Paul Singer (politician)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paul Singer, photograph before 1907

Paul Singer (born January 16, 1844 in Berlin ; died January 31, 1911 there ) was a German manufacturer, co-founder and chairman of the SPD and a member of the Reichstag .

Life

SPD party executive in 1909. Back row: Luise Zietz , Friedrich Ebert , Hermann Müller , Robert Wengels . Front row: Alwin Gerisch , Paul Singer, August Bebel , Wilhelm Pfannkuch , Hermann Molkenbuhr
Singer (back row, fifth from left) as a member of the socialist parliamentary group from 1889. (seated: from left: Georg Schumacher , Friedrich Harm , August Bebel , Heinrich Meister , Karl Frohme . Standing: Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Dietz , August Kühn , Wilhelm Liebknecht , Karl Grillenberger , Paul Singer )

Paul Singer was born as the ninth child of the Jewish businessman Jacob Singer (* 1800; † December 21, 1848) and Caroline b. Levy (around 1803–1867) was born at Behrenstrasse 48 in Berlin and attended the “Königliche Realschule” in Berlin from 1851 to 1858. He grew up in poor circumstances because his father died early. He then completed a commercial apprenticeship in his hometown. Until 1869, Singer worked as a clerk in Berlin. From 1869 to 1887, together with his brother Heinrich Singer (1841–1920), he owned the "Singer Brothers Ladies Coats Factory", since 1887 a private owner .

Politically, Singer came from the bourgeois democratic movement. He had been a member of the German Progressive Party since 1862 and, under the influence of Johann Jacoby, developed into a radical democrat. This group included Guido Weiß , George Friedländer, Paul Langerhans , Franz Mehring , Ludwig Devereux, William Spindler and Ludwig Löwe . In 1868 he came into contact with August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht . In the same year he became a co-founder of the Democratic Workers 'Association and a member of the Berlin Workers' Association . Together with Wilhelm Eichhoff and Carl Hirsch , he advocated the acceptance of the program of the International Workers' Association . A year later he joined the SDAP . Until 1878, however, he did not appear politically in public because he fell ill with tuberculosis and was sent to the Riviera for a cure and had to take care of the "Singer Brothers Ladies Coats Factory". Singer has been organizing solidarity campaigns since the Socialist Law was passed . He was one of those who maintained contact between the party leadership in Germany and Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in London . After an unsuccessful house search, Singer was placed under constant surveillance by the political police in 1879. Nonetheless, he was one of the party's most important donors in the following decades. In 1879, Singer co-founded the newspaper Der Sozialdemokrat . In 1884 he founded and financed the Berliner Volksblatt and was its editor with Wilhelm Blos . After the Socialist Law expired in 1891, this newspaper was the basis for the re-establishment of Vorwärts , the central organ of the SPD. In the following years he was financially involved in the founding of numerous clubs and associations related to the labor movement. Despite anti-Semitic campaigns, Singer was first elected Berlin city councilor in 1884 . From 1887 until his death he remained chairman of the social democratic group of city councilors. There he made a name for himself as an administrative specialist. He was also a member of the Reichstag from 1884 until his death . As early as 1885 he was a member of the parliamentary committee and since 1890 chairman of the parliamentary group.

Despite his mandate, Singer was expelled from Berlin on June 29, 1886 and a year later from Offenbach . This led to a protest rally by supporters of the forbidden party. Singer lived in Dresden until his return to Berlin in 1890 . Since 1887 he was a member of the party executive committee and from 1890 first together with Alwin Gerisch and from 1892 together with August Bebel chairman of the SPD. In addition, from 1890 to 1909, with the exception of 1901, he headed the annual social democratic party conferences. During the revisionism dispute in 1898, Singer turned against Eduard Bernstein's ideas , but at the same time spoke out against his exclusion from the party. Alongside August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht, Singer was undoubtedly one of the most important leaders of German social democracy in its ascent phase.

In addition to his work for the labor movement, for whose party he as a Jew was also an important figure in the fight against anti-Semitism , Singer was also in the field of social policy, through his work in the Berlin Asylum Association for the homeless and through his work in the Jewish community in Berlin extremely popular.

Singer's tomb in the Friedrichsfelde central cemetery (in the memorial of the socialists )

Paul Singer died unmarried in Berlin on January 31, 1911. His funeral on February 5, 1911, attended by almost a million people, became the largest funeral march Berlin has ever seen. He was buried in the central cemetery in Friedrichsfelde . The tomb, based on designs by Ludwig Hoffmann and with a portrait medallion by Constantin Starck , was erected in 1913.

In 1926, the Green Way in Berlin-Friedrichshain was renamed Paul-Singer-Straße . In 1933 this street was named Brauner Weg , which was changed to Singerstraße on July 31, 1947 .

In 1995 the Paul Singer association was established in Berlin-Friedrichshain . V. , who sees himself in memory of Singer's social projects.

Works

  • Party comrades! Leaflet 1886
  • To the city council elections . In: Berliner Volksblatt September 8, 1887.
  • Explanation. Workers of Berlin! Party comrades! In: Berliner Volksblatt November 26, 1887. Supplement
  • To Bebel's proposal . In: The new time . Review of intellectual and public life . 16.1897-98, 1st volume (1898), issue 11, pp. 324-329 digitized
  • August Bebel, Paul Singer: Law on disability and old age insurance . JHW Dietz Nachf., Stuttgart 1889
  • Report on the parliamentary activities of the Social Democratic group in the Reichstag: November 14, 1899 to June 12, 1900. Repaid by Paul Singer . Vorwärts bookstore, Berlin, 1900
  • "The fight for justice". A speech on the question of the “Commercial Arbitration Courts” held at a public meeting in Berlin convened by the Central Association of Commercial Arbitrators and the Central Association of Commercial Laborers on February 10, 1902 with an appendix: On the history of the “Commercial Arbitration Courts” . Meyer, Hamburg-Eilbek 1902
  • Social democracy in the community . In: New World Calendar for 1902 . Auer, Hamburg 1902, p. 34
  • Woe to the victors . In: The new time. Weekly of the German Social Democracy . 21.1902-1903, 1st volume (1903), issue 12, pp. 357-360 digitized
  • The Prussian Party Congress . In: The new time. Weekly of the German Social Democracy . - 26.1907-1908, 1st volume (1908), issue 7, pp. 212-216 digitized
  • The imperial constitution and the financial reform . In: The Culture Parliament . Vita, Berlin-Charlottenburg 1909, 1, pp. 58-65

literature

  • Paul Singer. In: The new time. Weekly of the German Social Democracy. 29.1910-1911, Volume 1 (1911), Issue 19, pp. 649-652. Digitized
  • August Bebel: Memories of Paul Singer. In: Vorwärts , Berlin February 7, 1911
  • Eduard Bernstein : In memory of Paul Singer. In: The real Jacob . No. 641, 1911, pp. 6961-6964. Digitized
  • Max Schippel : Paul Singer. In: Socialist monthly books . 15 = 17 (1911), issue 3 of February 9, 1911, pp. 159-162. Digitized
  • Lenin : Paul Singer. In: VI Lenin. Works. Volume 17. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1962, pp. 76-79. English version
  • Victor Adler . Correspondence with August Bebel and Karl Kautsky as well as letters from and to Ignaz Auer , Eduard Bernstein, Adolf Braun , Heinrich Dietz , Friedrich Ebert , Wilhelm Liebknecht, Hermann Müller and Paul Singer. Collected and redeemed by Friedrich Adler . Ed. By the party executive d. Socialist Party of Austria. Verlag der Wiener Volksbuchhandlung, Vienna 1954.
  • Heinrich Gemkow : Paul Singer - an important leader of the German labor movement. With a selection from his speeches and writings. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1957 ( contributions to the history and theory of the labor movement, issue 17).
  • Heinrich Gemkow: Paul Singer. From bourgeois democrat to leader of the German labor movement (1862-1890). (Phil. Diss. Humboldt University Berlin 1959, mschr.)
  • Paul Singer. In: Franz Osterroth : Biographical Lexicon of Socialism . Volume 1: Deceased Personalities. Verlag JHW Dietz Nachf. GmbH, Hanover 1960, pp. 291-292.
  • Heinrich Gemkow: big bourgeoisie and exemplary social democrat. In: Contributions to the history of the labor movement. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1969, pp. 106-113.
  • W. Henze: Paul Singer in combat with August Bebel at the head of the revolutionary social democracy. In: Contributions to the history of the labor movement. 32 vol., Berlin 1990, pp. 26-36.
  • Ursula Reuter: Singer, Paul. In: Democratic Ways. German résumés from five centuries. Edited by Manfred Asendorf and Rolf von Bockel. JB Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 1992 ISBN 3-476-01244-1 , pp. 603-605.
  • L. Demps: Paul Singer, Social Utopia, Judaism and the Labor Movement. In: Ludger Heid , Arnold Paucker (eds.): Jews and German workers' movement until 1933. Tübingen 1992, pp. 103-114.
  • Arno Herzig : Singer, Paul. In: Julius Hans Schoeps (Ed.): New Lexicon of Judaism. Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 1992, ISBN 3-570-09877-X , p. 425.
  • Sieglinde Heppener : As long as I have enough strength, you will find me at the post. Paul Singer, Jewish entrepreneur, social democratic politician and publisher, on his 150th birthday. On behalf of the Historical Commission at the Berlin Regional Executive of the SPD. Berlin 1995.
  • Wilhelm Heinz Schröder : Social Democratic Parliamentarians in the German Reich and Landtag 1867-1933. Biographies, chronicles, election documentation. A handbook (= handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Volume 7). Droste, Düsseldorf 1995, ISBN 3-7700-5192-0 , p. 706.
  • Heinrich Gemkow: Paul Singer and Friedrich Engels. About growing a friendship. In: Contributions to the history of the labor movement. 38th year March 1996. 3K-Verlag Köschling, Berlin 1996, pp. 3-13.
  • Ursula Reuter: Paul Singer (1844-1911). A political biography. Droste, Düsseldorf 2004 ISBN 3-7700-5257-9 ( contributions to the history of parliamentarism and political parties 138)
  • Heinz Marohn: Paul Singer. Member of the Reichstag - elected in Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg . Berlin 2006 ( Friedrichshainer Hefte )
  • Ursuĺa Reuter:  Singer, Paul. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , p. 463 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Werner Ruch: Paul Singer. A Berliner in memory. History Commission Die Linke, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Berlin 2011.

Web links

Commons : Paul Singer (politician)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 150 years of the SPD, forward extra 2/2013, p. 75
  2. ^ According to the Berlin address books, the factory was located at "Kommandantenstr. 84 ".
  3. ^ Heinrich Gemkow: Singer, Paul . In: Biographical Lexicon on German History. from the beginning until 1917 . Edited by Karl Obermann u. a. Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1967, p. 443.
  4. ^ Heinrich Gemkow, Paul Singer (1957), p. 7.
  5. ^ Heinrich Gemkow: Singer, Paul . In: History of the German labor movement. Biographisches Lexikon , Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1970, pp. 43-433 here p. 432.
  6. ↑ August Bebel: Memories of Paul Singer .
  7. ^ Joachim Hoffmann : Berlin-Friedrichsfelde. A German national cemetery. Cultural history guide . Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 2001 ISBN 3-360-00959-2 , pp. 44–47.
  8. ^ Paul-Singer-Strasse . In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein
  9. ↑ Sieglinde Heppener: As long as I have enough strength, you will find me at the post. Paul Singer, Jewish entrepreneur, social democratic politician and publisher, on his 150th birthday .
  10. ^ Paul Singer Association : Paul Singer Association, Berlin-Friedrichshain.
  11. ^ Eduard Bernstein: The history of the Berlin workers' movement. Part two . Buchhandlung Vorwärts, Berlin 1907, p. 175 and Heinrich Gemkow: Paul Singer (1957), pp. 73–74.
  12. ^ Heinrich Gemkow: Paul Singer (1957), pp. 79-83.
  13. ^ Heinrich Gemkow: Paul Singer (1957), pp. 73-78.
  14. ^ Heinrich Gemkow: Paul Singer (1957), pp. 147-148.
  15. ↑ August Bebel. Selected speeches and writings. Volume 8/1. Saur, Munich 1997, pp. 491-497.
personal data
SURNAME Singer, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German manufacturer and politician (SPD), SPD co-founder, chairman and MdR
DATE OF BIRTH January 16, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 1911
Place of death Berlin