Julius Leber (16 November 1891 – 5 January 1945) was a German

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, ...

of the SPD and a member of the German resistance against the

Nazi régime Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

Early life

Leber was born in

Biesheim Biesheim (; gsw-FR, Biese) is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Archaeology Remains of a Mithraeum have been unearthed in Biesheim in 1977. See also * Communes of the Haut-Rhin department The fol ...

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

, out of wedlock, to Katharina Schubetzer and later adopted by her husband, mason Jean Leber. Leber ended his school days in

Breisach Breisach (formerly Altbreisach; Low Alemannic: ''Alt-Brisach'') is a town with approximately 16,500 inhabitants, situated along the Rhine in the Rhine Valley, in the district Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about halfway ...

in 1908 with a '' Mittlere Reife'' qualification from a vocational

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, having completed training in salesmanship in a wallpaper factory in Breisach. From 1910, he attended an ''Oberrealschule'' (a higher vocational school) and also wrote newspaper reports. To finance his training, he worked as a

tutor TUTOR, also known as PLATO Author Language, is a programming language developed for use on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign beginning in roughly 1965. TUTOR was initially designed by Paul Tenczar for use in ...

. After his ''

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen ye ...

'' in 1913, Leber studied national

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics anal ...

and

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label= Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label= Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the ...

(then Straßburg, Germany) and at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau. He also joined the

Social Democratic Party of Germany 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 ...

in this year (''Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands''; SPD). In 1914, with the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Leber volunteered for military service.

Military service

As a soldier, Leber was wounded twice, promoted to lieutenant, and served after the war in the

Reichswehr ''Reichswehr'' () was the official name of the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first years of the Third Reich. After Germany was defeated in World War I, the Imperial German Army () was dissolved in order to be reshape ...

(regular army) with border security troops in the east. At the time of the

Kapp Putsch The Kapp Putsch (), also known as the Kapp–Lüttwitz Putsch (), was an attempted coup against the German national government in Berlin on 13 March 1920. Named after its leaders Wolfgang Kapp and Walther von Lüttwitz, its goal was to undo th ...

in 1920, he took 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 republic, constitutional federal republic for the first time in ...

's side. He subsequently resigned from the Reichswehr in protest, as some of its leaders had been behind the putsch. After leaving the Reichswehr, Leber received a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

from the University of Freiburg.

Political career

In 1921, Leber became the editor-in-chief of the social-democratic newspaper ''Lübecker Volksboten''for which then-student Willy Brandt also wrote in the early 1930s. He was also a member of the Lübeck

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural coun ...

from 1921 to 1933. As a member of the Reichstag from 1924, Leber concerned himself above all with defense politics.

Resistance to Nazis

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...

seized power in 1933, after which there was an attempt on Leber's life; he was detained, released after pressure from his Lübeck colleagues, and then arrested anew in March. In 1933 he was imprisoned by the Nazis and was later held in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp as a "dangerous opponent of the regime" until 1937. Following his release, he worked as a coal dealer 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 constitu ...

- Schöneberg, which camouflaged his more important role in the resistance to the Nazi régime, in which he was supported by, among others, Gustav Dahrendorf

Ralf Dahrendorf Ralf Gustav Dahrendorf, Baron Dahrendorf, (1 May 1929 – 17 June 2009) was a German-British sociologist, philosopher, political scientist and liberal politician. A class conflict theorist, Dahrendorf was a leading expert on explaining and a ...

's father,

Ernst von Harnack Ernst Wolf Alexander Oskar Harnack (15 July 1888 – 5 March 1945), granted the title von Harnack in 1914, was an official of the Prussian provincial government, a German politician, and a German Resistance fighter. He was arrested, tried and ...

and

Ludwig Schwamb Ludwig Schwamb (30 July 1890 in Undenheim – 23 January 1945 in Berlin) was a social-democratic jurist and politician who fought against the Nazi dictatorship in Germany as a member of the Kreisau Circle motivated by his Christian beliefs, an ...

. In 1940, Leber sought contact with the armed forces' leadership and got to know

Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg Colonel Claus Philipp Maria Justinian Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (; 15 November 1907 – 21 July 1944) was a German army officer best known for his failed attempt on 20 July 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the Wolf's Lair. Despite ...

. Thereafter, he was also in contact with Carl Friedrich Goerdeler and the Kreisau Circle around Helmuth James Graf von Moltke. Stauffenberg's circle foresaw Leber as Germany's new Interior Minister after their planned

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

Arrest and execution

Leber was betrayed by an informer among an underground

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

group led by Anton Saefkow, with whom he had sought contact. He was arrested by 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 orga ...

on 5 July 1944, fifteen days before Stauffenberg's attempt on Hitler's life in the

Wolf's Lair The ''Wolf's Lair'' (german: Wolfsschanze; pl, Wilczy Szaniec) served as Adolf Hitler's first Eastern Front military headquarters in World War II. The headquarters was located in the Masurian woods, near the small village of Görlitz in Ost ...

East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label= Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...

. On 20 October, Leber was accused in a trial before the '' Volksgerichtshof'' alongside Adolf Reichwein, Hermann Maass and Gustav Dahrendorf. Leber was sentenced to death, and executed on 5 January 1945 at

Plötzensee Prison Plötzensee Prison (german: Justizvollzugsanstalt Plötzensee, JVA Plötzensee) is a juvenile prison in the Charlottenburg-Nord locality of Berlin with a capacity for 577 prisoners, operated by the State of Berlin judicial administration. The ...

in Berlin.

Recognition

A bridge in Berlin-Schöneberg is named after Julius Leber and bears a commemorative plaque. The inscription reads "Julius Leber, member of the German Reichstag until 1933, sacrificed his life for FREEDOM and JUSTICE." The nearby S-Bahn station is named " Julius-Leber-Brücke". Square Julius Leber

A public square in the Neudorf suburb of Strasbourg, France is named for Leber. An Bundeswehr (army) barracks in Berlin is named after Julius Leber. The army coordination centre during the COVID-19 pandemic was based in these barracks. On 5 November 1991, the German Post Office issued a postage stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of Leber's birth. The stamp shows an image of Leber in profile with his birth and death dates.

References

* Dorothea Beck, ''Julius Leber. Sozialdemokrat zwischen Reform und Widerstand'', München (Siedler) 1983. {{DEFAULTSORT:Leber, Julius 1891 births 1945 deaths People from Haut-Rhin People from Alsace-Lorraine German Roman Catholics Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold members Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic University of Strasbourg alumni University of Freiburg alumni Executions at Plötzensee Prison Members of the Kreisau Circle People condemned by Nazi courts German Army personnel of World War I 20th-century Freikorps personnel Sachsenhausen concentration camp Executed members of the 20 July plot Burials at the Waldfriedhof Zehlendorf