Wennigser conference

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Memorial for Kurt Schumacher and the Wennigs conference in Wennigsen

The Wennigs conference took place from October 5th to 7th, 1945 in Wennigsen near Hanover . At the meeting of members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which was banned by the National Socialist Reich government in June 1933 , Kurt Schumacher (1895–1952) was entrusted as "Commissioner for the Western Zones" with the management of the rebuilding of the party organization, which he was appointed by Dr. Schumacher from organized.

prehistory

Soon after Germany's capitulation, Kurt Schumacher was entrusted with the "organizational and political leadership of the party throughout the Reich", namely on July 11, 1945. He convened the conference. The event, initially planned as a "Reich Conference" with SPD representatives from the three western zones and from Berlin in Germany occupied by the three Allies, could not take place in this form, as the British military government insisted that only delegates from the British occupation zone were allowed to participate. After negotiations with the military government it was possible to get it to agree to a one-day conference with delegates from the British zone and subsequent discussions with representatives from the other zones and from Berlin. Under the direction of Kurt Schumacher, the ban on the British occupation forces was effectively circumvented.

Meeting place

The Bahnhofs-Hotel Petersen in Wennigsen was chosen from several points of view: in addition to the social democratic tradition of the community, there was a connection via the Deisterbahn with Hanover, where in the first months after the end of the war there was no meeting room with an adequate food supply for the participants. All delegates were housed in private quarters. Political activity by parties was only possible in the British zone of occupation , where this was achieved through the intervention of the SPD's executive in exile ( Sopade ) in London.

Attendees

33 elected representatives from the British zone of occupation and three members of the London executive in exile had access as delegates. These were Erich Ollenhauer , Fritz Heine and Erwin Schoettle . Otto Grotewohl , Max Fechner and Gustav Dahrendorf from the Soviet zone were present as members of the Berlin-based “Central Committee of the SPD” and there was initially a dispute about their eligibility, which was refused. Numerous other Social Democrats were present at the conference. These are in retrospect u. a. was determined by interviewing Wennigs hosts. These included, for example, Gustav Bratke and Otto Brenner . Annemarie Renger was one of the few women taking part .

Delegates

Guests

Guests were the exiled executive committee in London in the form of Fritz Heine (1904–2002), Erich Ollenhauer (1901–1963) and Erwin Schoettle (1899–1976).

course

Memorial stone to the meeting of Kurt Schumacher and Otto Grotewohl in Wennigser Mark

The conference was marked by violent arguments between the dominant camp of Kurt Schumacher and that of Otto Grotewohl. The question was the cooperation between the SPD and KPD , which was ultimately denied. In terms of content, the Marxist basic program of 1925 , which provided for extensive nationalizations, was confirmed. Schumacher held his policy statement The struggle for democracy . In it he pleaded for the abolition of sector boundaries. The most important result was: The assembly decided to entrust Schumacher with the management of the reconstruction of the SPD in the three western zones of occupation.

Further development

On April 21, 1946, in the Berlin Admiralspalast , the forced unification of the SPD and KPD to form the SED took place at a party congress for the territory of the Soviet sector of Berlin and the Soviet occupation zone . Then in May 1946 the West German SPD members elected Schumacher as chairman of a new SPD limited to the western zones (later Trizone ) at a party congress in the Hanomag building in Hanover, thus completing the re-establishment of the party in the post-war period. (→  History of German Social Democracy )

today

The 1979 plaque for the Wennigs conference

The conference hotel burned down in 1977. The conference is commemorated by the Schumacher memorial placed in 1967 opposite Wennigsen train station and a memorial plaque placed in 1979 on the former Calenberger Hof in Bahnhofstrasse, which was built in its place . The former Nordstrasse, a cross street between Bahnhofstrasse and between the train station and the conference venue, was renamed Kurt-Schumacher-Strasse.

Kurt Schumacher Memorial

The monument is a registered cultural monument in Wennigsen. The memorial stone bears a bronze relief by Kurt Schumacher, looking to the left, and the inscription: Social Democrats from all parts of Germany / met in Wennigsen (Deister) / on October 5th and 8th, 1945 for their / first conference / after a 12-year break / you commissioned / Dr. Kurt Schumacher / 1st chairman of the SPD / 1948 - 1952 / headed the reconstruction of the Social Democratic Party / Germany .

Memorial events

The Lower Saxony SPD held several commemorative events in the new hall built on the site of the former assembly hall, for example in 1995 and 2005. In 2000, the Wennigs SPD designed an exhibition and published a publication on it. In 2015, at the anniversary event of the SPD regional association Lower Saxony, "Re-establishment of the SPD after World War II", the head of the SPD's historical commission, Bernd Faulenbach , spoke about the "Wennigser Conference 1945", and Laura-Kristine Krause discussed with the Lower Saxony SPD - State chairman and prime minister Stephan Weil on the "future of the SPD".

literature

  • Albrecht Kaden: Unity or Freedom. The re-establishment of the SPD in 1945/46. Foreword by Fritz Singer , Verlag Dietz Nachf., Hanover 1964. Published in third edition in 1990. ISBN 3-8012-1121-5 .
  • SPD community association Wennigsen: German history in Wennigsen. Local documents from the reconstruction of state and society, Kurt Schumacher and the Reich Conference in Wennigsen 1945. Booklet accompanying the exhibition. Wennigsen 2000.
  • Matthias Loeding: Otto Grotewohl and the Wennigsen Conference 1945. Grin Verlag, Norderstedt 2010, ISBN 978-3-640-66020-9 .
  • Anthony Glees: Reinventing Germany. German political development since 1945 . Berg, Oxford 1996, ISBN 1-85973-185-6 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  • Wolfgang Triebel: Setting the course for the political division in post-war Germany. SPD conference in Wennigsen from October 5 to 7, 1945 , booklet on the gdr history No. 97, Berlin 2005

Web links

Commons : Wennigser conference  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Material collection of the Wennigser SPD local association from 2000. See sources, 24.6.
  2. ↑ A detailed list of names can be found in the material collection of the Wennigser SPD local association from 2000. See sources, April 26th.
  3. ^ F. Wüllner: From Wennigsen's past. Contributions to local history. Wennigsen, Eigenverlag, 1973, p. 62.
  4. ↑ a b Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung of October 7, 2015, p. 5.
  5. ^ SPD community association Wennigsen: German history in Wennigsen. Local documents from the reconstruction of state and society, Kurt Schumacher and the Reich Conference in Wennigsen 1945. Booklet accompanying the exhibition. Wennigsen, 2000.

Coordinates: 52 ° 16 ′ 43.1 ″  N , 9 ° 34 ′ 19.5 ″  E