Walter Fabian (24 August 1902 – 15 February 1992) was a German

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

politician, journalist and translator. During the Nazi years he became a resistance activist and political exile.

Life

Early years

Walter Max Fabian was born in

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 ...

. Richard Fabian, his father, was a self-employed interior architect who would have much preferred to be a musician. Visitors to the house included

Bruno Walter Bruno Walter (born Bruno Schlesinger, September 15, 1876February 17, 1962) was a German-born conductor, pianist and composer. Born in Berlin, he escaped Nazi Germany in 1933, was naturalised as a French citizen in 1938, and settled in the Un ...

. Powerfully progressive political currents in the family home came primarily from his mother, born Else Hosch. The Fabians' social circle also included leftwing intellectual heavyweights such as

Hugo Haase Hugo Haase (29 September 1863 – 7 November 1919) was a German socialist politician, jurist and pacifist. With Friedrich Ebert, he co-chaired of the Council of the People's Deputies after the German Revolution of 1918–19. Early life Hugo Haa ...

and

Kurt Rosenfeld Kurt Rosenfeld (1 February 1877 – 25 September 1943) was a German lawyer and politician ( SPD). He was a member of the national parliament () between 1920 and 1932. Early life Kurt Samuel Rosenfeld was born at Marienwerder, a mid-sized town nea ...

. He attended what was then the Mommsen Gymnasium (secondary school) in

Charlottenburg Charlottenburg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a German town law, town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Kingdom ...

quarter. He was not quite twelve when

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, and by the time he left school he was already a vocal backer of those calling for peace.

Weimar Germany

After leaving school he went on to study Philosophy, Pedagogy, History and Economics at

, Freiburg iB.,

Gießen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...

and

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

. In 1924 he concluded his studies with a doctoral dissertation on the philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Foerster, entitled "Das Problem der Autorität bei Friedrich Wilhelm Foerster". He had been contributing to

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 ...

newspapers since 1920. After receiving his doctorate he became a committed member of the German Peace Society (''"Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft"'' / DFG) and of the Association of Committed School Reformers (''"Bund Entschiedener Schulreformer"'' /BESch). In addition he joined the

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

branch of the Social Democratic Party (''"Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands"'' / SPD) itself. It was also in 1924 that he married the author-journalist

Dora Fabian Dora Fabian (née Heinemann; 1901– 31 March or 1 April 1935) was a German socialist and anti-Nazi activist. She was the daughter of Else Levy Heinemann and Hugo Heinemann, a socialist lawyer who defended trade unionists and political activists i ...

. The marriage, described by one thoughtful writer as "brief but friendly", would be over by the time of Dora's death in London, under circumstances that have never been entirely clear, during the early summer of 1935. In 1924 he also became an editor at the Ernst-Oldenburg Verlag (publisher) at Leipzig, supporting the party's educational work. The next year he took on the responsibilities of political editor with the party newspaper, "Chemnitzer Volksstimme". Unlike Dresden, the home of the Royal Saxon Court and Saxony's traditional administrative capital, he saw

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany a ...

as a workers' city, without the liberal intellectual pretensions of

, but rather Saxony's equivalent to the

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

of a few decades earlier, when

Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
''

cotton capital. He perceived Chemnitz as a more appropriate fulcrum for his own interests in the promotion of the labour movement and pacificst politics. In Chemnitz Fabian also became a member of the SPD's regional party executive. Additionally, from 1928 he was producing two Dresden based SPD opposition news sheets, "Sachsendienst" and "Sozialistische Information". He used these "pulpits" to attack the Coalition Chancellor, Hermann Müller, over the government re-armament programme, producing slogans such as "school meals before battle ships" (''"Schulspeisung statt Panzerkreuzer"''). ( Hermann Müller was, like Fabian a member of the

.) Fabian had relocated to

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

in 1928. There he was increasingly in demand as a lecturer and speaker, notably among the city's Young Socialists. His uncompromising pacifism and his talent for public speaking meant he was always seen as a leftwing comrade within the party, and viewed with suspicion by many in the party hierarchy. He also attracted a growing band of mostly young leftwing followers from inside the party. In the end the leadership lost patience. He was subjected to a "speaking ban" at the end of 1930, and in September 1931 he was excluded from the

. Along with around 1,000 Young Socialists in Saxony, Walter Fabian now joined the Socialist Workers' Party (''"Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands"'' / SAPD) launched, formally, shortly afterwards. Both 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 ...

and the

had, by the later 1920s, become increasingly shrill in their mutual antagonism and contempt, to the point where by 1931 both party leaderships had expelled large numbers of their "extremist" members. Meanwhile, the seemingly unstoppable rise of

populism Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed ...

persuaded many of the expelled party members, (as well as some of the more thoughtful party activists who had not been expelled) that the only way to avert a Nazi government was for the political left to unite in opposition to the Nazi tide. The SAPD was born of that conviction even though, with the benefit of hindsight, its emergence is frequently seen simply as a further example of the way the Nazis were able to encourage and exacerbate fragmentation of Germany's political left during the run-up to their own successful power-grab. Within the SAPD Walter Fabian was elected regional chair for East Saxony. Then, in March 1932 at the party's launch conference in Berlin, he was elected to the party national executive. Despite being set up as a national party, the SAPD in reality depended on two regional power bases. Due in part to the reputation and actions of Walter Fabian, one of these was East Saxony. The other, also a major industrial region (and also an area where the Nazis enjoyed strong support), was in the western part of

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 ...

, in and around Bresalau (as Wrocław was then known). Fabain and

August Enderle 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's family in Feldstetten, a smal ...

set about creating a party newspaper: the "Sozialistischen Arbeiter-Zeitung" (SAZ) was launched in September 1932 with Walter Fabian its

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

. The first few editions were produced in Berlin after which the SAZ operation was transferred to Breslau.

Nazi Germany

At the second general election of 1932, in November, the

Nazi 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 ...

vote share fell back from 37% to 33% suggesting that, under the democratic procedures then in place, the Nazi wave might have peaked. Nevertheless, the combined vote share of the Nazis and Communists ensured that the Reichstag remained deadlocked, with no obvious way that any coalition could emerge with sufficient parliamentary backing to support a stable government. Despite the parliamentary stalemate, however, following deft political machinations 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 ...

, with the conditional agreement of

President Hindenburg Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (; abbreviated ; 2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German field marshal and statesman who led the Imperial German Army during World War I and later became President of Germany fro ...

, took power at the end of January 1933 and lost no time in transforming Germany into a

one-party A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

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 ...

. Many on the left remained confident that the "terrorist government" launched at the end of January 1933, though tolerated or in some cases supported by other "conservative" forces, would be short-lived. However, Fabian calculated that it would be foolish to place much confidence in the prospect of a rapid collapse of the Nazi régime. Although political activity was not actually banned until March 1933, the broad ground rules for the government's approach to political opposition were already on display by the end of January. He moved from Breslau to Berlin where, using the name Kurt Sachs, he managed to live in "relative anonymity" and continue with his (now illegal) political activities. Meanwhile,

, who had been campaigning alongside her husband for a united left to confront the Nazi menace since at least as far back as 1931, despaired of the continuing bickering between the leftwing political forces and resigned from the SAPD during the first few weeks of 1933. She was arrested in Berlin in March 1933, but released a few days later. Her belief that plans existed for her imminent re-arrest was almost certainly correct, and her decision to forestall re-arrest by escaping to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

well founded. By September 1933 she had ended up in London. At a clandestine "party conference" in March 1933 Walter Fabian was re-elected to the SAPD party executive. By 1934, many party comrades, having been arrested, he had emerged as leader in Germany of the underground party. He succeeded in continuing to live in anonymity, as far as the authorities were concerned, and during that year he travelled regularly between Berlin and

Paris Paris () is the capital and 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), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

which, together with Moscow, was becoming the destination of choice for Germany's exiled opposition politicians. It was also during this period that Fabian began a long period of political cooperation with the man who later became the SAPD's most famous member,

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 ...

Paris exile

In January 1935 Fabian was lucky to avoid arrest after a party comrade passed him a message that, under torture, the comrade had found himself unable to remain silent as to Fabian's whereabouts and false identity. Unable to return to his own apartment, he managed to avoid the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

and a few days later crossed the snow-covered mountains into

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

, still, at this point, an independent country. He was accompanied by his second wife, Ruth. They made their way to

and from there, via Austria and Switzerland, to

, where by now the SAPD had established their exiled leadership team which Walter joined. Ruth also worked with the party and during 1935 was deprived, in her absence, of her German citizenship by the government back in Berlin. It not clear why Walter Fabian suffered the same sanction only on 5 August 1937. In Paris he was involved, above all, in the party's press section. As part of this he set up the SAPD's "Documentation Office" which gathered, collated and collected helpful cuttings from newspapers. As a member of the leadership of an illegal (in Germany) opposition party exiled in Paris, Walter Fabian was also part of the antifascist " Lutatia Circle" (named after the Paris hotel where they held their meetings). This was the context within which, in 1936, he was one of a number of prominent socialists, inspired by the French prime minister

Léon Blum André Léon Blum (; 9 April 1872 – 30 March 1950) was a French socialist politician and three-time Prime Minister. As a Jew, he was heavily influenced by the Dreyfus affair of the late 19th century. He was a disciple of French Socialist le ...

, who tried to put together a German

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 ...

(in exile) in order more effectively to oppose the Nazis. Others involved included

Heinrich Mann Luiz Heinrich Mann (; 27 March 1871 – 11 March 1950), best known as simply Heinrich Mann, was a German author known for his Social criticism, socio-political novels. From 1930 until 1933, he was president of the fine poetry division of the ...

Rudolf Breitscheid Rudolf Breitscheid (2 November 1874 – 28 August 1944) was a German politician and leading member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) during the Weimar Republic. Once leader of the liberal Democratic Union, he joined the SPD in ...

and

Willi Münzenberg Wilhelm "Willi" Münzenberg (14 August 1889, Erfurt, Germany – June 1940, Saint-Marcellin, France) was a German Communist political activist and publisher. Münzenberg was the first head of the Young Communist International in 1919–20 and est ...

. The idea came to nothing, however. Meanwhile, the exiled leadership of the SAPD, by now headed up 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 ...

, was moving decisively to the political left and, possibly more importantly, to a pro-Stalin line, taking their lead from the Soviet Communist Party in Moscow where

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 Secretar ...

was embarking on an industrial scale

purge In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another organization, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertak ...

of his political opponents, whether actual, potential or merely suspected. Walter Fabian was still contributing as a journalist in the German language news publications produced in Paris, and as stories seeped out about the developments in Moscow he was disinclined to avoid reporting them. He also wrote critically about Moscow's attacks on the POUM (''"Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista"''), a Spanish Marxist party and quasi-military movement that came to prominence in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

and, having fallen foul of Stalin, saw several of its leaders tortured and/or killed by emissaries sent from Moscow. Because of his criticism, in 1937 Fabian was expelled from the SAPD. It was the second time in five years that he had been expelled from a political party, and for the rest of his life he avoided further membership of any party. He did, however, form a "resistance group" under the title "Neuer Weg" (''"New Way"''), and devoted himself to producing the movement's eponymous news-magazine. Others involved in "Neuer Weg" included

Peter Blachstein Peter Blachstein (30 April 1911 – 4 October 1977) was a German journalist who became a politician. During the middle 1930s he spent time in the Oflag IV-A, Hohnstein Concentration Camp, but he was released and participated in the Spanish Civil ...

and Erwin Ackerknecht, two former SAPD comrades who had been expelled from the party at the same time as Fabian.

War years

The Germany army invaded Poland in September 1939: The French and British governments responded by declaring war on

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 ...

a few days later, although military assistance to Poland was not significant. For most of the residents of Paris and London there was little immediate impact before May 1940 when the Germany army invaded France. By that time thousands of people who had been forced to escape from Germany to Paris for reasons of political activism and/or race had been identified as

enemy alien In customary international law, an enemy alien is any native, citizen, denizen or subject of any foreign nation or government with which a domestic nation or government is in conflict and who is liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and ...

s and arrested. ( Similar steps were taken by the London government.) Walter and Ruth Fabian were briefly held in

and then moved to a detention centre at Marolles, a run down village near

Blois Blois ( ; ) is a commune and the capital city of Loir-et-Cher department, in Centre-Val de Loire, France, on the banks of the lower Loire river between Orléans and Tours. With 45,898 inhabitants by 2019, Blois is the most populated city of the ...

. Walter Fabian was able to use his time here to read

Nausea Nausea is a diffuse sensation of unease and discomfort, sometimes perceived as an urge to vomit. While not painful, it can be a debilitating symptom if prolonged and has been described as placing discomfort on the chest, abdomen, or back of the ...

, a prescient and subsequently well regarded novel by a then little known novelist called

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...

. He was also able to produce a few articles for newspapers in Switzerland. Some 25,000 German and Austrian political internees were by now being transferred to vast internment camps in the southwest of the country. In order to avoid that fate Walter Fabian volunteered for service in the

French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, Armoured Cavalry Arm, cavalry, Military engineering, engineers, Airborne forces, airborne troops. It was created ...

at the start of January 1940, which involved service in North Africa. Ruth seems to have returned briefly to

where Annette, the couple's daughter, was born early in March 1940. She then headed back south with her baby and settled in the "Free zone", administered from

Vichy Vichy (, ; ; oc, Vichèi, link=no, ) is a city in the Allier Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais. It is a Spa town, spa and resort town and in World ...

by a puppet government and still, at this stage, permitted a significant measure of autonomy by the Germans. His commitment to pacifism and his intellectual approach meant that Walter Fabian was very far from being an ideal recruit for the Foreign Legion. In the end he spent three months imprisoned in a "military library": he later spent two months in a "small hospital". There was plenty of time for reading and writing. He wrote - according to his own recollections 40 years later - "hundreds of letters to Ruth and to his friends", and also kept a diary. However, his unsuitability for military service having been conclusively demonstrated, Ruth Fabian was able to extract her husband from the French Foreign Legion by the end of the year. He returned from North Africa, disembarking at

Marseilles Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

on 8 December 1940. During 1941/42 the Fabians worked in

and in

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...

with the Emergency Rescue Committee set up by

Varian Fry Varian Mackey Fry (October 15, 1907 – September 13, 1967) was an American journalist. Fry ran a rescue network in Vichy France that helped approximately 2,000 to 4,000 anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees to escape Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. ...

on the initiative, some said, of

Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...

. The work, apparently unpaid, involved organising emigration from France to the United States of America for refugees from Nazi persecution. Jewish sources stress the extent to which those rescued were Jews while leftwing political sources stress they extent to which they were political refugees. Many, like Walter Fabian himself, were both, but those charged with prioritising whom to help first always insisted that the only criterion was the extent of the danger which each individual would be in so long as he or she remained in Europe. Organising entry visas for the United States, transit visas for Spain and Portugal and - often most difficult of all to obtain - French exit visas was hugely time consuming, especially because victims of Nazi persecution often arrived in Marseilles without identity papers. From his own diary it appears that as early as December 1940 Walter Fabian received notification that the family's own tickets from

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

were "paid for", but in February 1941, still in Marseilles, he received a letter from his father's old friend,

now in

, warning that there was hardly any work for German emigrants arriving stateside. It is not clear whether Fabian himself ever seriously considered moving to America. The family settled in southern France. Ruth, once a junior lawyer in Berlin, now earned money by teaching German to French school children. Walter Fabian combined journalism with his other activities but money was short. He undertook writing and translating contracts for publishers in the US and in Switzerland. There was talk of taking a job selling lottery tickets in the local library and there were times when, reportedly, he seriously considered volunteering for a return to North Africa and service in the French army. Meanwhile, the Germans were progressively tightening their grip on the "Free zone". The police - with honourable exceptions - were increasingly operating according to instructions received from the

: Gestapo officers were a growing presence on the city streets. Obtaining French exit visas for refugees seeking to emigrate across the Atlantic was becoming harder. Acting on the instructions of the Gestapo, during the Summer of 1942 the French police closed down the escape programme operated by Varian Fry's Emergency Rescue Committee out of

. As Jewish socialists the Fabians were doubly at risk from the Nazi persecution programme. As the risk of arrest and internment (and, from 1942, deportation to a death camp in Germany) intensified, they undertook a dramatic escape to

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in October 1942.

Sanctuary in Switzerland

Through his international journalistic contacts Walter Fabian already had contacts in Switzerland. Nevertheless, it is possible that he was only on account of his daughter that he was permitted to cross the frontier into the country. According to a rule provided by the Swiss Justice and Police department and dated 18 June 1940, "fleeing civilians ereto be turned back with the exception of women and children up to 16". Nevertheless, all three of them were able to cross the border, and after brief internment in a transit camp near

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

they were placed in a refugee camp at

Adliswil Adliswil is a town and a municipality in the district of Horgen in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland. The official language of Adliswil is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alem ...

, just outside

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

. Conditions in the refugee camp were poor, and it was only with help from the local religious community that Fabian was able to extricate his family from the place, after he had written a letter pleading for help to the Swiss education reformer,

Elisabeth Rotten Elisabeth Friederike Rotten (15 February 1882, Berlin - 2 May 1964) was a Quaker peace activist and educational progressive. Life As daughter to the Swiss couple Moritz and Luise Rotten, she attended the "höhere Mädchenschule Luisenschule" ...

. It was in Adliswil that the marriage between Walter and Ruth Fabian broke apart. Walter Fabian relocated up the road to

at the start of 1943 and relaunched his journalistic career. He and Ruth would remain lifelong friends. A brief tempestuous marriage to Charlotte "Carlotta" Gries appears to have been over by March 1944 (according to a diary entry) although a formal break was deferred to 1947. Meanwhile,

itself still felt under dire threat of a German invasion, at least until the destructive extent to the German military machine had been subjected in the decisive

Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (later re ...

became apparent during the course of 1943. Walter Fabian was initially banned from writing for the Swiss press as the authorities in Bern sought to avoid antagonising the northern neighbour. However, with the help of Walter Bösch, a senior editor at the Zürcher Tagesanzeiger (newspaper), he was able to work both as a translator and as an author under the pseudonym "Theo Prax" (a conscious contraction of the words "Theorie" and "Praxis"). He also embarked on a parallel career as a translator of French literature, with translations of works by

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...

Romain Rolland Romain Rolland (; 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and Mysticism, mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary pro ...

François Mauriac François Charles Mauriac (, oc, Francés Carles Mauriac; 11 October 1885 – 1 September 1970) was a French novelist, dramatist, critic, poet, and journalist, a member of the'' Académie française'' (from 1933), and laureate of the Nobel Priz ...

and Eugen Tarle to his credit. In Switzerland he also worked at one point as a music critic. He was an active member of the exiled German

PEN International PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internationa ...

group and of the Society of the protection of German authors (''"Schutzverband deutscher Schriftsteller"'' / SDS). At one point he led the SDS group in Switzerland, focusing his efforts on trades union training and the refugee organisation "ProAsyl".

Return to (West) Germany

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 ...

for Germany ended in May 1945. In 1947 his comrade of old,

, came to visit Fabian in Switzerland. Blachstein, as he later wrote, had always thought that Walter Fabian would return to Germany as soon as possible, and greatly regretted that his old friend chose to live in Switzerland till 1957. However, Fabian was by this time well settled in Switzerland, and not at all convinced that democracy imposed by "the bayonets of occupying armies" or the events unfolding in 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 ...

were taking his home country in a positive direction. According to one source, at the heart of Fabian's hesitation about returning home was Marx's precept "Liberation of the working class can only be achieved through the efforts of the working class" (''"Die Befreiung der Arbeiterklasse kann nur das Werk der Arbeiterklasse selbst sein!"''). In postwar Germany the focus was on survival, and then on reconstruction, rather than on the unfolding of a Marxist socio-political trajectory. Fabian received and repeatedly turned down a succession of apparently attractive job offers from Germany. On 8 October 1946 he rejected an offer from the former head of the socialist regional government in

of 1923,

Erich Zeigner Erich Zeigner (17 February 1886, in Erfurt – 5 April 1949, in Leipzig) was a German politician. He was Prime Minister of the German state of Saxony during the attempted communist uprising of 1923. In August 1921 Zeigner was Minister of Justi ...

, whom the

Soviets Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union. Nationality policy in th ...

had now appointed Lord Mayor of Leipzig. Zeigner wanted him to become editor in chief of the mass-circulation

Leipziger Volkszeitung The ''Leipziger Volkszeitung'' or ''LVZ'' (German for ''Leipzig People's Newspaper'') is a daily regional newspaper in Leipzig and western Saxony, Germany. First published on 1 October 1894, the LVZ was formerly an important publication of the ...

(newspaper). Fabian also turned down an offer from the US occupation zone to take over the editorship of the

Frankfurter Rundschau The ''Frankfurter Rundschau'' (FR) is a German daily newspaper, based in Frankfurt am Main. It is published every day but Sunday as a city, two regional and one nationwide issues and offers an online edition (see link below) as well as an e-pa ...

from

Emil Carlebach Emil Carlebach (10 July 1914, Frankfurt, Hesse-Nassau - 9 April 2001) was a Hessian Landtag member, a writer, and a journalist. He was born and died in Frankfurt am Main. Life Emil Carlebach was descended from a family of rabbis who had practiced ...

whose publisher's license was revoked by the US military administration for what were described at the time as unexplained reasons. (However, Carlesbach was a

member.) Fabian turned down a job offer from

Radio Bremen Radio Bremen (RB), Germany's smallest public radio and television broadcaster, is the legally mandated broadcaster for the city-state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (which includes Bremerhaven). With its headquarters sited in Bremen, Radio Brem ...

in 1951 and, at the start of 1956, a job as political editor with

Norddeutscher Rundfunk Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR; ''Northern German Broadcasting'') is a public broadcasting, public radio and television broadcaster, based in Hamburg. In addition to the city-state of Hamburg, NDR broadcasts for the German states of Lower Saxony, M ...

. Walter Fabian's first visit to postwar Germany took place only on 10 October 1949. When he finally settled in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

in 1957, he did so without giving up his right of abode in Switzerland. During the 1940s and 1950s, he had built up excellent contacts with the Swiss trades union movement, and this opened the door to the German Trade Union Confederation (''"Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund"'' / DGB) which emerged after 1949 and the lifting of the Nazi ban on trades union activity. In 1957, at the instigation of

Otto Brenner Otto Brenner (8 November 1907 – 15 April 1972) was a German trades unionist and politician. Between 1956 and 1972 he was the leader of the powerful IG Metall ''(Industrial Union of Metalworkers)''. In a tribute published in 1967 to celebrate ...

, Walter Fabian was appointed editor in chief of the DGB's Gewerkschaftliche Monatshefte (''"Trades Union Monthly"''/ GMH) publication, a role which he held till 1970. Between 1958 and 1964 he also chaired the Deutsche Journalistinnen- und Journalisten-Union (Journalists' Union). Working with the DGB came with its own challenges. The SAPD had lost its principal purpose after 1945 and most of its former members had switched to the more mainstream

: Walter Fabian had not. He remained true to his left wing "Luxemburgisch" convictions and rejected union attempts to pressure the "Gewerkschaftliche Monatshefte" into always backing the union line. It was as a result of continuing differences of approach that in 1970 Heinz Oskar Vetter, recently elected to chair the DGB, relieved Fabian of his responsibilities at the journal after thirteen years. Since returning in 1957 Walter Fabian had engaged in the West German peace movement. He spoke out against the

Viet Nam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

, in support of rapprochement with

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

and in opposition to the various Emergency Powers Acts. After his work on the GMH ended he became a leading figure in the German Humanist Union, which he chaired from 1969 till 1973, and of the West German German-Polish Society (of which he became honorary president in 1977). In 1966 he also accepted an honorary professorship in

Pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...

from

Frankfurt University Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...

Awards and honours

* In 1970 Walter Fabian was a winner of the

Carl von Ossietzky Medal The (ILMR) has awarded the Carl von Ossietzky Medal since 1962. The league has honored personalities, initiatives or organizations who have worked with civil courage and outstanding commitment to the realization of human rights annually since 1962 ...

from the

International League for Human Rights The International League for Human Rights (ILHR) is a human rights organization with headquarters in New York City. Claiming to be the oldest human rights organization in the United States, the ILHR defines its mission as "defending human right ...

. * In 1991 he received a special honour from the prize committee of the Bert Donnep Prize, awarded by the Grimme Institute.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fabian, Walter 1920 births 1992 deaths Politicians from Berlin Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Socialist Workers' Party of Germany politicians Journalists from Berlin German Peace Society members German trade unionists German resistance members Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to France 20th-century German translators German magazine editors