Wilhelm step

Wilhelm Step (born November 1, 1892 in Michalowska (Ukraine) ; † in the 20th century) was a German politician ( DDP , KPD , VdgB and CDU ). From 1946 to 1949 he was a member of the state parliament in Mecklenburg .

Life

Wilhelm Step attended the German-Russian school in Ukraine until 1902 and later the elementary school in Germany . After an agricultural apprenticeship and activity, he did his military service in 1912 and became a soldier in the First World War . Step found a job in the newly founded district of Allenstein in East Prussia. He worked for the state border police until 1924 and for the criminal police until 1928 . In 1928, Step retired from civil service due to illness and took over the management of the DDP office in Allenstein. Finally he settled down as a farmer in 1929. Step became politically active as a councilor of the DDP in the city of Gilgenburg , a provincial member of the state parliament of the DDP and since 1932 as a member of the Reichsiedlungsausschuss. In 1935 Wilhelm Step was sentenced to two months in prison. In 1943 he was arrested by the Gestapo , deported to Stettin , interrogated and in January 1944 transferred to Gollnow prison . A special court sentenced him to eight months in prison for political unreliability and endangering the state, which he was serving in Stargard .

In October 1945, Step was expelled from East Prussia . He fled to Demmin in Western Pomerania , received land reform land, joined the KPD in December 1945 and became a member of the SED after the forced unification of the SPD and KPD . As a trained farmer, he was elected chairman of the district committee of the Association of Mutual Farmers Aid (VdgB), which was supposed to alleviate the plight of the new farmers and proved to be the political appendage of the SED. Step moved into the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state parliament in 1946 on the VdgB list. However, the SED was soon dissatisfied with him, as he showed himself to be a “peasant representative” and allegedly incited the peasants against the SED and the occupation authorities. It prevented his re-candidacy as VdgB district chairman in 1947. Then, in 1948, Step over to the CDU . Because step joined the CDU parliamentary group in the state parliament, the VdgB lost a state parliament mandate. When the pressure of persecution came to a head, Step fled to West Germany.

literature

• LHAS 6.11-1-302, Mecklenburg State Parliament 1946–1952, investigations against the Member of the State Parliament who went to the West, step from Demmin.
• Klaus Schwabe: State elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania 1946. Booklet accompanying the exhibition in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state parliament from August 28 to October 20, 1996, Schwerin 1996.
• Christian Schwießelmann: The CDU in Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania 1945 to 1952. From the foundation to the dissolution of the regional association. A representation of party history. Droste, Düsseldorf 2010, ISBN 978-3-7700-1909-0 , ( research and sources on contemporary history 58).

Web links

• Literature about Wilhelm Step in the state bibliography MV