Hellmut Georg von Gerlach (2 February 1866 – 1 August 1935) was a German

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

Life

Hellmut von Gerlach, the son of landowner Max von Gerlach, was born in Mönchmotschelnitz in

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

. He studied law at the universities of Ghent, Strasbourg, Leipzig, and Berlin, and was a member of the ''Verein Deutscher Studenten''. Afterwards, he obtained a position in the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

n civil service. In 1892, Gerlach retired from the civil service, to work full-time on politics and journalism. At first, he was close to the Christian Social, but also anti-Semitic, politics of

Adolf Stoecker Adolf Stoecker (December 11, 1835 – February 2, 1909) was a German court chaplain to Kaiser Wilhelm I, a politician, leading antisemite, and a Lutheran theologian who founded the Christian Social Party to lure members away from the S ...

and his Christian Social Party. He would later leave this party though, and join

Friedrich Naumann Friedrich Naumann (25 March 1860 – 24 August 1919) was a German liberal politician and Protestant parish pastor. In 1896, he founded the National-Social Association that sought to combine liberalism, nationalism and (non-Marxist) sociali ...

National-Social Association The National-Social Association (german: Nationalsozialer Verein, NSV) was a political party in the German Empire, founded in 1896 by Friedrich Naumann. It sought to synthesise liberalism, nationalism and non- Marxist socialism with Protestan ...

, becoming more entrenched with political liberal ideas. From 1892-1896, he worked as an editor of the Christian-social daily newspaper ''Das Volk''. From 1898 to 1901, and from 1906 onwards, Gerlach was editor of the Berlin weekly ''Die Welt am Montag''. He was a member of the Reichstag for the National-Social Association from 1903 to 1907, and would join the

Freeminded Union The Free-minded Union (german: Freisinnige Vereinigung; FVg) or Radical Union was a liberal party in the German Empire that existed from 1893 to 1910. Emergence Inside its predecessor, the German Free-minded Party, there had always been tension ...

after the National-Social Association was dissolved. In 1908, he became co-founder of the Democratic Union. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Gerlach took on a pacifist stance. Together with Friedrich Naumann he was one of the founders of the new liberal party, the

German Democratic Party The German Democratic Party (, or DDP) was a center-left liberal party in the Weimar Republic. Along with the German People's Party (, or DVP), it represented political liberalism in Germany between 1918 and 1933. It was formed in 1918 from the ...

(DDP) in the first years of the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...

. He became a deputy secretary of state in the Prussian province, working on German-Polish relations. In 1919, Gerlach entered the board of the

International Peace Bureau The International Peace Bureau (IPB) (french: Bureau international de la paix), founded in 1891, is one of the world's oldest international peace federations. The organisation was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910 for acting "as a link be ...

. As a journalist, he worked against those who still had lingering feelings for the German monarchy. He would also write for a better understanding between Germany and France in the ''Welt am Montag''. In 1922, he left the DDP, to become chairman in 1926 of the German Human Rights League. When

Carl von Ossietzky Carl von Ossietzky (; 3 October 1889 – 4 May 1938) was a German journalist and pacifist. He was the recipient of the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in exposing the clandestine German re-armament. As editor-in-chief of the magazine ''Die ...

was arrested in 1932, Gerlach took over the editorial duties of the magazine ''

Die Weltbühne ''Die Weltbühne'' (‘The World Stage’) was a German weekly magazine for politics, art and the economy. It was founded in Berlin in 1905 as (‘The Theater’) by Siegfried Jacobsohn and was originally a theater magazine only. In 1913 it be ...

''. After the Nazis took control over Germany in 1933, Gerlach fled to Austria first, then to France on the invitation of the

Ligue des droits de l'homme The Human Rights League (french: Ligue des droits de l’homme ''t du citoyen' or LDH) of France is a Human Rights NGO association to observe, defend and promulgation of Rights Man within the French Republic in all spheres of public life. The ...

, where he could work on peace matters and against the Nazi regime. From the end of 1934 he headed the campaign for providing the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolog ...

.THE MULTINATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR CARL VON OSSIETZKY
/ref> Gerlach died in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

References

*Ursula Susanna Gilbert: ''Hellmut von Gerlach (1866–1935). Stationen eines deutschen Liberalen vom Kaiserreich zum „Dritten Reich“''. Frankfurt/Main, 1984.

External links

*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerlach, Hellmut Von 1866 births 1935 deaths People from Wołów County People from the Province of Silesia German Protestants National-Social Association politicians Free-minded Union politicians Democratic Union (Germany) politicians German Democratic Party politicians Radical Democratic Party (Germany) politicians Members of the 11th Reichstag of the German Empire Prussian politicians German Peace Society members German journalists German male journalists 19th-century German journalists 19th-century German male writers 20th-century German journalists

Life

See also

References

External links