Social Democratic Party of the Free City of Gdansk
The Social Democratic Party of the Free City of Gdansk was a social democratic party that existed in the Free City of Gdansk from 1919 to 1936 .
Emergence
After Danzig was separated from the territory of the German Reich and converted into a free state due to the specifications of the Versailles Treaty , the local organization of the SPD split off from the rest of the party and founded an independent party. However, there were still close ties to the parent party, especially with regard to the content of the party.
organization
The party organization was also modeled on that of the SPD. In the late 1920s, the party said it had 5,418 members, 950 of whom were women. From 1923 until its end in 1936, the party was a member of the Socialist Workers' International .
The first chairman was Julius Gehl from 1919 to 1921 . From 1921 to 1936 the party was led by Arthur Brill .
The Arbeiterjugendbund was the party's youth organization and had around 450 members.
history
From August 1925 to October 1926 and again from January 1928 to October 1930, the party faction took part in bourgeois coalition governments in the Danzig Senate . At the end of 1930, a new right-wing coalition was formed in the Senate with the tolerance of the National Socialists. The Danzig Social Democrats then founded the Arbeiter-Schutzbund , a paramilitary association to defend their interests against the National Socialist threat. The Arbeiter-Schutzbund had about 4,500 members.
On May 5, 1932, a Social Democratic member of the city council, Gruhn, was murdered by the head of the Neuteich SS district . The People's Voice , the newspaper of the Social Democrats , was subsequently banned for three months because she had reported the only newspaper about this event. In October 1936, 120 party members were arrested and on October 14, 1936 the party was banned.
On May 25, 1937, the Danzig social democrat Hans Wichmann was murdered by the Gestapo after receiving a visit from Carl Jacob Burckhardt , a high commissioner of the League of Nations .
Election results
In the People's Day elections , the party achieved the following results:
| choice | Votes (absolute) | Votes (relative) | Mandates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1920 | 24,409 | 15.9% | 19th |
| 1923 | 39,755 | 24.1% | 30th |
| 1927 | 61,779 | 33.8% | 42 |
| 1930 | 49,965 | 25.3% | 19th |
| 1933 | 37,882 | 17.7% | 13 |
| 1935 | 37,729 | 16.1% | 12 |
Press
In 1910, the newspaper “ People's Watch ” was the first social democratic party newspaper to appear in Danzig . At the end of 1919 the newspaper was renamed “Danziger Volksstimme”. The editors-in-chief were Ernst Loops and Fritz Weber . It was the second largest daily newspaper in Gdansk (12,000 to 15,000 copies and in the years 1935–1936 even up to 40,000 copies).
literature
- Marek Andrzejewski: Socjaldemokratyczna Partia Wolnego Miasta Gdańska: 1920-1936 . Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, Gdańsk 1980.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Werner Kowalski et al .: History of the Socialist Workers International (1923–1940) . Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1985, pp. 291–292.
- ^ A b Wilhelm Matull: East Germany's workers' movement: Outline of their history, performance and sacrifice (= East German contributions from the Göttingen working group . No. 53 ). Holzner Verlag, Würzburg 1973, p. 440 ff . ( fes.de Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung [PDF; 5.6 MB ; accessed on May 22, 2014]).
- ↑ Ernst Sodeikat: Nazism and the Gdansk opposition (PDF; 1.7 MB) Institute for Contemporary History . 1966. Retrieved February 15, 2011.
- ↑ May 16, 1920, election to the constituent assembly . November 18, 1923, election for the 2nd People's Day . November 13, 1927, election for the 3rd People's Day . November 16, 1930, election for the 4th People's Day . May 28, 1933, election for the 5th People's Day . May 28, 1933 April 7, 1935, election for the 6th People's Day .
- ↑ Ursula Langkau-Alex: German Popular Front 1932–1939 . Volume 3: Documents on the history of the committee for the preparation of a German popular front, chronicle and directories . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-05-004033-5 , p. 331 (print edition). Link collection of reviews
- ↑ Marek Anderzejewski: The press in the Free City of Danzig . In: Gilbert H. Gornig (Ed.): German-Polish encounter on science and culture. Societas Physicae Experimentalis. Series of publications by the Danziger Naturforschenden Gesellschaft, Volume 6. Lübeck 2004, pp. 32–44. uni-marburg.de (PDF; 117 kB)