August Enderle (5 August 1887 – 2 November 1959) was a German socialist politician, trades unionist, journalist and author.
Life
Provenance and early years
August Enderle was born into a
cooper's/
carpenter
Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, Shipbuilding, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. ...
's family in
Feldstetten, a small artisanal town in the hills between
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
and
Ulm
Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no, ...
. He trained and qualified for work in the metals based industry sector and took work as a
machinist
A machinist is a tradesperson or trained professional who not only operates machine tools, but also has the knowledge of tooling and materials required to create set ups on machine tools such as milling machines, grinders, lathes, and drilling ...
in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
. It was in Stuttgart that in 1910 he joined both the
Social Democratic Party ("Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands" / SPD) and the
Metal Workers' Union (''"Deutscher Metallarbeiter-Verband"'' / DMV). He was opposed to
war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
but was conscripted into the military in 1915 and remained in the army till the war ended.
[
The 1914 decision of the ]party
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature f ...
leadership to implement what amounted to a parliamentary truce for the duration of the war set off acute disagreement within the party from the outset, and division only grew as slaughter on the frontline and austerity on the home front intensified. Enderle had participated in antiwar street demonstrations in 1914 and when, in 1917, the SPD
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
Saskia Esken has been the ...
split over the issue, August Enderle was part of the left-wing group that broke away as the Independent Social Democratic Party (''"Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands"'' / USPD). After the war ended, as a succession of revolutions broke out across the country
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
and the USPD itself broke apart, in 1919 he joined Germany's newly formed Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
.[
]
Weimar years
In 1921 he was taken to Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
by Jacob Walcher
Jacob Walcher (May 7, 1887 – March 27, 1970) was a German communist politician and trade unionist.
Biography
Walcher was born in 1887 in the rural Swabia to a family of poor religious Protestant farmers and learned the profession of meta ...
who appointed him as trades union editor team for Die Rote Fahne (''"The Red Flag"''), the leading party newspaper at the time. During his time in Berlin he also worked, till 1928, for the trades union department of the party central committee. During 1922/23 his work for Die Rote Fahne
''Die Rote Fahne'' (, ''The Red Flag'') was a German newspaper originally founded in 1876 by Socialist Worker's party leader Wilhelm Hasselmann, and which has been since published on and off, at times underground, by German Socialists and Communis ...
was interrupted when he represented the German party on the Moscow based executive of the Red International of Labor Unions (''"Красный интернационал профсоюзов"'' / RILU).[ He also contributed on trades union matters to ]Inprecor
''Inprecor'' is a multilingual monthly Marxist magazine published by the reunified Fourth International. Its name is a contraction of International Press Correspondence and indicates that the magazine translates articles and letters from revo ...
, the international magazine of the Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
.
During the 1920s the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
's ruling Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
became increasingly polarised between the backers of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
and those who doubted the direction in which Stalin was leading the party. The most prominent of the doubters was Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
, and the most damning (and, as the years progressed, dangerous) condemnation that a comrade could receive from the Stalinist faction was to be described as a Trotskyite. The Soviet party and the German party were closely aligned and the increasingly fevered ructions in Moscow found their direct echoes in the German party which, during the second half of the 1920s, came under the control of an increasingly intolerant "hardline Stalinist" leadership. In 1928 August Enderle was identified as a follower of Heinrich Brandler
Heinrich Brandler (3 July 1881 – 26 September 1967) was a German communist, trade unionist, politician, revolutionary activist, and political writer. Brandler is best remembered as the head of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) during the party ...
and Jacob Walcher
Jacob Walcher (May 7, 1887 – March 27, 1970) was a German communist politician and trade unionist.
Biography
Walcher was born in 1887 in the rural Swabia to a family of poor religious Protestant farmers and learned the profession of meta ...
. That made him a right winger, and in December of that year he was excluded from the party. Earlier in 1928 he had travelled to Moscow to speak out at the RILU congress against "extreme left-wing" Stalinist resolutions being adopted by it. He now found himself prevented from leaving the city. It was only after he had threatened the congress organiser, Osip Piatnitsky
Osip Aaronovitch Piatnitsky (russian: Осип Аронович Пятницкий; Iosif Aronovich Tarshis, 29 January 1882, Kovno Governorate – 29 July, 1938, Moscow), was a Russian revolutionary and Soviet politician. Piatnitsky is best reme ...
, that he would personally visit the German ambassador in order to obtain/recover his passport that he was permitted to return home to Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.[
]
Party splits
Among those who opposed the party's adherence to the Stalinist hard line, August Enderle's profile was higher than most because of his contributions to the party publications The Red Flag
"The Red Flag" () is a socialist song, emphasising the sacrifices and solidarity of the international labour movement. It is the anthem of the British Labour Party, the Northern Irish Social Democratic and Labour Party and the Irish Labour P ...
and Inprecor
''Inprecor'' is a multilingual monthly Marxist magazine published by the reunified Fourth International. Its name is a contraction of International Press Correspondence and indicates that the magazine translates articles and letters from revo ...
. In addition, in 1927 he published a book, ''Die Gewerkschaftsbewegung. Ein Leitfaden für proletarische Gewerkschaftsarbeit'' ("The trades union movement. A manual for proletarian trades union work"). He also published a widely distributed pamphlet, ''Kampf um den Achtstundentag'' ("Struggle for an eight hour day").[ On his exclusion from the party at the end of 1929 he was accordingly a leading voice among the many hundreds of comrades similarly treated at this time. The response was the creation of an alternative communist party, known as the Communist Party (Opposition) (''"Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (Opposition)"'' / KPD-O). August Enderle and his longstanding fellow activist Irmgard Rasch were among its founders, under the leadership of ]Heinrich Brandler
Heinrich Brandler (3 July 1881 – 26 September 1967) was a German communist, trade unionist, politician, revolutionary activist, and political writer. Brandler is best remembered as the head of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) during the party ...
and August Thalheimer
August Thalheimer (18 March 1884 – 19 September 1948) was a German Marxist activist and theorist.
Early life
He was born in 1884 in Affaltrach, now called Obersulm, Württemberg, Germany in to a Jewish working-class family. He studied at the ...
. During 1929 August Enderle and Irmgard Irmgard is a feminine German given name. Notable people with the name include:
* Irmgard of Berg (fl. 12th century), German noble, daughter of Adolf VI, Count of Berg
* Irmgard of Chiemsee (c. 831/833 – 16 July 866)
* Irmgard of Cleves (c. 130 ...
Rasch were married.
Largely as a result of the sustained surge in support for right-wing populism
Right-wing populism, also called national populism and right-wing nationalism, is a political ideology that combines right-wing politics and populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric employs anti-elitist sentiments, opposition to the Establi ...
, there was a growing belief among thoughtful left-wing politicians that the Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
would only be kept out of power if the left could present a united front. Within the Social Democratic Party (SPD) this gave rise to a break-away faction that urged a merger with the Communist Party. This faction became the Socialist Workers' Party (''"Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands"'' / SAPD). There was in some ways an obvious parallel between the SAPD's emergence from the left-wing of the SPD
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
Saskia Esken has been the ...
and the KPD-O's emergence from the right-wing of the Communist Party. During 1931/32 the KPD-O itself effectively split, with a number of prominent members, including August Enderle, transferring to the SAPD. Others who made the same switch included Paul Frölich
Paul Frölich (7 August 1884 – 16 March 1953) was a German journalist and left-wing political activist and author, a founding member of the Communist Party of Germany and founder of the party's paper, ''Die Rote Fahne.'' A Communist Party deputy ...
and Jacob Walcher
Jacob Walcher (May 7, 1887 – March 27, 1970) was a German communist politician and trade unionist.
Biography
Walcher was born in 1887 in the rural Swabia to a family of poor religious Protestant farmers and learned the profession of meta ...
. In the SAPD Enderle became editor of the party's daily newspaper, ''Sozialistische Arbeiter-Zeitung'' ("Socialist Workers' Newspaper"), initially based in Berlin.[ Soon afterwards he moved, along with the production office of the "Sozialistische Arbeiter-Zeitung", from Berlin to Breslau.]
Nazi years
The Nazis came to power
Adolf Hitler's rise to power began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919 when Hitler joined the '' Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' (DAP; German Workers' Party). He rose to a place of prominence in the early years of the party. Be ...
in January 1933 and lost little time in transforming Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
into a one-party
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature f ...
dictatorship
A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship are ...
. After the Reichstag fire
The Reichstag fire (german: Reichstagsbrand, ) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of ...
at the end of February 1933 it became obvious - if it had not been already - that those identified as politically active communists were of particular interest to the authorities. Political parties including the SAPD were banned and Ernst Eckstein, Breslau leader of the party, died as a result of state torture on 8 May 1933. August Enderle briefly took over leadership in Breslau of the now illegal SAPD. The next month he was able to emigrate to the Netherlands where he lived, between July and November 1933, in Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
. Following his expulsion he lived, between November 1933 and March 1934, in Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
where he was a member of the de facto SAPD leadership team in exile. Using the cover-name "Antonius" he contributed to the "Marxist Tribune". In March 1934, the authorities having declined to renew his residence permit, he was obliged to move on again, this time to Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
. He settled with his wife in Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
where he was the leader of the exiled SAPD Swedish group.[ In Sweden he took work as a ]machinist
A machinist is a tradesperson or trained professional who not only operates machine tools, but also has the knowledge of tooling and materials required to create set ups on machine tools such as milling machines, grinders, lathes, and drilling ...
and joined the Swedish Metalworkers' Union
The Swedish Metalworkers' Union ( sv, Svenska Metallindustriarbetareförbundet often shortened in text and speech to simply ''Metall'') was a trade union in Sweden.
History
The union was founded in Stockholm on 21 May 1888, and had 555 members b ...
. He was able to undertake political work, notably involving German seafarers
A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship.
The profession of the s ...
, through the ITF and as a member, between 1936 and 1938, of the Popular front
A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault".
More generally, it is "a coalition ...
movement.
War
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
broke out across most of Europe during September 1939: military advances during the next couple of years by the German army
The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...
further reduced the number of places where German political exiles might be relatively safe. Norway fell in the early summer of 1940: one young SAPD who was forced to leave the country was using the name Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ge ...
. Brandt moved to Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
where for the next few years he worked closely with Enderle. During the closing years of the war Enderle and Brandt took a lead in the SAPD members' decision to join or rejoin the Social Democrats
Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...
at the end of 1944.[
]
British occupation zone / German Federal Republic
War ended in May 1945 and the Enderles returned to Germany the next month, both now members of the Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
. Thanks to support from the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) he was among the first political exiles from Nazi Germany to be able to return, a return described in at least one source as "illegal". Breslau, where he had lived directly before going into exile in 1933, had been forcibly "cleansed" of its German-speaking population and in any case was no longer in Germany. The western two thirds of what had been Germany had been divided into four military occupation zones. The Enderles settled in Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
which was surrounded by the British zone, although for strategic reasons Bremen itself would become an enclave under US military
The United States Armed Forces are the Military, military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six Military branch, service branches: the United States Army, Army, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps, United States N ...
control. August Enderle's first work was as "trades union editor" with the Weser-Kurier (daily newspaper), a new publication of which his wife was a co-founder. Less than two years later, in April 1947, he became editor in chief of "Bund", the Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
based Trade Union Confederation newspaper for the British zone.[
Enderle's political activism after the war extended well beyond his work as a journalist. Within the party he backed the left-wing socialist position. During the second half of 1945 ]Wilhelm Pieck
Friedrich Wilhelm Reinhold Pieck (; 3 January 1876 – 7 September 1960) was a German communist politician who served as the chairman of the Socialist Unity Party from 1946 to 1950 and as president of the German Democratic Republic from 1949 to ...
, a senior German politician recently "parachuted" by Moscow into the Soviet occupation zone
The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a c ...
as part of what turned out to be a well planned "nation building" project, thought it worth his while personally to try and persuade August and Luise Enderle to rejoin the Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
: the Enderle's rejected that idea, however. During the immediate postwar period August Enderle also participated in the activities of the Bremen-based Struggle against Fascism Association (''Kampfgemeinschaft gegen den Faschismus'' / KGF), founded on 3 May 1945 and widely seen, at least in retrospect, as a front organisation of the Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
.
August Enderle formally retired in 1954, by which time the British occupation zone had been merged with the American and French zones (but not the Soviet zone) and relaunched, in May 1949, as the German Federal Republic (West Germany). He continued to contribute journalistic pieces and also set to work on a history of the trades union movement. He died in Cologne on 2 November 1959. The mourners at his funeral included Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ge ...
, his close comrade during their Stockholm exile and by this time a leading figure in the SPD
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
Saskia Esken has been the ...
and the Mayor of West Berlin
The Governing Mayor (german: Regierender Bürgermeister) of Berlin is the head of government, presiding over the Berlin Senate. As Berlin is an independent city as well as one of the constituent States of Germany (''Bundesländer''), the office i ...
.[Siegfried Mielke: August Enderle 1887-1959, in ''Vom Deutschen Buchdruckerverband zur Einheitsgewerkschaft'', 150 Jahre: verdi - Solidarität - Emanzipation - Tarifkampf, Berlin 2016, pp. 98–99]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Enderle, August
1887 births
1959 deaths
People from Alb-Donau-Kreis
People from the Kingdom of Württemberg
Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians
Independent Social Democratic Party politicians
Communist Party of Germany politicians
Communist Party of Germany (Opposition) politicians
Socialist Workers' Party of Germany politicians
Weimar Republic politicians
German Comintern people
German resistance members
German trade unionists
20th-century German journalists