Social Democratic Party of the Memel Region
The Social Democratic Party of the Memel Region ( SDPM ) was a social democratic party of the German majority population in the Memelland . It existed from 1925 to 1935 and was included in the Memelland unit list .
The chairman was August Kislat (1885–1941) and Fritz Matzies (1887–1957)
prehistory
In conservative East Prussia , the SPD was clearly disadvantaged in elections in the German Empire due to the majority suffrage in elections to the Reichstag and the three-class suffrage in internal Prussian elections. The SPD achieved the best result in the Reichstag constituency of Koenigsberg 1 in the 1912 Reichstag election with 20.9%.
After the November Revolution , proportional representation was introduced and the SPD was now able to take part in elections much more successfully. The Tilsit trade union secretary Heinrich Trinowitz was elected to the constituent Prussian state assembly in 1919 . Of the four members of the provincial parliament of the province of East Prussia from the future Memelland, two ( Karl Zimmeck and Hans Honig ) were members of the SPD.
With the "Memeler Volksstimme, socialist party organ, publication organ of the workers and soldiers council Memel and the free trade unions" (1919-1920) and the Tilsit daily newspaper "Die Volksstimme" two party newspapers of the SPD emerged.
With the separation of the Memel area, the MPs lost their seats in the provincial parliament on December 21, 1919.
After the separation of the Memel area
After the separation of the Memel area there was initially no nationwide parliament. The SPD could therefore only be active at the municipal level. In the second largest city of Tilsit , the SPD provided Mayor Krell as the deputy to Lord Mayor Eldor Pohl (DDP), and Heinrich Trinowitz was a city councilor.
Fritz Matzies was one of the two state directors of the Memel area from 1920 to 1922.
The general German trade union federation spun off the "trade union federation of the Memel area", which published the "trade union federation" as a magazine. The SPD, out of necessity, formed a special organization with the party newspaper "Memelländische Volkszeitung".
Elections to the Seimelis
In the elections for Seimelis , the SDPM according to Jürgen W. Falter achieved the following results. Mads Ole Balling comes up with slightly different percentages, the number of seats is the same for both.
| Electoral term | percent | Mandates |
|---|---|---|
| I. electoral term 1925 | 16.0% | 5 |
| Second electoral term, 1927 | 10.1% | 3 |
| III. 1930 parliamentary term | 13.8% | 4th |
| IV. 1932 parliamentary term | 7.8% | 2 |
| Electoral term | MP | annotation |
|---|---|---|
| I. Election term | Michel Bertschus | |
| I. Election term | August Kislat | |
| I. Election term | Adolf Plennis | |
| I. Election term | Serious intoxication | |
| I. Election term | Martin Seewaldt | |
| II electoral term | Michel Bertschus | |
| II electoral term | August Kislat | |
| II electoral term | Martin Seewaldt | |
| III. Electoral term | Michel Bertschus | |
| III. Electoral term | August Jöres | |
| III. Electoral term | Georg Pannars | |
| III. Electoral term | Eugene Urban | |
| IV. Term | August Jöres | May 26, 1932 resignation from the mandate (successor: August Kislat) |
| IV. Term | Georg Pannars | |
| IV. Term | August Kislat | May 26, 1932 for August Jöres |
literature
- Mads Ole Balling : From Reval to Bucharest - Statistical-Biographical Handbook of the Parliamentarians of the German Minorities in East Central and Southeastern Europe 1919-1945, Volume 2, 2nd Edition . Copenhagen 1991, ISBN 87-983829-5-0 , pp. 697 .
- Jürgen W. Falter / Thomas Lindenberger / Siegfried Schumann: Elections and Voting in the Weimar Republic: Materials on Voting Behavior, 1919-1933 . Munich 1986, ISBN 3-406-31583-6 , pp. 114 .
- Wilhelm Matull: East Germany's labor movement; 1973, pp. 365-377.