Philipp Pless

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Philipp Pless (born March 16, 1906 in Frankfurt am Main ; † December 7, 1973 there ), also Philipp Pleß , was a socialist politician, trade unionist, journalist and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

In 1919, Pless joined the Free Socialist Youth (FSJ), from which the Communist Youth Association of Germany (KJVD) emerged in 1920 , to whose Hessian district leadership he belonged from 1922 to 1928. At the same time he completed an apprenticeship as a lathe operator at Collet and Engelhard in Offenbach and joined the German Metalworkers' Association (DMV). In 1927/28 he studied at the Frankfurt Academy of Labor (AdA). In the same year Pless joined the KPD , from which he was expelled as a " conciliator " after just under a year in November 1928 because of his criticism of the revolutionary trade union opposition of the Thälmann leadership . A little later he joined the Communist Party Opposition (KPO), which was in the process of being constituted , and took over its district leadership for Hessen together with Heinrich Galm and Alwin Heucke .

After the NSDAP came to power , Pless participated in the publication of the underground KPO monthly magazine Einheit in Frankfurt. He took over the management of the illegal KPO in the Frankfurt am Main region and then in southwest Germany. After being briefly arrested twice in 1933, Pless emigrated to Saarland in February 1934 , after the referendum there he fled to France in mid-January 1935. Here he was interned in the Catus camp from September 1939 to mid-July 1940 after the outbreak of World War II . After France was occupied by the Germans, all foreigners were sent back home. When the Germans also occupied the non-occupied France ( Vichy government ), Philipp Pless had to go into hiding. He was particularly at risk because he supported the French resistance movement. Under a false name he was active in the Prosper Battalion of the French Resistance .

In October 1945 Pless returned to Frankfurt, where he was one of the founding members of the German Union of Journalists and worked as a parliamentary reporter for the Coburger Neue Presse and the Fränkische Tagespost . Furthermore, since 1946 he was chairman of the Frankfurt local group and secretary of the Workers' Party (AP) around Heinrich Galm. After he had turned away from Marxism , Pless and his supporters left the AP in 1949. After trying u. a. in cooperation with Heinrich Brandler and other former KPO members to found an independent Marxist party, Pless and his supporters joined the SPD in 1952 . In the same year Pless also became a member of the editorial board of the DGB organ World of Work and chief press officer of the DGB Hessen.

In 1958, Pless was elected to the state parliament for the SPD, to which he belonged until his death in 1973, from 1966 he headed the social policy committee there. From 1967 to 1972 he was also a member of the federal executive board and Hessian state chairman of the DGB, and he was also active in the Easter march movement in the 1960s .

Honors

In 1971, Pless received the Wilhelm Leuschner Medal from Prime Minister Albert Osswald. In 1971, Pless rejected the Great Federal Cross of Merit, as many National Socialists (NSDAP) had received it. In 1973, Pless was awarded the plaque of honor by the city of Frankfurt am Main . The SPD in Frankfurt-Fechenheim has been awarding the Philipp Pless Prize since 1989.

Works

  • The will to act. Trade unions as a society-changing force. Speeches and essays . Berlin 1973

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Pless, Philipp
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pless, Philipp
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (KPD, SPD), MdL, trade unionist, journalist and resistance fighter against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH March 16, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH 7th December 1973
Place of death Frankfurt am Main