Between 1919 and 1921 he was the SPD's youth secretary for Hamburg. In addition, from 1920 to 1921 he was an honorary member of the main board of the Association of Young Workers' Associations . On August 1, 1921, Westphal was elected chairman. After the transformation into the SAJ in 1922, Westphal became the full-time first chairman of the SAJ. He held this position until 1927, after which Erich Ollenhauer took over the chairmanship in 1928.

His work followed the principle of remaining as closely linked to the party as possible, but also being as independent as necessary to assert the specific interests of the younger generation. He turned against the romantic glorification of youngness as well as against left-wing socialist currents. However, he had to take into account the left wing, strengthened by the union with the USPD youth, and chose the tactic of a balancing compromise. Like his successor Erich Ollenhauer, Westphal attached great importance to international networking of socialist youth work. His “Handbook for Socialist Youth Work” became authoritative for numerous European youth associations.

Westphal represented the interests of young people in the party in the party committee and executive committee since 1922. Westphal tried to mediate in the dispute between the more right wing Hofgeismar group of young socialists and the Marxist Hanoverian group. As editor of the “Young Socialist Papers” he also opened the paper to the left, even if he was supported by the Hofgeismarers himself. Both camps met at the Reich Conference of the Young Socialists in 1925. The left partially prevailed and Westphal was deposed as editor .

Opponents of left currents in the party

From 1927 to 1933 Westphal was part of the party executive as party secretary. There, too, he was initially responsible for the youth. Later his focus was on organizational issues. At the Kassel party congress of 1930, which ended support for the young socialists who had moved to the left, Westphal also turned against the Cologne magazine “Der Rote Kämper”. This paper had become a mouthpiece for the left communists who had joined the SPD in 1925. For Westphal, Der Rote Kämmer was an “openly anti-party company” that split the party. He was similarly critical of the “class struggle groups” which, with their “Marxist book community”, had intensified criticism of the party. Westphal's presentation at the party congress had the goal of signaling to the radical left in its own ranks that the party leadership would not avoid a dispute. In 1933 Westphal was elected to the Prussian state parliament. There he was next to Wilhelm Winzer and Paul Szillat chairman of the SPD parliamentary group.

Dispute between exile and rump board

Westphal did not emigrate at the beginning of the National Socialist rule . Rather, he should be the liaison between the remaining board in Berlin and the board in exile. On May 21, 1933, the exile board in Saarbrücken , at whose meeting Westphal also took part, decided that he should make “preparations for the new forms of political work in Germany”. The party executive in Berlin and the SPD parliamentary groups in the Reichstag and in the Prussian state parliament did not initially take the step into illegality called for by Westphal. Westphal and others tried at times to mediate successfully between the two sides.

When the Prague executive in exile announced on June 2 that the party leadership was now based in Prague, the remaining executive in Berlin immediately protested and continued to claim leadership. Westphal fully followed this position, mainly represented by Paul Löbe , but demanded the establishment of illegal structures. Speaking to the Reichstag faction on June 10, 1933, as a reporter for the party executive, he stated that the immense movement of fascism could never be shaken by small groups of the party abroad. “ A proclamation means nothing more than a blow in the air, which then becomes a real blow against our little functionary. [...] A right to reject the proposals of the party executive from outside arises only if the functionaries remaining in the country, but above all the elected officials, have all the legal possibilities for creating an illegal apparatus - which are not yet sufficient Dimensions are there and work - take advantage of it. Work at home is much more important than work abroad, at least up to the hour. The procedure proposed in Prague must therefore be considered to be absolutely wrong tactically. (Loud approval) It would only give the government the option of re-rolling the roller against the Marxists, and with great success. The party executive must at least stay in Germany. "

After further debates, the parliamentary group followed with a large majority. Further attempts to come to an agreement failed. The Reich Conference of the Inland SPD on June 19, 1933 confirmed this position. A six-person, purely “Aryan” board of directors was elected. Westphal also belonged to this. The new leadership hardly had time to start their work. On June 22, 1933, the National Socialists banned the SPD.

Political persecution

Westphal was one of the first leading Social Democratic officials to be arrested on the same day. He was imprisoned for several months. The family ran a small coffee shop under the name of his wife. Westphal took over a death fund. This enabled him to keep in touch with fellow party members and to support the politically persecuted. In 1936 he was temporarily taken into political custody. In 1938 there was initially a pre-trial detention, which he served partly in Moabit prison and partly in Sachsenhausen concentration camp . In 1939 he was charged with “preparing to commit high treason ” before the Supreme Court . The process ended in an acquittal.

Death and afterlife

Westphal died of the serious health consequences of his imprisonment in 1942. More than a thousand people from the workers' and youth movement attended his funeral on January 2, 1943. His grave was originally located in the Tempelhof cemetery in Germaniastraße, but this later had to give way to the construction of a motorway and the grave was moved to Hamburg-Ohlsdorf .

In 1978 the SAJ honored the former chairman by naming the federal headquarters in Bonn “Max-Westphal-Haus”.

The initiative stumbling blocks to the B96 laid 2009 stumbling block in front of the former home of Max Westphal in the parade Straße 22 in Berlin-Tempelhof .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franz Osteroth: Chronicle of the German Social Democracy. Volume 2: From the beginning of the Weimar Republic to the end of the Second World War. Berlin and Bonn 1975, p. 86
  2. ↑ Winkler: appearance of normality. P. 362
  3. ↑ Winkler: appearance of normality. P. 371f.
  4. ↑ Winkler: Way into the disaster. Pp. 332-334
  5. ↑ cit. according to Winkler: way to catastrophe. P. 941
  6. ↑ Winkler: Way into the disaster. Pp. 939-943
  7. ↑ Winkler: Way into the disaster. P. 945
  8. ↑ Short biography of the German Resistance Memorial Center
  9. ↑ Stumbling blocks on the B 96 (PDF).

literature

  • Heinrich August Winkler: The appearance of normality. Workers and the labor movement in the Weimar Republic 1924 to 1930 . Berlin and Bonn 1985, ISBN 3-8012-0094-9
  • Heinrich August Winkler: The way to catastrophe. Workers and labor movement in the Weimar Republic 1930 to 1933. Verlag Dietz JHW Nachf., Bonn 1990, ISBN 3-8012-0095-7 .
  • Social Democratic Party of Germany (ed.): Committed to freedom. Memorial book of the German social democracy in the 20th century . Marburg 2000, p. 347f.
  • Max Westphal . In: Franz Osterroth : Biographical Lexicon of Socialism . Volume 1: Deceased Personalities. Verlag JHW Dietz Nachf. GmbH, Hanover 1960, pp. 332-333.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Westphal, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD), MdL
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH December 28, 1942
Place of death Berlin