Wendelin Thomas

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Wendelin Thomas (born June 21, 1884 in Diedenhofen , Lorraine ; † September 1956 in Newark , New Jersey , United States ) was a German politician ( SPD , USPD , KPD )

Live and act

Empire and Weimar Republic (1884 to 1933)

Thomas was the son of a farm laborer. He attended elementary schools in Diedenhofen , Weißenburg and Altenstadt in Alsace. He then became a cabin boy, then a sailor. In 1907 he married. In 1910 he became a shipbuilder in Hamburg. In the same year he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

From 1914 to 1918 Thomas took part in the First World War. In autumn 1918 he took part in a leading role in the North German sailors' uprisings. In addition, Thomas was a member of a revolutionary soldiers' council from November 1918 .

In 1919 Thomas became a member of the USPD . His role in the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic of 1919 is unclear. Jürgen Hillesheim states that Thomas and Lilly Prem were agitating at meetings for the Soviet Republic and advocating arming the people. At this time, Thomas also had relationships with Erich Mühsam , Ernst Niekisch and Ernst Toller . On September 1, 1919, he became editor-in-chief of the Volkswille newspaper, the USPD's daily newspaper for Swabia and Neuburg. Among his collaborators on this paper was the poet Bertolt Brecht , who contributed theater reviews. In 1920 Thomas was sued by Erhard Auer because of an article he had written for insulting the press. Thomas' defense attorney, attorney Max Hirschberg , later remembered him as an "extremely stupid person". In 1921 the will of the people was banned by the State Commissioner for Swabia and Neuburg because of "provocative" and "order endangering" articles. Thomas was arrested as editor-in-chief and sentenced to two years in prison.

In the Reichstag elections of June 1920, Thomas was a candidate of his party for the constituency 27 (Upper Bavaria Swabia) in the Reichstag elected. At the end of 1920 Thomas switched to the Communist Party of Germany , for which he held his mandate for the remainder of the electoral term, which lasted until May 1924. In March 1921 he became editor of the Neue Zeitung , later also of the newspaper Schiffahrtswarte , the national newspaper of the German Shipping Association in Hamburg. In the same year he was temporarily imprisoned in Bavaria. After the Reichstag election of May 1924 , Thomas was able to return to the Reichstag on the KPD's Reich election proposal. At this time Thomas was also in contact with Leon Trotsky , with whom he corresponded. From 1925 to 1928 Thomas worked in the Comintern apparatus . He was then imprisoned in Germany for two years. In 1930 he was released due to an amnesty.

Exile and later years (1933 to after 1947)

After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Thomas emigrated to the United States . At the same time he separated from the KPD. According to a source, he has since been considered lost. Some sources also name Thomas as a member of a counter-commission ( Dewey Committee) formed in the United States in 1937 for the Moscow show trials . Another source indicates the last traces of life in the South American Santiago de Chile around 1947.

Works

  • In honor and memory of our Kurt Eisner! , 1920.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerd W. Jungblut [Ed.]: Erich Mühsam: There must be a grain of sand in my trumpet. Letters 1900-1934 , 1984, p. 923.
  2. ^ Jean-Claude Richez: Wendelin Thomas . In: Le Maitron . Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  3. ^ New Jersey Death Index, 1956
  4. ^ Jürgen Hillesheim: Augsburger Brecht Lexicon. People, institutions, scenes , 2000, p. 138.
  5. ↑ Heinz Ludwig Arnold: Berholt Brecht , 1972, p. 121. Thomas had met Brecht in the spring of 1919 through the Prem couple.
  6. ^ Max Hirschberg: Jew and Democrat. Memoirs of a Munich lawyer 1883 to 1939 , 1998, p. 140.
  7. ↑ Werner Hecht: Brecht Chronik 1898-1956 , 1997, p. 106.
  8. ^ Leon Trotsky: Leon Trotsky: Questions from Wendelin Thomas (1937). In: marxists.org. Retrieved December 4, 2018 .
  9. ^ Max Hirschberg / Reinhard Weber: Jew and Democrat. Memories of a Munich lawyer , 1998, p. 140.
  10. ↑ Thomas Keller / Freddy Raphael: Lebensgeschichten, Exil, Migration , 2006, p. 35. Apart from Thomas, members of the commission were: John Dewey , Otto Rühle , Alfred Rosmer , Jacques Madaule , Galtiert-Boissiere. See also Gerd W. Jungblut (Ed.) Erich Mühsam: There must be a grain of sand in my trumpet. Letters 1900-1934 , 1984, p. 923. see also the Leon Trotsky: The Questions of Wendelin Thomas (July 6, 1937)
  11. ↑ Rudolf Rocker : Der Leidensweg von Zensl Mühsam , 1949, p. 26, states that Wendelin Thomas sent an excerpt from a German-language newspaper from Santiago de Chile that year.
personal data
SURNAME Thomas, Wendelin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD, USPD, KPD), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH June 21, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Diedenhofen
DATE OF DEATH September 1956
Place of death Newark (New Jersey)