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Karl Zörgiebel

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German politician (1878–1961)
Karl Zörgiebel
Karl Zörgiebel (left) in 1948 at the Rittersturz Conference [de] with Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf (right)
Chief (Polizeipräsident) of the Dortmund Police
In office
1930–1933
Preceded byJosef Lübbring [de]
Chief (Polizeipräsident) of the Berlin Police
In office
1926–1930
Preceded byAlbert Grzesinski
Succeeded byAlbert Grzesinski
Chief (Polizeipräsident) of the Cologne Police
In office
1922–1926
Preceded byPaul Runge
Succeeded byOtto Bauknecht [de]
Member of the Reichstag
In office
1920–1924
Personal details
Born(1878-09-30)September 30, 1878
Mainz, German Empire
DiedMarch 14, 1961(1961-03-14) (aged 82)
Mainz, West Germany
Political partySocial Democratic Party of Germany (1901-)
Military service
AllegianceGerman Empire
Branch/serviceImperial German Navy
Years of service1914-1917 & 1897-1900
Battles/warsFirst World War

Karl Friedrich Zörgiebel (September 30, 1878 – March 14, 1961) was a German politician and police official.

Life

Karl Zörgiebel was born on September 30, 1878, in Mainz. After completing his education, he apprenticed as a cooper. Zörgiebel completed his mandatory military service between 1897 and 1900. During this time, he served in the Imperial German Navy, including aboard the SMS Kaiserin Augusta.

In 1900, Zörgiebel joined a trade union, and by 1907 was a director at the Union of Coopers, Cellar Managers, and Helpers in Germany. Meanwhile, he had joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1901.

With the outbreak of the First World War, Zörgiebel returned to serve in the navy from 1914 to 1917.

During the German Revolution, Zörgiebel was a member of the Cologne workers' and soldiers' council. Between 1919 and 1921, he was a member of the Prussian constitutional convention (Preußische Landesversamlung). In 1920 Zörgiebel was elected to the Reichstag as a representative of the Koblenz-Trier constituency.

In September 1922 Zörgiebel became police chief of Cologne, a position he would hold until October 1926, when he was appointed police chief of Berlin. Otto Bauknecht [de] would succeed him as police chief of Cologne.

Zörgiebel's tenure as police chief of Berlin was marked by the events of Blutmai. On March 21, 1929, Zörgiebel had ordered a ban on demonstrations, in anticipation of clashes on May Day. Despite the ban, tens of thousands of people attended a May Day demonstration organized by the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) on May 1, 1929. On the orders of Zörgiebel and Prussian Interior Minister Albert Grzesinski, Berlin Police took an aggressive approach to the demonstration which resulted in the deaths of many protesters and uninvolved local residents. Clashes and strikes would continue into May 2nd and May 3rd. On May 3, 1929, the Roter Frontkämpferbund was banned, a ban which would extend to all of Germany on May 14th. From May 3rd to May 6th, Zörgiebel implemented martial law in the Berlin districts of Wedding and Neukölln.

The events of Blutmai had significant political aftershocks. Instances of police brutality against uninvolved bystanders drew condemnation from the liberal newspapers which would otherwise have opposed the communist-led demonstrations. Zörgiebel was also denounced by members of the Reichstag such as Paul Frölich and Wilhelm Pieck. The newspaper Vorwärts, published by the SPD (of which Zörgiebel was a prominent member) initially claimed that only 23 protesters had died, and blamed 'communist agitation' for the deaths. Blutmai is considered by historians as one of the events which forestalled the possibility of cooperation between the SPD and KPD against the rising Nazi Party.

In November 1930, Zörgiebel went into temporary retirement, with Albert Grzesinski taking over as Berlin chief of police.

On December 6, 1931, Zörgiebel came out of retirement to become police chief of Dortmund, following the death of Josef Lübbring [de]. He was one of the few members of the SPD that was not removed from government posts following the 1932 Prussian coup d'état.

When the Nazi Party seized power in 1933, Zörgiebel was dismissed from his position as police chief of Dortmund. Later that year, he was arrested and imprisoned at the Brauweiler Abbey. Zörgiebel was released four months later, and moved to Mainz. There he remained under Gestapo surveillance, and his passport was revoked in 1937.

Following the end of the Second World War, he became state police chief of Rhineland-Palatinate from 1947 to 1949, retiring on July 16, 1949. Zörgiebel died in Mainz on March 14, 1961.

In popular culture

In the 2017 German television series Babylon Berlin, Karl Zörgiebel is portrayed by Thomas Thieme.

References

  1. ^ Knippschild, Dieter (1998). "Zörgiebel, Karl". In Bohrmann, Hans (ed.). Biographien bedeutender Dortmunder: Menschen in, aus und für Dortmund (in German). Vol. 2. Essen: Klartext Verlag. p. 154. ISBN 3-88474-677-4.
  2. ^ Bowlby, Chris (March 1986). "Blutmai 1929: Police, Parties and Proletarians in a Berlin Confrontation". The Historical Journal. 29 (1): 137–158. doi:10.1017/s0018246x00018653. S2CID 159528044 – via JSTOR.
  3. Swett, Pamela; Swett, Pamela (2004). Neighbors and Enemies: The Culture of Radicalism in Berlin, 1929–1933. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521834612.
  4. Rosenhaft, Eve (1983). Beating the Fascists?: The German Communists and Political Violence 1929–1933. Cambridge University Press. p. 32. ISBN 9780521236386.
  5. Kurz, Thomas (1988). "Blutmai". Sozialdemokraten und Kommunisten im Brennpunkt der Berliner Ereignisse von 1929 [Social Democrats and Communists at the centre of the Berlin events of 1929] (in German). Berlin: Dietz Verlag. pp. 30–31. ISBN 978-3-8012-0131-9.
  6. Frölich, Paul (1929). Der Berliner Blut-Mai (in German). Berlin: Junius Verlag.
  7. Vorwärts. Vol. 46, no. 210. 1929-05-07. p. 6. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. Neukrantz, Klaus (1931). Barrikaden am Wedding. Der Roman einer Straße aus den Berliner Maitagen 1929 (in German). Berlin: Internationaler Arbeiterverlag. ISBN 978-3-96156-069-1.
  9. Balhorn, Loren (2021-05-01). "Berlins blutige Mai-Unruhen". Jacobin. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
  10. Bohr, Felix (2015). "Todesstunde der Republik. Soziale Not, Tumulte und Gewalt begleiteten den Untergang der Demokratie". In Mohr, Joachim; Klußmann, Uwe (eds.). Die Weimarer Republik: Deutschlands erste Demokratie (in German). Munich: DVA. pp. 211–220.
  11. Wißkirchen, Josef (2005). "Brauweiler bei Köln: Frühes Konzentrationslager in der Provinzial-Arbeitsanstalt 1933-34". In Schulte, Jan (ed.). Konzentrationslager im Rheinland und in Westfalen 1933–1945 (in German). Paderborn: Schöningh. p. 65.
  12. "Babylon Berlin (2017-) Full Cast & Crew". imdb.com. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2024-02-08.
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