German politician, essayist and trade unionist
August Winnig
|
---|
|
|
|
In office
1919?1920
|
|
In office
1917?1918
|
|
In office
1917?1918
|
|
In office
1913?1921
|
|
|
Born
| (
1878-03-31
)
31 March 1878
Blankenburg
|
---|
Died
| 3 November 1956
(1956-11-03)
(aged 78)
Bad Nauheim
|
---|
Nationality
| German
|
---|
Political party
|
|
---|
Occupation
| bricklayer, trade unionist, essayist.
|
---|
|
August Winnig
(31 March 1878 ? 3 November 1956) was a German politician, essayist and
trade unionist
.
Early involved in trade unionism and editorship, Winnig held elected and public offices from 1913 to 1921 as a
Social Democratic Party
(SPD) member. As
Generalbevollmachtigter
("Minister Plenipotentiary") for the Baltic Provinces in 1918, he signed the official recognition of the
Latvian Provisional Government
by the
German Empire
(1871?1918) that ended German claim over the region, despite being an opponent of that renouncement. He was nominated
Oberprasident
of
East Prussia
in 1919, and pressured the
Weimar Republic
(1918?1933) to create an autonomous State in the eastern
Baltic Sea region
.
After his participation in the
Kapp putsch
of 1920 against the Weimar Republic, Winnig was removed from his position by the regime and expelled from the SPD, in which he belonged to the "social-imperialistic" wing. He then became more involved into far-right thinking and, along with
Ernst Niekisch
, joined the
Old Social Democratic Party of Germany
(ASP), a splinter group of the SPD with nationalistic tendencies. The ASP failure in the
1928 German federal election
led Winnig to abandon his revolutionary programme and join the
Conservative People's Party
in 1930.
Initially welcoming the
Nazis
in 1933 as providing the "salvation of the State" from
Marxism
, his
Lutheran
convictions led Winnig to oppose the
Third Reich
(1933?1945) for its
neo-pagan
tendencies. In 1937, he published a best-selling essay named
Europa. Gedanken eines Deutschen
("Europe. Thoughts of a German"). Translating a cultural rather than racial view of European peoples, the work diverges from the official
Nazi doctrines on race
, although it is tainted by
antisemitism
. Winnig wrote in his autobiographies that he went from being a Nazi sympathiser to a Christian conservative during Hitler's rule. Winnig died in
Bad Nauheim
on 3 November 1956, at the age of 78.
Early life and trade unionism
[
edit
]
August Winnig was born on 31 March 1878 in
Blankenburg
, the youngest son in a large and poor family.
He attended elementary class, then learnt
bricklaying
. Winnig joined the
Social Democratic Party
(SPD) at eighteen years old in 1896 and was a member of the Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 46 from 1900 to 1902.
[2]
In 1905, he became the editor of
Grundstein
in
Hamburg
, the newspaper of the
Maurergewerkschaft
("Bricklayers Union") and, in 1913, the leader of the national
Bauarbeiterverband
("Construction Workers Association").
[3]
Elected and official positions
[
edit
]
After acquiring the citizenship of the state of
Hamburg
in 1913,
[2]
Winnig was elected as a SPD member of the
Hamburg Parliament
and kept his siege until 1921.
[3]
Scholar
Robert S. Wistrich
describes him as belonging to the "social-imperialistic" wing of the party.
From 1917 to 1918, Winnig was appointed
Reichskommissar
for
East
and
West Prussia
and
Generalbevollmachtigter
("Minister Plenipotentiary") to the
Baltic Provinces
.
[2]
As holder of the later position, he signed on 26 November 1918 the official recognition of the
Latvian Provisional Government
by the
German Empire
that ended German claim over the region, what is known by the Latvians as the
Vinniga nota
("Winnig's note"). In order to comply with the demands of the
Baltic Germans
for a broader representation in the new institutions, Winnig delayed the withdrawal of German troops from Latvia and supported the formation of
Freikorps
in the region, with promises of land and settlement
.
[4]
In January 1919, after being appointed
Oberprasident
of
East Prussia
by the
Weimar Republic
,
Winnig devised a plan for the creation of an autonomous State in the eastern
Baltic Sea region
that would have included
Livonia
,
Kurland
,
Lithuania
and
East
and
West Prussia
, with the false assumption that the victorious powers of
WWI
would concentrate their demands on Germany itself and let alone a separatist eastern State. He wrote that "the East Prussian separatism was a special form of expression of national indignation", with the intention of entering into war against Poland to achieve statehood.
Although Winnig and the Baltic German landowners had in mind the integrity of the Reich, they talked about a "break away from Berlin" as a mean of exerting pressure on the rest of Germany to achieve their project. For instance, Winnig mentioned at the regional conference of the East Prussian SDP the threat of an ineluctable separation if the Reich did not take necessary measures regarding East Prussia.
On 4 March 1920, Winnig published a
memorandum
on the East Prussian question. He raised an abundant catalogue of demands at the East Prussia Conference on 9 March 1920, in order to obtain concessions from the Prussian and German governments for his autonomy demands
.
The failure of his separatist project led Winnig to participate in the failed
Kapp putsch
of 13 March 1920 against the
Weimar Republic
. He was then removed from public office and expelled from the SPD.
Revolutionary period under the Weimar Republic
[
edit
]
After his expulsion from public office by the Weimar Republic, Winnig became more involved in national revolutionary writings. He is considered by
Armin Mohler
to be one of the most influential thinkers of the
Conservative Revolution
.
[6]
Winnig was, along with
Ernst Niekisch
, co-editor of
Widerstand
, a magazine launched in 1926 to advocate
National Bolshevism
.
[8]
Winnig wrote in defence of the German workers, plunged into poverty by the post-
WWI
German economic situation, and denounced what he called the "
Versailles Diktat
". According to him, German nationalism had to embrace the workers as they were fulfilling the "German task", having replaced the role of the aristocracy.
Gregor Strasser
unsuccessfully tried to bring Winnig into the
Nazi Party
(NSDAP) during the mid-1920s.
[9]
In 1927, Winnig joined instead the
Old Social Democratic Party of Germany
(ASP). With the recruitments of Winnig and Nieskisch, the party intended to attract more nationalist voters outside the state of
Saxony
. Winnig claimed that the ASP would provide the foundation for a "new Socialism", with the workers at the front of a movement for national liberation. He theorised an idea of 'national' socialism based on trade unions, criticising the anti-German influence of bourgeois intellectuals on the workers' movements, and writing about the "infiltration by foreign elements" (
Ueberfremdung
) in the SPD leadership.
Winnig was an ASP candidate for the
Reichstag
during the
1928 German federal election
.
[3]
The party suffered a crushing defeat with only 0.2% of the votes. After the ASP published a revised party programme on 12 October 1928, from which the national-revolutionary elements were removed, Niekisch and Winnig both resigned their membership.
Winnig then abandoned its revolutionary programme,
joining the
Conservative People's Party
in 1930.
[3]
Nazi rule and later life
[
edit
]
Initially welcoming the Nazis as providing the "salvation of the State" from
Marxism
, his
Lutheran
convictions led him to oppose the
Third Reich
for his
neo-pagan
tendencies. Winnig then withdrew from politics to go into "inner emigration".
He later wrote in his autobiographies that he went from being a Nazi to a Christian conservative during Hitler's rule over Germany.
[11]
In his essay
Europa. Gedanken eines Deutschen
("Europe. Thoughts of a German"), published in 1937, Winnig gives a definition of Europe that diverges from the official
Nazi doctrine on race
, although it also strongly tainted by
antisemitism
. Writing about "spatial ties" (
Raumverbundenheit
) and "cultural community" (
Kulturgemeinschaft
),
[12]
he claims that the greater nations of Europe, along with the other less powerful peoples of the continent, all stem from the same superior civilisation, a legacy of
Rome
, the
Ancient Germans
, and
Christianity
. However, he excluded from that definition
Bolshevik Russia
, which he believed to be the world of the Jews and the
Untermenschen
("sub-humans") that only fascism could protect Europe from.
[13]
Printed at 80,000 copies, the book became a best-seller in Evangelical circles.
[14]
Winnig died in
Bad Nauheim
on 3 November 1956 at the age of 78.
See also
[
edit
]
Works
[
edit
]
Essays
[
edit
]
- Der große Kampf im deutschen Baugewerbe,
1910.
- Der Burgfriede und die Arbeiterschaft
(=
Kriegsprobleme der Arbeiterklasse,
Heft 19), 1915.
- Der Krieg und die Arbeiterinternationale.
In: F. Thimme, C. Legien (Hrsg.):
Die Arbeiterschaft im neuen Deutschland,
1915.
- Marx als Erlebnis.
In:
Glocke
4, 1 v. 4. Mai 1917, S. 138?143.
- Der Glaube an das Proletariat,
1924, new version in 1926.
- Die geschichtliche Sendung des deutschen Arbeiters. Die deutsche Außenpolitik,
Lecture in
Halle
, 1926.
- Das Reich als Republik,
1928 (collected essays and speeches).
- Vom Proletariat zum Arbeitertum.
1930. (special issue in 1933 with an epilogue named "After three years"; several new editions until 1945).
- Der Nationalsozialismus ? der Trager unserer Hoffnung.
In:
Neustadter Anzeigeblatt.
29 October 1932.
- Der Arbeiter im Dritten Reich,
1934.
- Arbeiter und Reich
(=
Erbe und Verpflichtung.
1. Auf falscher Bahn, 2. Die große Prufung
), 1937.
- Europa. Gedanken eines Deutschen,
1937.
- Der deutsche Ritterorden und seine Burgen,
1939.
Literature
[
edit
]
- Preußischer Kommiß
. Soldatengeschichten Berlin, Vorwarts-Verlag, 1910 (anti-militaristic stories; not published since they were forbidden at the time; based on Winnig's own experiences).
- Die ewig grunende Tanne,
1927 (stories illustrated by A. Paul Weber; contains the well-known story
Gerdauen ist schoner
, "Gerdauen is more beautiful").
- Wunderbare Welt,
1938.
- In der Hohle,
1941.
- Morgenrote,
1958 (collected narratives from various publications)
Autobiographies
[
edit
]
- Fruhrot. Ein Buch von Heimat und Jugend,
1924 (first issue in 1919; dedicated to Oswald Spengler.)
- Das Buch Wanderschaft,
1941 (extension of the last part of Fruhrot, contains Winnig's experiences as a journeyman bricklayer).
- Der weite Weg,
1932 (reports on his career as a trade unionist until the First World War).
- Heimkehr,
1935 (reports from his activities in the Baltic States in 1918 until the Kapp Putsch; there are also earlier publications on this subject in
Am Ausgang der deutschen Ostpolitik
, 1921).
- Die Hand Gottes,
1938 (autobiographical experiences from a Lutheran perspective).
- Das Unbekannte,
1940 (experiences of the realm of the supernatural).
- Aus zwanzig Jahren. 1925 bis 1945,
1948 (first published in 1945 under the title
Rund um Hitler
).
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
"Winnig, August, geb. am 31 . 03 . 1878 in Blankenburg am Harz"
.
Verhandlungen des Deutschen Reichstags
. Datenbank der deutschen Parlamentsabgeordneten. Basis: Parlamentsalmanache/Reichstagshandbucher 1867 - 1938.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"Winnig, August"
.
Bundesarchiv
. Akten der Reichskanzlei. Weimarer Republik.
- ^
Sullivan, Charles L. (1 June 1976). "German freecorps in the Baltic, 1918?1919".
Journal of Baltic Studies
.
7
(2): 124?125.
doi
:
10.1080/01629777600000131
.
ISSN
0162-9778
.
- ^
Mohler, Armin (1950).
Die konservative Revolution in Deutschland 1918?1932: Grundriss ihrer Weltanschauungen
. Friedrich Vorwerk.
- ^
Uwe Sauermann:
Ernst Niekisch. Zwischen allen Fronten. Mit einem bio-bibliographischen Anhang von Armin Mohler
. Munchen, Berlin: Herbig, 1980, pp. 219 ? 236.
ISBN
3-7766-1013-1
- ^
Stachura, Peter D. (2014).
The Shaping of the Nazi State (RLE Nazi Germany & Holocaust)
. Routledge. p. 97.
ISBN
978-1317621942
.
- ^
Winnig, August (1951).
Aus zwanzig Jahren, 1925 bis 1945
. F. Wittig.
- ^
Lund, Joachim; Øhrgaard, Per (2008).
Return to Normalcy Or a New Beginning: Concepts and Expectations for a Postwar Europe Around 1945
. Copenhagen Business School Press DK. p. 130.
ISBN
9788763002035
.
- ^
Nurdin, Jean (2003).
Le Reve europeen des penseurs allemands (1700?1950)
. Presses Univ. Septentrion. p. 222.
ISBN
978-2859397760
.
- ^
Popping, Dagmar (2016).
Kriegspfarrer an der Ostfront: Evangelische und katholische Wehrmachtseelsorge im Vernichtungskrieg 1941?1945
. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. p. 37.
ISBN
978-3647557885
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Rudiger Dohler
:
Ostpreußen nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg.
Einst und Jetzt
, Bd. 54 (2009), pp. 219?235.
- Klaus Grimm:
Jahre deutscher Entscheidung im Baltikum.
Essener Verl. Anst., Essen 1939.
- Max Kemmerich:
August Winnig. Geb. 31 March 1878. Ein deutscher Sozialist.
In:
Militarpolitisches Forum.
Neumunster, Holstein, 4 (1955), 3, pp. 6?15.
- Wilhelm Landgrebe:
August Winnig. Arbeiterfuhrer, Oberprasident, Christ.
Verl. d. St.-Johannis-Druckerei, Lahr-Dinglingen 1961.
- Jurgen Manthey:
Revolution und Gegenrevolution (August Winnig und Wolfgang Kapp).
In:
Konigsberg. Geschichte einer Weltburgerrepublik.
Munchen 2005, pp. 554?562.
- Wilhelm Ribhegge:
August Winnig. Eine historische Personlichkeitsanalyse
(= Schriftenreihe des Forschungsinstituts der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung; 99). Verlag Neue Gesellschaft, Bonn-Bad Godesberg 1973,
ISBN
3-87831-147-8
.
- Hannah Vogt
:
Der Arbeiter. Wesen und Probleme bei Friedrich Naumann, August Winnig, Ernst Junger.
2., durchges. Auflage. Schonhutte, Gottingen-Grone 1945.
- Frank Schroder:
August Winnig als Exponent deutscher Politik im Baltikum 1918/19
(= Baltische Reihe; 1). Baltische Gesellschaft in Deutschland e.V., Hamburg 1996.
- Cecilia A. Trunz:
Die Autobiographien von deutschen Industriearbeitern.
Univ. Diss., Freiburg im Breisgau 1935.
- Juan Baraibar Lopez:
Libros para el Fuhrer.
Inedita, Barcelona 2010, pp. 413?421.
- Reinhard Bein:
Hitlers Braunschweiger Personal.
DoringDruck, Braunschweig 2017,
ISBN
978-3-925268-56-4
, pp. 292?301.
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
Associated
people
| |
---|
Factions
| |
---|
Major
publications
| |
---|
Related
| |
---|
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
People
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|