Paul Szillat

Paul Szillat (born October 30, 1888 in Charlottenburg , † January 17, 1958 in West Berlin ) was a German politician ( SPD ).

Szillat was a trained precision mechanic . In 1910 he joined the SPD. After the November Revolution of 1918/19 he was a community representative in Steglitz . In 1920 he came to Rathenow as managing director of the metal workers' association . In 1921 he was elected as a member of the district council and in 1924 as a city councilor, where he assumed the chairmanship of the parliamentary group.

From 1924 he sat in the Prussian state parliament , where he became parliamentary group leader of the SPD after the election on March 5, 1933. At the same time he was Lord Mayor of Brandenburg an der Havel in 1932/1933 .

In 1933 he was a member of the “ Löbe Board”. In June 1933 he was imprisoned by the National Socialists in the Oranienburg concentration camp . Released at the beginning of August 1933, he was henceforth under police supervision. His subsequent illegal activity went undetected. He lived in his house at Fritz-Perl-Straße 12 (Immanuel-Kant-Straße) and worked as the managing director of a company in Berlin-Tempelhof .

After the Second World War , he was appointed deputy district administrator in 1945 and from June (Arthur Neumann, KPD, hereinafter) the Soviet city commander as Lord Mayor of Rathenow (until June 21, 1950).

Paul Szillat supported the unification efforts of the KPD and SPD. As a delegate of the unification congress to the SED , he presented the report of the Statute Commission. He underlined the democratic process in the cooperation between SPD and KPD members in preparation for the party congress in the discussion of the party statute presented by the central leadership of both parties. He justified proposals for changes from the district conferences and district party conventions, which concerned the different organizational forms of the two previous parties, namely local associations (SPD) and company groups ( KPD ). Paul Szillat was elected to the SED party executive at the suggestion of the 20th party congress of the SPD . It was composed equally, and 20 of the 80 board members were from the western zones, from which 233 delegates came.

The conflicts in the SED broke out when the communist line to develop a " new type of party " was implemented from around 1948 onwards. The equal occupation of the functions was canceled. Former SPD members found themselves marginalized and under the general suspicion of “ social democracy ” or “reformists” - this was considered anti-party. All earlier supporters of Schumacher fell under this accusation, but ultimately also Paul Szillat, the supporter - and active agent as deputy chairman of the SPD district association Brandenburg - in the unification process, which upheld its social democratic traditions, since 1946 chairman of the central revision committee of the SED party executive and was a member of the Brandenburg state parliament .

At the beginning of June 1950, Szillat was confirmed that he was still doing good work in local politics, but his political attitude was criticized, "because he had not yet broken away from the old line of social democracy before 1933." The SED district executive in Rathenow ruled: "His development is complete and in line a comrade with strong tendencies towards social democracy. ” The political condemnation was carried out by the SED district delegate conference in Rathenow / Westhavelland on 24./25. July 1950 under the motto "Uncompromising criticism strengthens the party". The exclusion process has been initiated.

On August 27, 1950, Paul Szillat was arrested along with his son Hans and other local politicians for "serious economic offenses". The Brandenburg state parliament lifted the 62-year-old's immunity . At the beginning of November 1950 both were expelled from the SED "because of extensive political pest work, agent and sabotage activity or their support" (besides them nine other local politicians and economic functionaries). On November 13, 1951, Paul and Hans Szillat were sentenced to 8 and 4 years in prison, respectively . The trial was not open to the public, and the lead witness perjured that resulted in conviction. (The "witness" was later found by Paul Szillat's wife in Lübeck and convicted of perjury by the Hamburg district court in 1955. )

At the end of April 1956, President Wilhelm Pieck issued an amnesty, as a result of which Paul Szillat was released. He left the GDR and went to West Berlin, where he died almost a year and a half later, in January 1958.

In 1990 he and his son were rehabilitated by the Arbitration Commission of the Rathenower PDS District Board. Hans Szillat accepted the apology. The cassation of prison sentences in April 1992nd

Paul Szillat was one of those members who provided the (West) Berlin SPD with information about the actual conditions in the Soviet occupation zone .

During the popular uprising on June 17, 1953 , demonstrations were held in Rathenow for the politician who is still popular there with slogans such as “Freedom for Paul Szillat”.

literature

• Beatrix Bouvier :  Szillat, Paul . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Verein Aktives Museum eV (ed.), Put in front of the door , Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-00-018931-9 , page 355 f.
• 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. 322 f.

Single receipts

1. ↑ Berlin election 1946 ( Memento of the original from June 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: SPD-Berlin-portal → Article: An alley for freedom, that's how Berlin chose! Section: From the Soviet Zone: Social Democrats bring the truth to light. special: list of names
2. ↑ The uprising in the Rathenow district - message 10.55 a.m. ( Memento of the original of September 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. From: The Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former GDR → MfS / GDR history