Wolfgang Heine
Wolfgang Heine ( May 3, 1861 in Poznan, † May 9, 1944 in Ascona ) was a German jurist, Social Democratic politician, longtime member of the Reichstag, as well as Prime Minister of Anhalt and the Prussian state ministers.
Education and work
Heine met the son of the high school director Otto Heine (1832-1906) from 1867 to 1869 in private schools in Weimar and Hirschberg followed by a visit of the Gymnasium in Breslau. In the years 1879 to 1884 Heine studied in Breslau, Tübingen and Berlin first science and later law. Between 1882 and 1883 he did his military service. Heine was from 1881 until his expulsion in 1897 a member of the Association of German students. He entered this as a speaker and was a member of the club magazine Kyffhaeuser newspaper. He studied at the seminary of Adolph Wagner. After completing his studies, he was from 1884 to 1889 in the Prussian judicial service trainee and assessor since 1889. Since then, he had until 1918 and again from 1920 to 1933, a law firm in Berlin.
Political action and public mandates
In 1887 Heine went to the Social Democratic Party. He was one of the most important legal experts of the party and joined in many cases as a defender in political processes at. So he defended 1896-1897 Ignaz Auer ( and companions ), the defendants in connection with the riots in Berlin- Moabit (1910 /11) and 1912-1913 Julian Borchardt. In the years 1898 to 1918 he was a member of the Reichstag. Considerable importance was Heine for the formulation of the social democratic position in discussions on the Kingdom Law on Associations. In this context, he cited on behalf of the party executive, a " club of inquiry ," meaning a survey, to the handling of the old club right by. He also gave legal assessments on key domestic issues, such as the Zabern or Daily Telegraph affair, from. He also expressed himself in intra-party dispute to the budget issue. In 1917 he took part in the Bern meeting to discuss the international relations after the war.
After the November revolution until July 1919, Heine Member of the National Assembly and Chairman of the Council of State ( Prime Minister ) in Anhalt. At the same time he was from December 1918 to March 1919 the Prussian Minister of Justice. He was then in Prussia until 1920, Minister of the Interior. During this time he was one of the leaders of the right wing of the party. For Heine in his offices, the maintenance of public order in doubt was more important than the democratic reconstruction of the administration. The district administrators used during the Empire officiated continue unchallenged. If local workers' councils complained about the republic of anticompetitive behavior, Heine dismissed the complaints from most or ignored them. Even with resignations conservative district administrators Heine asked them usually to stay for the sake of " public order " in office. Similarly, Heine had complaints from local workers' councils on the withdrawal of financial support by the municipality parliaments in the spring of 1919 back. Among the omissions in his tenure also heard that it took eight months after the revolution, to the county and formed according to the three -class electoral system were replaced municipality parliaments. He also did little to fight the counter-revolutionary activities of the Freikorps, for example in Pomerania, in the summer of 1919. It is significant that the conspirators of the Kapp Putsch in advance seriously considered, Heine, Gustav Noske and other leaders of the right wing of the SPD offer offices in a future "national" government. At the start of the coup showed how negligent Noske and Heine had acted in the defense of the counter-revolution of law, when it became clear that the military and the administration were permeated by anti-republican forces. A condition of the trade unions to end their general strike after the end of the coup was also the dismissal of Noske and Heine. The two ministers met through their resignations before. The successor Heine as Prussian Minister of the Interior, Carl Severing, promoted the democratization of public administration and the police in particular. Also, because of the failure of the authorities he was forced to resign after the Kapp Putsch. From 1923 to 1925 he was a member of the furnished with the Republic Protection Act Supreme Court to protect the Republic. At the beginning of the Nazi regime Heine fled to Switzerland.
In addition to his political and legal work, Heine was the author of numerous legal and political articles. He was a member of the Socialist Monatshefte, the Berliner Tageblatt and the archive for social legislation and statistics.
Private
At least two sons, Walter Heine and a younger. With his close companions Hermann Bahr, he spent much time in the literary circles of Berlin, where he met Arno Holz and Johannes Schlaf. His eldest son (* 1890) attended the Free School Community Wickersdorf, at the inception W. Heine was involved.
Publications
- The Leipzig Autodafé. Unjuristische glosses of a lawyer. In: Modern sealing, 2 ( 1890) # 3, 565-568. (1 September 1890)