Paul Löbe
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Paul Löbe (born December 14, 1875 in Liegnitz, Silesia; died August 3, 1967 in Bonn) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).
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[edit] Life and career
Löbe was trained as a typesetter and in 1898 founded the local branch of the SPD in Ilmenau, Thuringia where he also worked in a printing works. Between 1900 and 1920 he was the editor-in-chief of the Breslau Volkswacht. His journalistic work often landed him in prison, for instance, when he called on readers to come to a demonstration to protest against the Prussian three-class franchise. In 1901 he married Clara Schaller. He did not serve in the First World War as he was not called up on account of an illness of the lungs.
Löbe was imprisoned by the Nazis after the Machtergreifung in 1933, and again in 1944 after the July 20 plot because of his connections with Carl Friedrich Goerdeler's resistance circle.
In 1945 he joined the staff of the daily newspaper Das Volk, and later became co-publisher of the Telegraf.
[edit] Party
Löbe had joined the SPD in 1895 and in 1933 was briefly its leader. After the Second World War he was instrumental in the reconstruction of the party.
[edit] Elected positions
In 1904 Löbe was elected to Breslau's city government and from 1915 to 1920 served as a member of the provincial Landtag of Silesia. In 1919 he became the vice president of the Weimar National Assembly and from 1920 to 1933 he was a member of the German Reichstag, serving as Reichstag president from 1920 to 1924 and from 1925 to 1932 and vice-president from 1932 to 1933. In 1921 he became a member of the Prussian state council.
Löbe was a member of the Parlamentarischer Rat between 1948 and 1949 and the deputy chairman of the SPD faction. Finally. from 1949 to 1953, Löbe was a member of the Bundestag. He was the oldest member of the Bundestag in its first legislative period, though he was not an elected member, but rather appointed by the senate of West Berlin as their non-voting delegate to Bonn. He was the earliest-born member of the Bundestag; the second earliest was Konrad Adenauer, whom Löbe survived by three and a half months.
[edit] Honorary positions
From 1949 to 1954 he was president of the German Council of the European Movement and in 1954 he became the president of the Kuratorium Unteilbares Deutschland.
[edit] Honours
1951 Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
1955 Honorary citizen of the City of Berlin.
[edit] Publications
- Löbe, Paul, Gegenwartsfragen des Parlamentarismus, in: Für und Wider. Lebensfragen deutscher Politik, Offenbach am Main, 1952, pp. 39 to 48.
- Löbe, Paul, Aus dem Parlamentarischen Leben, in: Hessische Hochschulwochen für Staatswissenschaftliche Fortbildung, Volume 3, 1953, pp. 312 to 318.
- Löbe, Paul, Der Weg war lang. Lebenserinnerungen, Berlin, 1954 (third edition)
[edit] Miscellaneous
One of the new parliamentary buildings which serves Bundestag members in Berlin is named after Paul Löbe.
