Richard Stafford Cripps

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Sir Richard Stafford Cripps

Sir Richard Stafford Cripps (born April 24, 1889 in London , † April 23, 1952 in Zurich ) was a British lawyer and politician ( Labor Party ).

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Early years (1889 to 1919)

Cripps' father, Charles Alfred Cripps, was a member of the Conservative Party's House of Commons , who joined the Labor Party as an old man and ennobled to Baron Parmoor in 1914 . The son was brought up in a private school. He later attended University College in London.

Cripps finally gave up the scientific career in favor of the legal profession and embarked on a career as a lawyer . From 1912 he worked as a barrister . During the First World War he was used as a medic for the Red Cross in France .

Life Between the Wars (1919-1939)

After the war, Cripps joined the Labor Party. In 1930 he became Second Crown Attorney , and in 1931 he was elected in a by-election as a member of the Lower House for the constituency of Bristol East, which he represented until his retirement in 1950. In 1931 he was appointed Solicitor General in the second Labor government in British history. The appointment to this office was traditionally connected with the elevation to the knighthood, so that from then on he could call himself "Sir" Stafford Cripps.

In the following years, Cripps moved further and further politically to the left and developed into a staunch socialist , although his deep-rooted belief in evangelical Christianity prevented him from becoming a supporter of atheistic Marxism . After the general election of 1931, Cripps rose to be the third man in the Labor Party after its chairman George Lansbury and his deputy Clement Attlee .

In 1932, Cripps founded the Socialist League , a group consisting mostly of members of the Independent Labor Party (ILP) who opposed the ILP's decision to break away from the Labor Party. The Socialist League advocated a matter-of-fact, sober form of democratic socialism ( austerity ).

Tall, thin and with a strong personal presence, Cripps was considered the archetype of the intellectual British upper class socialist in the 1930s . His dignified appearance and his ascetic lifestyle (Cripps was an anti-alcoholic and a vegetarian ) made him one of the most popular objects of the political cartoonists of his time.

Cripps advocated the formation of a united front against the growing threat of fascism early on . In 1936 he emerged as a driving force in initiating a unity campaign aimed at bringing together the British left - above all the Socialist League, the ILP and the Communist Party of Great Britain - in a unified list in the general election. The unity campaign failed, however, due to resistance from the Labor Party leadership. In 1937, Cripps was forced to dissolve the Socialist League to prevent his expulsion from the Labor Party. Instead, Cripps was appointed executive director of the Labor Party in 1937 .

Two years later, however , he was expelled from the party due to his advocacy of a popular front, that is, a merger of all left-wing parties including the communists and opponents of appeasement in the ranks of the liberals and the conservatives against National Socialist Germany.

Second World War (1940 to 1945)

In 1940 Winston Churchill appointed Cripps British Ambassador to the Soviet Union in the hopes that a leftist socialist would be the most suitable negotiating partner for a communist dictator like Stalin that Britain could muster. When the German Empire invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Cripps became a key figure in forging the alliance of the Western powers with the Soviet Union.

In 1942 Cripps returned to Great Britain, where he took over the office of Lord Seal Keeper and became a member of the War Cabinet. In addition, he was named Leader of the House of Commons . Due to a BBC broadcast in which he impressively described the Soviet war effort to the audience, Cripps quickly became one of the most popular politicians in his country. A replacement of Churchill by Cripps as prime minister, which was demanded and increasingly likely by many politicians and journalists in 1942 due to the difficult war situation for Great Britain (defeats against Erwin Rommel in North Africa, defeats in the theater of war in the Pacific, etc.), finally did not materialize because it Churchill succeeded in persuading his opponent to show restraint for the time being and the situation improved so much over this "grace period" for Churchill that the envisaged "parliamentary blow" against the prime minister lost its justification and had to be rejected as hopeless.

From late 1942 to July 1945, Cripps was Minister for Aircraft Design . In 1942/43 he negotiated with the Indian national movement on behalf of the British government: In return for further cooperation with Great Britain during the war, he announced the release of India to the leader of the Indian Congress Party Gandhi and the representative of the Muslim League Ali Jinnah Dominion status after Japan's defeat, which resulted in independence right after the end of the war. The Indian national movement refused, with the exception of the former freedom fighter Aurobindo , who welcomed the proposal in a message to Cripps as an opportunity "offered to India to determine its freedom and unity, to organize and unite with complete freedom of choice to occupy a significant place among the free nations of the world ”. Aurobindo sent a confidante to Delhi to change the country's political leaders, but was not heard. The so-called Cripps' Mission had failed with regard to its original objective, but it had at least contributed to a temporary calming of the situation on the Indian subcontinent.

Last years (1945 to 1952)

In 1945, Cripps rejoined the Labor Party. After his party's victory in the general election of 1945, Clement appointed Attlee Cripps as Minister of Trade (President of the Board of Trade) . In the desperate economic situation of Great Britain in the post-war period, Cripps returned to his policy of "austerity" and enforced strict rationing against all classes of society.

In 1946 Cripps returned to India as a member of the cabinet mission, which submitted various proposals to the Indian representatives for the realization of Indian independence. In addition to Cripps, Lord Pethick-Lawrence ( Secretary of State for India ) and Albert Victor Alexander ( First Lord of the Admiralty ) belonged to the ministerial delegation. However, the partition of India did not prevent the cabinet mission.

In 1947 Cripps served briefly as Minister for Economic Affairs (Minister for Economic Affairs) , a new office created especially for him, but changed to the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer after just a few weeks after Hugh Dalton had resigned. In an effort to overcome Britain's wartime economic crisis and restore his country to its previous position in the world market, he intended to improve the situation through strong foreign trade . To this end, Cripps raised taxes and forced a reduction in domestic consumption in order to increase the export quota and stabilize the pound as a currency. He also initiated the nationalization of the most important industrial and service companies, such as coal and steel.

In October 1950, Cripps was forced to give up his office as Chancellor of the Exchequer for health reasons. He died in Switzerland one day before his 63rd birthday during clinical treatment for spinal tuberculosis .

Evaluation by contemporaries and posterity

For Winston Churchill, Stafford Cripps was a serious and respected political competitor. After the two had fought against each other politically for decades, they came together in opposition to National Socialism due to the civil peace policy of the British parties agreed for the duration of the Second World War . During the years of their collaboration, the connoisseur Churchill was particularly alienated by the ascetic lifestyle of Cripps: During a visit to the North African theater of war, Churchill scoffed: “For miles, nothing but sand - not a blade of grass, not a drop of water or a flower. Cripps would love it here. ”Cripps' decision to quit smoking prompted Churchill to joke that he had now broken the last bridge to humanity (“ The cigar was his last contact with humanity ”).

Adolf Hitler saw in Cripps, next to Churchill, the leading man in Great Britain during the Second World War. According to the report of an eyewitness, the German dictator said in March 1942 before an evening round table: "One thing is unmistakable that with Cripps England has received a second leading statesman who cannot be overlooked and whose influence is still noticeable." Compared with Churchill, he considers Cripps to be a more dangerous opponent, according to Hitler: A "characterless pig like Churchill who is drunk 30 percent of the time of the day" is "a hundred times better than Cripps". Because "from a man like Churchill, who naturally wears out due to his age, his heavy smoking and his heavy drinking, is not to be feared so much as from a typically intellectual salon Bolshevik like Cripps". In addition, it is quite conceivable with Churchill that he "realizes in a bright moment that the Empire will irretrievably fall apart if the war is carried on for another 2 to 3 years". Cripps as a "lying, completely rootless demagogue would never come to the conclusion that it is no longer possible if the Empire cracks in all joints."

Awards and honors

1948 Cripps was elected as a member (" Fellow ") in the Royal Society .

family

Cripps was married to Isobel Swithenbank Cripps. The marriage resulted in four children. The oldest is John, the other children are Diana, Therese and Peggy (* 1921). Peggy Cripps is the youngest daughter and was married to the Ghanaian politician Joe Appiah . From this marriage comes Kwame Anthony Appiah , Cripps' eldest grandson of his youngest daughter. In addition to Anthony, Cripps has three other granddaughters from his daughter Peggy, Ama, Adwoa and Abena.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Farewell to Stafford Cripps . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna April 23, 1952, p. 1 , column 4 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  2. ↑ Sri Aurobindo: About yourself. Gladenbach 1994, pp. 337/338
  3. ^ William Manchester: The Last Lion. 1984, p. 34. In the original: “Here we are, marooned in all these miles of sand - not one blade of grass or drop of water or a flower. How Cripps would love it. ”.
  4. ↑ Monologues in the Führer Headquarters. 152. Monologue of March 27, 1942.
personal data
SURNAME Cripps, Richard Stafford
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British lawyer and politician (Labor Party), member of the House of Commons
DATE OF BIRTH April 24, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 1952
Place of death Zurich