Paul Junke

Paul Junke

Paul Junke (born May 12, 1886 in Braunschweig , † January 6, 1945 in Basel ) was a German politician (SPD; USPD).

Live and act

Paul Junke came from a Protestant working class family from Braunschweig. He later gave up his Protestant faith and became a non-denominator. After attending elementary school in his hometown, Junke completed an apprenticeship as a locksmith and lathe operator. He married in 1907 and sometime before the First World War he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In 1917 Junke switched to the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD), to which he belonged until 1920 or 1921. He switched back to the SPD in September 1922 and held numerous functionary posts for it until the 1930s.

He became party secretary of the SPD group in the Free State of Braunschweig and later a member of the Braunschweig district executive. In 1919/1920 he was an unpaid city councilor in his home country. From 1920 Junke belonged to the USPD, or after his return to the SPD for this, the Brunswick state parliament . His activity there lasted until 1924. Afterwards Junke sat for eight years as a member of the SPD in the Berlin Reichstag from 1924 to 1932 . There he represented constituency 16 (Südhannover-Braunschweig).

In 1933, Junke saw himself unable to resist the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists . His fears of the threat of illegality and of counter-actions by the regime, which prompted him, in his capacity as Braunschweig district secretary, to give his party the instruction: "No special actions (strikes, unification with communists), otherwise with a ban on the unions, have been passed down is to be expected; Reorganization of our organization; as the press is expected to be banned, keep in touch with readers and keep close contact with the Iron Front ; the connection with communists (in elections) is to be rejected. "

In 1933 Paul Junke emigrated to Luxembourg , where he became involved with the SPD abroad ( Sopade ). In 1938 he was expatriated from Germany. In 1940 he fled to France before the German invasion of Luxembourg. After the Wehrmacht had conquered France, he was interned there until 1942. In 1943 Junke managed to travel to Switzerland. There he died in the spring of 1945 after a long illness.

literature

• Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Günter Scheel (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 19th and 20th centuries . Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1996, ISBN 3-7752-5838-8 , p. 309 .
• Martin Schumacher (Hrsg.): MdR The Reichstag members of the Weimar Republic in the time of National Socialism. Political persecution, emigration and expatriation, 1933–1945. A biographical documentation . 3rd, considerably expanded and revised edition. Droste, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-7700-5183-1 .

Web links

• Paul Junke in the database of members of the Reichstag
• Paul Junke's biography . In: Heinrich Best and Wilhelm H. Schröder : Database of Members of the National Assembly and the German Reichstag 1919–1933 (Biorab – Weimar)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} biography of Paul Junke . In: Wilhelm H. Schröder : Social Democratic Parliamentarians in the German Reich and Landtag 1876–1933 (BIOSOP)
2. ↑ Hitler is coming. In: Searching for Nazi traces in the state of Braunschweig