Walter Auerbach

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Walter Auerbach (born July 22, 1905 in Hamburg , † March 23, 1975 in Bonn ) was a German social democratic politician and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Walter Auerbach was born Siegmund Selig Auerbach, the fourth of nine children to Orthodox Jewish parents, his younger brother was Philipp Auerbach . Having come of age in 1926, he turned away from Judaism, took the first name Walter and broke off relations with his parents' house. After graduating from secondary school “Vor dem Holstentor” in 1924 (→ Albrecht Wilhelm Thaer ) he studied German studies (in Cologne with a focus on newspaper studies ), history and sociology in Hamburg , Freiburg im Breisgau and Cologne . Auerbach was a member of the socialist student body . In 1929 he was at the University of Cologne with a dissertation on Martin Spahn , director of the Institute for journalism and DNVP -member, about "press and group consciousness" to Dr. phil. PhD. He had already joined the SPD in 1923.

From 1930 to 1933 Auerbach was employed on the main board of the General Association of Workers in Public Enterprises and the Movement of People and Goods as a personal assistant to its chairman and member of the Reichstag Anton Reissner . On May 2, 1933, he was arrested in connection with the smashing of the trade unions by the National Socialists. However, he managed to escape and fled to Amsterdam on May 16, 1933, as did Reissner, for fear of being arrested again . There he worked with Reissner until 1939 and later in England until 1946 as editor of the information service “Fascism” in the General Secretariat of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF). As a liaison between Edo Fimmen and left-wing socialist resistance circles, he actively supported the trade union resistance against the Nazi state in the Reich. For example, Auerbach was well known to Curt Bley , Rudolf Küstermeier and Franz Hering and thus became an important liaison for the Red Strike Troop . Auerbach provided the resistance group with funds and contacts to influential figures in the anti-fascist labor movement on several occasions.

Auerbach was expatriated on May 25, 1939 because he was active "to an outstanding degree in Amsterdam anti-German". The university then withdrew his doctorate from him on June 22, 1939. It is not known whether he received any news of this. In any case, he continued the title. It was not until 1954 that the university revoked these withdrawal orders.

In October 1939, after the ITF General Secretariat moved to England, Auerbach and his family moved to Kempston ( Bedfordshire ) and later lived in London . From October 7, 1940 to April 30, 1942, the broadcaster of the European Revolution (SER) , which he launched, propagated a new socialist order. For this purpose Auerbach u. a. the action group trade union freedom federation against the swastika (GFgH).

Auerbach was interned as an enemy alien from 1939 to 1942 . Classified by the National Socialist police as an enemy of the state, Auerbach (or his pseudonym Walter Dirksen) was placed on the special wanted list by the Reich Main Security Office in the spring of 1940 , a directory of people who would be killed in the event of a successful invasion and occupation of the British Isles by the Wehrmacht SS special commandos following the occupation troops were to be identified and arrested with special priority.

In 1945/46 Auerbach gave lectures on socio-political and trade union issues in various prisoner-of-war camps. On his return in 1946, at the request of the trade unions, he took over the post of Vice-President of the Central Labor Office of the British Zone in Lemgo . In the fall of 1948 he was appointed Alfred Kubel to Secretary of State in the Lower Saxony Labor and Social Affairs, interrupted only during the reign of Heinrich Hellwege . From October 1969 until his retirement in April 1971 he was State Secretary under Walter Arendt in the Federal Ministry of Labor . Until his death in March 1975 he headed the "Expert Commission for the Social Code", which had been set up in the Federal Ministry of Social Affairs to classify social law in the then newly created Social Code .

Walter Auerbach is the father of Leonore Auerbach .

Honors

Fonts

Article: Names in [] are the pseudonyms used in the article

in The Other Germany :

  • An encouraging letter , volume 9, 1947, No. 152 (October 15, 1947), p. 2

in the newspaper :

  • Sociopolitical Problems of Post-War Germany , Volume 4. 1944, No. 393 (September 15, 1944), p. 10
  • Philadelphia and Germany , Volume 4, 1944, No. 394 (September 22, 1944), p. 10
  • Reconstruction of German Trade Unions , Volume 4. 1944, No. 397 (October 13, 1944), p. 10
  • Eisenhower shows an alternative , vol. 4. 1944, no. 407 (December 22, 1944), p. 10
  • From Philadelphia to London , Volume 4, 1945, No. 412 (January 26, 1945), p. 10
  • Workers' Problems of the Future , Volume 4. 1945, No. 413 (February 2, 1945), p. 10
  • ILO and ITUC decisions and plans , vol. 4. 1945, No. 414 (February 9, 1945), p. 10
  • A great improvisation , Volume 4, 1945, No. 416 (February 23, 1945), p. 10
  • On the way to a world trade union confederation , vol. 5, 1945, no. 418 (March 9, 1945), p. 10

in the socialist observation point :

  • [Walter Dirksen] On Emigrations-Journalistik , Volume 12, 1937, No. 16 (August 15, 1937), p. 374
  • [Walter Dirksen] Once again: on emigration journalism , year 12, 1937, no. 20 (October 15, 1937), p. 471
  • [Walter Dirksen] Trade Union Discussion , Volume 12, 1937, No. 29 (December 17, 1937), p. 694
  • [Walter Dirksen] Fascism and Trade Unions , Volume 13, 1938, No. 22 (June 3, 1938), p. 519
  • [Walter Dirksen] German trade unionists in exile , year 13, 1938, no. 51 (23 December 1938), p. 1212
  • [Walter Dirksen] Two new publications , Volume 14, 1939, No. 13 (March 31, 1939), p. 322

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Constantin Goschler : Reparation: West Germany and those persecuted by National Socialism 1945–1954 . Munich: Oldenbourg, 1992, p. 79, fn. 10
  2. Dennis Egginger-Gonzalez: The Red Assault Troop. An early left-wing socialist resistance group against National Socialism. Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3867322744 (mentions and reports on two dozen pages).
  3. ^ Letter from the Secret State Police, Berlin State Control Center, to the Secret State Police Office, Berlin, dated February 13, 1939, (Polit. Archive of the AA, Inland, IIA / B, 83–76 expatriations, R 99788) quoted from Dr.-Grad withdrawn
  4. Additions and clarifications based on Margit Szöllösi-Janze , Andreas Freitäger: Doctoral degree withdrawn , Kirsch-Verlag, Nümbrecht 2005, ISBN 3-933586-42-9 , pp. 69–72
  5. ^ Walter Auerbach in the database Britain, Enemy Aliens and Internees
  6. ^ Entry on Auerbach on the special wanted list GB (reproduced on the website of the Imperial War Museum in London).
  7. ^ Siegfried Löffler: Social Code as "Columbus's Egg"? In: Social Progress . tape 241 , no. 11 , 1975, p. 246-247 , JSTOR : 24505902 .