111 Facts About Carl Severing

Carl Severing served as a Reichstag member and as interior minister in both Prussia and at the Reich level where he fought against the rise of extremism on both the left and the right.

Carl Severing remained in Germany during the Third Reich but had only minimal influence on reshaping the Social Democratic Party after World War II.

Carl Severing won a seat in the Imperial Reichstag in 1907 but lost his bid for re-election in 1912.

Carl Severing remained active in the SPD, including as a writer for its Bielefeld newspaper.

Carl Severing supported Germany during World War I in the belief that it was fighting a defensive war.

Carl Severing won praise for doing so with a minimum use of force.

Carl Severing attempted to build a strong police force in the conviction that its use would lead to less violence and fewer deaths than would the Reichswehr when confronting internal unrest such as the 1921 central German uprising.

Carl Severing was Reich interior minister from June 1928 to March 1930.

Carl Severing was faced with the increasing strength of extremist parties and with violence from both the left, primarily the Communist Party of Germany, and the right, including various Freikorps units and the Nazi Party.

Carl Severing had the Nazi SA banned in 1932 but in general resisted calls to ban extremist groups except when they posed a threat to the Republic.

Carl Severing remained in Germany during the Third Reich where he faced only minor harassment.

Carl Severing had contacts with some of the parties involved in the 1944 assassination plot against Hitler but played no active role.

Carl Severing was a member of the parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia until his death in 1952.

Carl Severing came from a Protestant working class family in straitened circumstances in Herford, Westphalia, which was then a province of Prussia.

Carl Severing's father Bernhard worked as a cigar sorter, and his mother Johanna was a seamstress.

Immediately after his journeyman's examination, Carl Severing joined the German Metal Workers' Union.

Carl Severing became the organization's secretary and in 1893 was elected to the local trade union cartel as a representative of the DMV.

Carl Severing was a correspondent and contact for the Social Democratic newspaper from neighboring Bielefeld.

In 1894 Carl Severing left Herford for Bielefeld where he gave up his employment in handcraft and switched to factory work.

Carl Severing then went to Zurich where in 1895 he began work as a skilled laborer in a metal goods factory.

Carl Severing became involved in the Swiss Metalworkers' Union, which had independent sub-organizations for immigrant German workers.

Carl Severing joined the local committee of German Social Democrats and the German Workers' Educational Association.

Carl Severing observed from a distance that the SPD in East Westphalia was beginning to follow a distinctly pragmatic course and that the party was considering taking part in the Prussian state election, which tended to be viewed with scorn because of the Prussian three-class franchise that weighted votes based on the amount of taxes paid.

In 1899, after his return from Switzerland, Carl Severing married a distant relative, Emma Wilhelmine Twelker, who was expecting his child.

Carl Severing rose rapidly in the field and in 1901 became managing director of the local branch of the German Metalworkers' Union.

From his base in the metalworkers' movement, Carl Severing extended his sphere of influence to Bielefeld's entire trade union organization, against fierce resistance from other unions.

In both 1906 and 1910, Carl Severing achieved wins for the workers without a strike.

Carl Severing's goal was no longer the dictatorship of the proletariat but the integration of workers into society.

Carl Severing first ran for a Reichstag seat in 1903, at the time still a hopeless endeavor even though there had been a significant increase in Social Democratic voters.

Carl Severing's success was in contrast to the overall Reich results.

Carl Severing began to write regularly for the revisionists' theoretical, and in the he wrote about his work in the Reichstag and his participation in various international union and socialist congresses.

In 1912 Carl Severing gave up his position at the German Metalworkers' Union.

Carl Severing remained in the pro-war camp during the following years.

Carl Severing viewed government intervention in the free market as "war socialism" and called for its continuation.

Carl Severing saw it in part as a step towards a democratic system and cooperation with other parties.

When Germany concluded a dictated peace with Bolshevik Russia at Brest-Litovsk in clear contradiction of the negotiated peace called for in the peace resolution, Carl Severing organized large demonstrations in Bielefeld.

The program of the People's and Soldiers' Council that Carl Severing had developed was aimed solely at maintaining public order and ensuring provisions; it involved no political claims.

Carl Severing was elected as a delegate to the first Reich Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Councils in Berlin, where he was one of the three chairmen of the Majority Social Democrats, the main group of the SPD after the USPD split off in 1917.

Carl Severing was appointed Reich and state commissioner and given the task of defusing the situation.

The decisions Carl Severing made were primarily an attempt to reach an understanding with the striking workers and to remedy existing hardships and grievances.

Carl Severing was able to settle the strike quickly using both repression and negotiations.

Carl Severing worked in particular to improve the food supply.

At his home base in Bielefeld, Carl Severing temporarily lost control of the situation.

When it worsened again due to railroad and miners' strikes, Carl Severing took repressive measures that included the dismissal of striking railroad workers.

Carl Severing took similar action against the syndicalists' attempt to impose six-hour shifts in the mining industry.

Carl Severing, who was in East Westphalia at the beginning of the putsch, helped organize resistance to it there.

Carl Severing made it clear that the movement could not be ended by military means alone and helped broker the Bielefeld Agreement.

Carl Severing tried to end the violence and eventually succeeded in having summary executions stopped.

Carl Severing's duties included control of the Prussian administration as well as its police.

Carl Severing changed very little in the basic structure of the Prussian administration out of respect for its effectiveness.

Carl Severing did not succeed, for example, in breaking the monopoly of lawyers among high-ranking civil servants.

Carl Severing pushed through the nationalization of the previously partly municipal police forces and established police headquarters and presidencies.

Carl Severing brought Wilhelm Abegg into the ministry to organize the new.

In principle Carl Severing saw a ban on anti-republican organizations as a last resort.

Carl Severing's graduated approach led to criticism from some Social Democrats who wanted harsher steps.

In March 1921 Carl Severing sent the Schutzpolizei to restore order in areas of central Germany that had remained unsettled since the Kapp Putsch.

Carl Severing wanted both to forestall the use of the Reichswehr and to test the new police units.

Carl Severing led the negotiations on behalf of the Social Democrats and succeeded in persuading the DDP to leave the government.

Carl Severing took up the fight against the right in accordance with an emergency decree from Reich Chancellor Joseph Wirth.

When French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr in 1923 because Germany had defaulted on its World War I reparations payments, Carl Severing was one of the strongest advocates of passive resistance as opposed to the active and violent resistance promoted and carried out by right-wing groups.

Carl Severing's fight against the right included banning the German Volkisch Freedom Party on 22 March 1923.

In spite of accusations from the right and from Reich Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno, Carl Severing did not ignore the dangers from the extreme left.

Carl Severing banned the paramilitary bodies aligned with the KPD known as the Proletarian Hundreds.

Carl Severing feared a shift to the right under a government without Social Democratic participation.

Carl Severing left Severing in office, hoping that it would win over the SPD to support the government.

The stalemate was overcome by the formation of a new Otto Braun government in which Carl Severing was Prussian minister of the interior.

Carl Severing made no further progress in the area of democratizing the administration, especially since similar measures were not taken at the Reich level.

Braun felt that Carl Severing was no longer acting aggressively enough against the Republic's enemies.

Carl Severing took advantage of a long illness of Severing's to move against right-wing politicians and groups and to make personnel decisions in the Interior Ministry without consulting Severing.

Carl Severing was subject to constant and sometimes defamatory attacks by the extreme left and right.

Carl Severing defended himself vigorously and the motion failed, but it took a heavy toll on Severing's self-confidence.

Carl Severing officially resigned on 6 October 1926 and was succeeded by Albert Grzesinski.

Carl Severing, who did not share his party's position, nevertheless gave the keynote speech in the Reichstag against its construction.

Carl Severing led the difficult coalition negotiations for the SPD.

Carl Severing began to reshuffle the top staff of the ministry so that the positions would be filled by supporters of the Republic.

Carl Severing said that anyone who did not see the positive could not republicanize it.

Carl Severing was at the forefront of those who opposed the referendum and resisted the attacks of the Hugenberg press.

Carl Severing was skeptical about the move because it contributed to the radicalization of the KPD.

Carl Severing considered more far-reaching plans to ban the KPD altogether to be unfeasible.

In view of the developments on the extreme left and right, Carl Severing felt that it was necessary to pass an extension of the Law for the Protection of the Republic, which expired on 22 July 1929.

Carl Severing pushed for acceptance in order to save the government, arguing that the compromise would be better than leaving the Republic to the right-wing parties, but he was unable to convince the majority of the SPD.

Carl Severing soon realized that the were only of limited use as a protective force for the Republic.

In large part at Carl Severing's urging, Bruning had an emergency decree issued that made it possible to take stronger action than before against political extremists.

When in the Reich presidential election of 1932, Braun, Bruning and others wanted to put forward Hindenburg as the candidate, Carl Severing was skeptical, knowing that the Reich President often listened to advisors from the right-wing camp.

Carl Severing organized the "Republican Action" which campaigned across party lines for Hindenburg.

Carl Severing was able to acquire funds from the Reich government and Prussia for the successful election campaign against Adolf Hitler.

Between the two presidential election periods, Carl Severing had Nazi Party buildings searched.

Carl Severing initially favored participation by the Nazis because he thought that it would de-mystify the movement.

Carl Severing took over the affairs of government and dismissed Severing and Minister President Braun.

Carl Severing was the last SPD politician to make a campaign speech on the radio, although his efforts did nothing to change the party's loss of votes in the July 1932 Reichstag election.

Carl Severing was arrested on charges of embezzling state funds but was released for the 23 March Reichstag session that dealt with the Enabling Act of 1933, which allowed the chancellor to enact laws without the involvement of the Reichstag.

Carl Severing decided against emigration after the Nazis gained power in Germany.

Carl Severing did not want to leave his followers, especially those in Bielefeld, nor could he imagine a life abroad.

Carl Severing was not arrested again, although he was harassed and put under surveillance.

Carl Severing withdrew from the public eye and initially kept away from resistance groups.

Carl Severing did maintain close contact with former leading Social Democrats.

Carl Severing made his stance towards the regime clear in small gestures such as refusing to fly the swastika flag, but when in 1935 the SPD in exile called for the Saarland to vote against reunification with the Reich, Severing spoke out in favor of it in the conviction that the Nazi regime would last only a short time and that there was a danger that otherwise the region would remain permanently outside Germany.

Carl Severing's son was killed in action during World War II.

Carl Severing declined any additional active participation in the resistance because he considered the planned overthrow far too risky and unrealistic.

In spite of his contacts, Carl Severing was not arrested after the failure of the 20 July 1944 assassination attempt against Hitler.

Immediately after the end of the war, Carl Severing advised the occupying authorities, first American and later British, on filling positions.

Carl Severing continued to play a leading role in the SPD, although his idea of a workers' party bridging the pre-war political camps was not realized.

Carl Severing nevertheless remained focused on cooperation between the SPD and the other democratic parties.

Carl Severing entered into dialogue with the churches, especially in Catholic areas.

Carl Severing negotiated with the Ruhr miners to persuade them to produce more and made proposals to reform the police force.

Carl Severing was criticized for his behavior during the 1932.

Those and other accusations were based in part on the lack of clarity as to why Carl Severing was able to survive the Nazi period largely unmolested.

Carl Severing tried with little success to fight back against the campaign.

Carl Severing had particularly heated disputes with Konrad Adenauer, who objected to the appointment of Severing's son-in-law Walter Menzel to the Ministry of the Interior and held Severing responsible for forming a government without Adenauer's party, the Christian Democratic Union.

Carl Severing was elected to the first state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia on 20 April 1947 and was a member until his death.

Carl Severing delivered the speech at the inauguration of the new parliament building.