Paul Singer (politician)

Paul Singer ( born January 16, 1844 in Berlin, † January 31, 1911 ) was a German producer, co-founder and chairman of the SPD and a member of parliament.

Life

Paul Singer was the ninth child of a Jewish merchant Jacob Singer ( * 1800, † December 21, 1848 ) and Caroline née Levy born (around 1803-1867 ) in Behrenstraße 48 in Berlin and attended from 1851 to 1858 the "Royal Realschule " in Berlin. He then completed an apprenticeship in his native city. Until 1869 Singer worked as a clerk in Berlin. 1869 to 1887 he was with his brother Henry Singer ( 1841-1920 ), owner of the " Women's Coats Gebr Singer", since 1887 privateer.

Politically Singer came from the bourgeois democratic movement. He was a member since 1862 of the German Progress Party and evolved under the influence of Johann Jacoby for radical democrats. To this circle belonged Guido Weiss, George Friedlander, Paul Langerhans, Franz Mehring, Ludwig Devereux, William Spindler and Ludwig Leo. In 1868 he came into contact with August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht. In the same year he was co-founder of the Democratic Workers 'Association and member of the Berlin Workers' Association. Together with Wilhelm Eich Hoff and Carl Hirsch he advocated the adoption of the program of the International Working Men's Association. A year later he joined the SDAP. Until 1878, he no longer appeared in public policy but in appearance, because he contracted tuberculosis and was sent to the Riviera for a cure and had to take care of the " Women's Coats Gebr Singer". Since the adoption of the Anti-Socialist Law Singer organized solidarity actions. He was among those who maintained contact between the party leadership in Germany and Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in London. After a fruitless search warrant Singer was made in 1879 under permanent monitoring of the political police. Nevertheless, he was in the following decades a major donor for the party. So Singer was 1879 co-founder of the Social Democrat newspaper. 1884 founded and he financed the Berlin People's Journal and was with Wilhelm Blos its editor. After the expiry of the Anti-Socialist Law in 1891, this newspaper was the basis for the re- establishment of the Forward, the central organ of the SPD. In the following years he was financially involved in numerous clubs and associations ups from the environment of the workers' movement. Despite anti-Semitic campaigns Singer was first elected in 1884 to the Berlin city council. From 1887 he remained until his death president of the Socialist city council faction. There he distinguished himself as an administrative specialist. Also from 1884 until his death he was a member of the Reichstag. In 1885 he was a member of the Group Management Board since 1890 and Chairman of the Group.

Despite its mandate Singer was on 29 June 1886 Berlin and a year later expelled from Offenbach. This led to a protest rally of supporters of the banned party. Until the return to Berlin in 1890, Singer lived in Dresden. Since 1887 he was a member of the executive committee and since 1890, first in collaboration with Alwin Gerisch and in 1892, together with August Bebel chairman of the SPD. He also headed from 1890 to 1909 with the exception of the year 1901, the annual Social Democratic party conventions. During the revisionism controversy in 1898, Singer turned Although against the ideas of Eduard Bernstein, said, at the same time against his expulsion from the party out. Singer was next August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht undoubtedly one of the main leaders of the German Social Democracy in its ascent phase.

Besides his work for the labor movement, for which party he was a Jew also an important figure in the fight against anti-Semitism, Singer was also in the area of social policy, through his work in Berlin asylum club for the homeless and through his work in the Jewish community in Berlin extremely popular.

On January 31, 1911 Paul Singer died unmarried in Berlin. His funeral on 5 February 1911 to the nearly one million people died, became the largest funeral march, the Berlin has ever seen. He was buried at the Central Cemetery Friedrichsfelde. The tomb, from designs by Ludwig Hoffmann and with a portrait medallion of Constantin Starck, was built in 1913.

In 1926, the Green Trail in Berlin- Friedrichshain -Singer Paul Street was renamed. In 1933, this street was named Brauner way, what was changed on July 31, 1947 in Singer Road.

Works

• Party members! Leaflet 1886
• Explanation. Workers of Berlin! Party members! In: Berlin People's Journal November 26, 1887 supplement.
• For Bebel 's proposal. In: The new time. Review of intellectual and public life. 16.1897-98, Vol 1 (1898 ), Issue 11, pp. 324-329 Digitalisat
• August Bebel, Paul Singer: Law Betr. invalidity and old-age insurance. J. H. W. Dietz Nachf., Stuzttgart 1889
• Report on the parliamentary activity of the Social Democratic Reichstag: November 14, 1899 to June 12, 1900 Refunded by Paul Singer.. Bookstore forward, Berlin, 1900
• "The struggle for justice ." A speech on the issue of " Mercantile arbitration courts " held at a meeting convened by the Central Association of clerks and Gehülfinnen Germany and the Central Association of Handelshülfsarbeiter public meeting in Berlin on 10 February 1902, an Appendix: On the history of the " Mercantile courts of arbitration ." Meyer, Hamburg- Eilbek 1902
• Social democracy in the community. In: . New World Calendar for the year 1902 Auer, Hamburg 1902, p 34
• Woe to the victors. In: The new time. Wochenschrift German Social Democracy. 21.1902-1903, Vol 1 (1903 ), Issue 12, pp. 357-360 Digitalisat
• The Prussian Congress. In: The new time. Wochenschrift German Social Democracy. - 26.1907-1908, Vol 1 (1908 ), No. 7, pp. 212-216 Digitalisat
• The Constitution and the financial reform. In: The Cultural Parliament. Vita, Berlin- Charlottenburg in 1909, 1, pp. 58-65