Jump to content

Georg Ledebour

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Georg Ledebour
Georg Ledebour (1931)
Member of theReichstag
In office
1900–1918
Personal details
Born(1850-03-07)March 7, 1850
Hanover,Kingdom of Hanover
DiedMarch 31, 1947(1947-03-31)(aged 97)
Bern,Switzerland
Political partySocialist Workers' Party of Germany(1931-1933)
Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany(1917-1931)
Social Democratic Party of Germany(1891-1917)
German Progress Party

Georg Ledebour(7 March 1850,Hanover– 31 March 1947,Bern) was a Germansocialistpolitician and journalist.

He served as a stretcher bearer in theFranco-Prussian warof 1870. He worked as a journalist on several newspapers after 1875. He joined theGerman Progress Partyin 1882 and theSocial Democratic Party of Germany(SPD) in 1891.

He had a romantic relationship withLou Andreas-Salomebetween 1892 and 1894. During that period, Ledebour was sentenced and jailed for a year for a political offence.[1]

Ledebour was a member of the GermanReichstagfrom 1900 until 1918. He took part in the international anti-war socialist conferences atZimmerwaldin 1915, and inStockholmin 1917.[2]He was one of the leaders of the German Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) after the split in theSPDin 1917. TheMajority Social Democratic Party of Germany(MSPD) broadly supported the German government's war aims, and theUSPDwas opposed to the government.[3][4]

In 1918-20, the leadership of the MSPD wanted to restrain theGerman revolutionas much as possible, even to the extent of relying on the right-wing enemies of the democratic revolution and government, while theUSPDwanted to carry through the revolution and weaken or remove anti-democratic forces. Ledebour was involved in the political leadership, along withKarl Liebknecht,of the attempt in Berlin to overthrow the government headed byFriedrich Ebertin January 1919. This was poorly organised and was quickly defeated by the units of the German army and theFreikorps,and notably led to the murder of both Karl Liebknecht andRosa Luxemburg.

Ledebour remained in theUSPDafter the splits in that party in 1920–22, when most of the membership merged with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1920, and most of the rest merged with theSPDin 1922.[5][6]After a dispute with USPD leaderTheodor Liebknechtover party policy on the Ruhr occupation, Ledebour left the USPD and led a split named theSocialist League.After the parliamentary failure of Ledebour's Socialist League, his party endorsed the KPD in elections. Ledebour was also involved in front organizations of the KPD such as theWorld League against Imperialismand theInternational Workers' Relief(IAH).

In 1931 he joined the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (SAPD). He went into exile in Switzerland afterAdolf Hitlerbecame Chancellor of Germany in 1933. During this period, he was involved in journalistic activism against the Nazi regime and called for unity between the KPD and SPD.[7]

In 1947, Ledebour spoke out in favor of themerger of the KPD and SPDand died shortly after in Bern in 1947 after a long illness.[7]

References

[edit]
  1. ^Walter Sorell,Three Women: Lives of Sex and GeniusLondon, UK: Oswald Wolff, 1975; pg. 160.
  2. ^David Kirby,War, Peace and RevolutionNew York, NY, US: St. Martin's Press, 1986; pgs. 78-79, 193-195.
  3. ^David Kirby,War, Peace and RevolutionNew York, NY, US: St. Martin's Press, 1986; pgs. 46-47.
  4. ^David W. Morgan,The Socialist Left and the German Revolution: A History of the German Independent Social Democratic PartyIthaca, NY, US: Cornell University Press, 1975; pg. 44.
  5. ^F. Peter Wagner,Rudolf Hilferding: Theory and Politics of Democratic SocialismAtlantic Highlands, NJ, US: Humanities Press International, 1996; pg. 129.
  6. ^David W. Morgan,The Socialist Left and the German Revolution: A History of the German Independent Social Democratic Party.Ithaca, NY, US: Cornell University Press, 1975; pgs. 382-389.
  7. ^abMuseum, Stiftung Deutsches Historisches."Gerade auf LeMO gesehen: Georg Ledebour Biografie".www.dhm.de(in German).Retrieved2023-02-13.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Georg_Ledebour&oldid=1205615840"