Salomon Grumbach

Salomon Grumbach (1929)

Salomon Grumbach (born January 6, 1884 in Hattstatt , Alsace , German Empire , † July 13, 1952 in Neuilly-sur-Seine , France ) was an Alsatian politician and journalist. Grumbach was German until 1918, when he chose French citizenship. As a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), he took the view during the First World War that Germany was waging a war of annexation . In doing so, he increasingly distanced himself from the SPD's civil peace policy and, after 1918, became a member of the Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière (SFIO) party. He particularly strove to improve Franco-German relations . In France, he held a number of political offices at local and national levels.

Political engagement up to the First World War

Political and cultural imprint

Grumbach came from a Jewish family . He grew up as the son of a cheese merchant and a cleaner ( milliner and tailor) in modest circumstances. His childhood was marked by literary education. The French and German cultures were on an equal footing, as were the languages ​​of these two countries. Already in his youth he made contact with a group of artists and writers that called itself Young Alsace and published the magazine Die Stürmer . This circle saw itself as a mediator between Germany and France and strived for a spiritual and cultural renewal, a "spiritual Alsatianism" that should point beyond regional and national boundaries and open up European and universal perspectives. This group of people included Otto Flake , René Schickele , Ernst Stadler , Hermann Wendel , Bernd Isemann and René Prévot . In 1904 this group, which had a decisive influence on Grumbach's political thinking, disbanded. Some of its members - Grumbach, Flake and Wendel - joined the SPD.

Socialist editor

From 1904 to 1907 Grumbach worked as editor of the Volksstimme , the social democratic newspaper in Frankfurt am Main . He published articles on the political situation in the realm of Alsace-Lorraine , on the domestic politics of the German Empire and on the French and Austrian labor movements . He also wrote articles for the features section . Another area of ​​responsibility Grumbach in the social democratic labor movement in Frankfurt was his work in the Frankfurt workers' education committee, for which he qualified in particular his literary history education.

In July 1907, Grumbach left the editorial staff of the Volksstimme . In the following period he commuted between Berlin , Strasbourg and Paris . In the French capital he worked for the socialist newspaper L'Humanité until 1923 and contributed to the social democratic central organ Vorwärts and the Alsatian newspaper Freie Presse . He also acted as secretary of a socialist reading club. During this time, Grumbach maintained good contacts with leading French socialists such as Jean Jaurès , Marcel Sembat and Albert Thomas . In the years from 1907 to the beginning of the First World War , Grumbach continued to criticize the Germanization policy in Alsace-Lorraine. He was also critical of the growing danger of war and the militarism that was openly expressed in the Zabern affair at the end of 1913 . Grumbach was one of those who called for a republican constitution for Alsace-Lorraine in the monarchist German Empire . He welcomed the 1911 constitution as a step in the right direction.

Reporting and Politics in the First World War

Shortly before the outbreak of World War I, Grumbach settled in Switzerland and worked there as a correspondent for L'Humanité. In the face of the split in the international labor movement, Grumbach went over to the French side. His relationship with the SPD cooled noticeably. In contrast to the majority of the German Social Democrats, he assumed that the German Reich was waging a war of aggression . He also called for the right of self-determination for Alsace-Lorraine . In addition, in 1917 he published a collection of texts and documents that provided information about the German plans for war aims . During the war years, Grumbach kept in touch with the growing minority of the German Social Democrats, who rejected the SPD's truce policy. He tried to get them around the table with the French socialists.

Politics in the Interwar Period

Promotion in the SFIO

Grumbach, who had taken French citizenship in 1918 and became a member of the SFIO, belonged within his party to the minority of opponents of international cooperation with communist parties. The majority founded the Parti communiste français in 1920 , which joined the Comintern . Grumbach rose to leadership positions in the SFIO and became a member of the party's administrative politique commission . Within the SFIO he belonged to the right wing of the party. In the face of fundamental dangers to the existence of republican conditions, however, he advocated a unification of all parties who spoke out in favor of the preservation of the republic and against authoritarian forms of government.

Elected officials

In the canton of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines , Grumbach was elected to the General Council (Conseiller général) in 1919 , i.e. the administrative head of this administrative unit. In 1919 and 1924 he failed in the elections to the French National Assembly , and it was not until 1928 that a corresponding candidacy in the second ballot was successful. Parliament elected Grumbach Vice-President of the Foreign Affairs Commission and France's technical advisor to the League of Nations . He was also a member of the Commission for Alsace-Lorraine and the Commission for Mining and Energy. In 1932 Grumbach lost his seat in the National Assembly. At the end of April 1936 he won him back, this time as a member of the Castres delegation in the Tarn department in southern France .

Participants in international conferences

After the end of the First World War, Grumbach stuck to his mediating role between Germany and France. For example, in the spring of 1921 he took part in a conference in Amsterdam that criticized the provisions of the Versailles Treaty and at the same time reprimanded Germany for not presenting a plan to repair the war damage. Participants in this conference were delegates from the French Socialists, the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and the British Independent Labor Party . In January 1922 Grumbach spoke at an international rally in Berlin, a month later he took part in a meeting of the International Working Group of Socialist Parties in Frankfurt am Main , which was devoted to questions of demilitarization and reparations . As a French guest speaker at the Leipzig party congress of social democracy in 1931, Grumbach passionately advocated Franco-German understanding. In 1924 he accompanied Édouard Herriot to London, where the Dawes Plan to regulate the German reparations after the First World War was negotiated. In the following year he accompanied Aristide Briand to the conference in Locarno , which served to draw up the Locarno Treaties .

Escape helper and interpreter of Franco-German politics

After the seizure of the Nazi Party on 30 January 1933 succeeded Grumbach to help a number of Germans who fled the new regime. To this end, he used his function as President of the SFIO's Immigration Commission and his close contacts with the League of Nations. These people, whom Grumbach supported in this way, included the Mayor of Altona Max Brauer , his friend and lawyer Rudolf Katz and the former Prussian Finance Minister Otto Klepper . Between December 1933 and January 1936 Grumbach published a series of articles in the most important German-language exile newspaper in France, the Pariser Tageblatt . In these articles, which all appeared in prominent positions, he hid his identity behind two pseudonyms . In terms of content, he dealt with Franco-German relations and the situation in Germany, in particular the armaments policy of the Third Reich. As an intimate expert on French politics, he also informed his readers about the characteristics and details of French domestic politics and the French party system.

Support the Popular Front

Nationally and internationally, Grumbach emphasized the dangers that the fascist movements threatened Europe . According to Grumbach, the irreconcilable differences between the German Social Democrats and the German Communists had promoted the victory of National Socialism. For this reason, Grumbach campaigned for an alliance of the French left-wing parties and those parties in the country that were in favor of maintaining democracy. Grumbach advocated the Popular Front governments under Léon Blum and Édouard Daladier . Grumbach did not support military action against the Third Reich, which long before the beginning of the Second World War disregarded Germany's obligations under international law. Instead, he defended the French policy of non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War and in 1938 also the appeasement policy . Grumbach's primary goal remained the preservation of the peace that anti-National Socialist diplomacy and alliance politics were supposed to secure.

Activities in World War II and Post-War Politics

Flight and Resistance

As a reaction to the invasion of the German troops in France , the anti-fascist Grumbach embarked in July 1940 together with 26 other parliamentarians on the Massilia , which was heading for Morocco . The passenger steamer was turned away in Casablanca and had to start the return journey. Grumbach was arrested in September 1940 and remained interned until May 1941. He then lived in Mende under police supervision . Despite official observation, he managed to contact the Resistance . In November 1942 he fled to the Maquis in the Cevennes , where he experienced the liberation.

Mandates and tasks after the Second World War

In October 1945 Grumbach became Castre's delegate at the first national assembly. He again represented the SFIO there and took over the chairmanship of the committee for foreign affairs as well as the chairmanship of the parliamentary inquiry commission for the French zone of occupation . This parliamentary commission of inquiry traveled to the French occupation zone under his leadership. A detailed report documented numerous grievances. In mid-December 1946, Grumbach was elected to the Council of the Republic, of which he was a member until 1948. From the end of 1948 he became a member of the French delegation to the United Nations . In 1952 Grumbach ran again for the Council of the Republic, but he failed.

Immediately after the end of World War II, Grumbach resumed contact with the SPD. As early as August 1946, he spoke alongside Max Brauer in Hamburg as the main speaker at a public SPD event. He was also the first representative of the SFIO to speak at a party congress of the SPD in 1947. Later he also performed regularly in Germany. He received great recognition in the SPD for this, which was expressly noted in an obituary by the Social Democratic Press Service . The SFIO leadership appreciated his knowledge of the German language and his knowledge of the neighboring country. His influence in German affairs was, however, little in his party. Today a street is named after him in Mulhouse , Alsace .

literature

• Jean-Claude Richez: Art. Grumbach, Salomon , in: Encyclopédie de l'Alsace , Vol. 6: Frey - Hematologie, Editions Publitotal, Strasbourg 1984, pp. 3534-3536.
• Reiner Stübling: Salomon Grumbach - an Alsatian in Frankfurt , in: Fritz König, Rainer Stübling (ed.): Trade unionists, social democrats, friends of peace in Frankfurt am Main 1900–1933 , dipa-Verlag, Frankfurt 1985, pp. 169–183, ISBN 3-7638-0419-6 .
• Art. Grumbach, Salomon , in: Dictionnaire de biographie française , sous la dir. de M. Prevost, R. d 'Amat, Volume 16, Gilbert - Guéroult, Librairie Letouzey et Ané, Paris 1985, Sp. 1378, ISBN 2-7063-0158-9 .
• Gilbert Badia: Salomon Grumbach - an anonymous interpreter of Franco-German politics , in: Right and left of the Seine. Pariser Tageblatt and Pariser Tageszeitung 1933–1940 , ed. by Hélène Roussel and Lutz Winckler (studies and texts on the social history of literature, vol. 89), Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen 2002, pp. 95–113, ISBN 3-484-35089-X .

Web links

Commons : Salomon Grumbach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Salomon Grumbach in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Salomon Grumbach in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• Biographical keywords about Salomon Grumbach on the website of the French National Assembly. (French)
• An article by Edouard Boeglin about Salomon Grumbach on the website Judaisme d'Alsace et de Lorraine (Judaism in Alsace and Lorraine), excerpt from an article by l'Alsace of August 2, 1992 (French).
• Feuerkopf Grumbach - briefly exposed (sketch about the speaker Salomon Grumbach), Social Democratic Press Service of August 22, 1950, p. 5 ( PDF file , 201 kB).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The date of birth is indicated differently. Rainer Stübling (p. 169) mentions January 6th, this date can also be found in the biographical key words for Grumbach on the website of the French National Assembly and in the birth register of Hattstadt ( digital copy , online page 23; right  ( page no longer available , Search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ). Deviating from this, the Dictionnaire de Biographie Francaise speaks of February 16.  
2. ↑ See briefly Günter Scholdt : Literatur als Mittler? The Saar-Lor-Lux-Alsace area as a cognitive model , p. 3 ff, (PDF file, 197 kB) on the homepage of Melusine, the Literary Society Saar-Lor-Lux- Elsaß eV , there also the quote.
3. ^ Biographical information on Sembat (French).
4. ^ Salomon Grumbach: The annexionist Germany. A collection of documents 1914–1918 that had been publicly or secretly distributed in Germany since August 4, 1914, Payot, Lausanne 1917; newly published by Helmut Donat in the series Geschichte & Frieden , Donat Verlag, Bremen 2017, ISBN 9783943425345 .
5. ↑ See Karl-Heinz Klär : The Collapse of the Second International . Campus publishing house, Frankfurt a. M./New York 1981, ISBN 3-593-32925-5 , p. 217 and p. 332, note 348.
6. ^ Commission des mines et de la force motrice .
7. ↑ Axel Schildt: Max Brauer . Ellert and Richter, Hamburg 2002, p. 48 f, ISBN 3-8319-0093-0 . Christa Fladhammer / Michael Wildt: Introduction , in: Same (Ed.): Max Brauer im Exil. Letters and speeches 1933–1946 . Hans Christians Verlag, Hamburg 1994, p. 13-100, here p. 30 f, ISBN 3-7672-1219-6 . Fladhammer / Wildt and Schildt incorrectly write in the places mentioned that Grumbach was a member of the German Reichstag before the First World War .
8. ↑ On this in detail Gilbert Badia: Salomon Grumbach .
9. ↑ For the list of these parliamentarians see the corresponding overview on the server of the University of Perpignan .
10. ^ Jürgen Klöckler: Abendland - Alpenland - Alemannien. France and the reorganization discussion in southwest Germany 1945–1947 (Studies on Contemporary History, Vol. 55), Oldenbourg, Munich 1998. P. 55, ISBN 3-486-56345-9 .
11. ↑ Advance notice of the event: How do we shape Europe? ( Memento of the original from December 4, 2015 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: Hamburger Echo , August 10, 1946. Illustrated reporting on Grumbach's appearance  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in: Die Welt , August 13, 1946.   
12. ^ Social-Democratic Press Service of July 14, 1952, p. 2a (PDF file, 200 kB) .
13. ↑ Beatrix W. Bouvier: French Socialists and German Social Democrats in Comparison , in: Elites in Germany and France in the 19th and 20th centuries. Structures and relationships = Elites en France et en Allemagne aux XIXème et XXème siècles, on behalf of the Franco-German Historical Committee , Vol. 2. Oldenbourg, Munich 1994 pp. 93-108, here p. 97, ISBN 3-486-56094- 8 .

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on October 28, 2007 .