LAWYER MAY LEAD NEW GERMANY

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5303, 16 January 1947, Page 2

LAWYER MAY LEAD NEW GERMANY

KURI SCHUMACHER ENEMY OF NAZIS AND - - U COMMUNISTS ■ / French and -Russian newspap- ; ers recently criticised the British ■ Labour Party for inviting to England Dr. Ktfrt Schumacher, leader of the German Social Democrat Party. The purpose of -Schumacher's visit was to address German prlsoners of war still in England and, unofficially. to discuss with Labour Party officials the shape of the future Germany, foi which, it is expected, he will be ehief spokesman. The Mos-cow newspaper "Pravda': alleged that Schumacher had beer splitting the working class in Germany, referred to him as "a new Fuh rer in the making." French critics said that Schmacher's "get-togetber" with Britisl Labour leaders was designed' to exploit the "Sentimental soft spot" Britain has shown in the past in her deal ings with Germany. They quotec Clemenceau's warnings after th( 1914-18 war against a possible German resurgence which Britain faileci to heed. Head of Master Germany Schumacher," meanwhile, shrugs hi? shoulders and makes no comment. H' seems content to let his .record speal for itself. As the leader of the party whicl won the Berlin municipal elections traditional testing ground of German politics, Schumacher is now titulai leader of Germany — ^at least.of West ern Germany. Wlhen North Rhine-Westphalia Hanover, and S.chleswig-Holstein re ceive the powers of partial self-ad ministration, which, it is reported will be granted them soon, he is thman who will have the tremendouf responsibility of fee.ding the 22 mill ion Germans in these war-torn famin ravaged areas. Seyenteen months ago, Schumacher was almosfc - unknown to most of the Germans who now trust and admire him. At best, he was a memory of the distant years , of pre-Hitler Germany. He had been forgotten; since 193'3 he had been "missing." His life before then can be summe up very briefly. He himself has said "My life ' was very quiet and not ; bit extraordinary. I worked on : newspaper. I hecame an editor. became a member of Parliament, was arrested. . . ." He was born in 1895 in Kulm, i West Prussia. His parents were c the middle classes. After a goo early education, he went to universit. to study law. A few years later, a he neared the end qf1 his studies Germany embai'ked^ bn its firs imperialistic war. - Schumacher wa conscripted. He returned to his law course fou years later, a broken man. He ha lost one arm, and his health wa badly undermined. He hated war. Fought rise, of Na^is " ; His tirst job was with the 'Ministr; of Labour at Stuttgai't, ' in souther Germany. It was not long befor his deep Socialist convictions ha thrust hiin into the troubled politica arena of the times. Hs oratory an his trenchantly crit'ical pen hrough 'hnn quickly to the front. He ' bc came editor of the Stuttgart Socii Democrat "Schwaebische Tag-waeht-and a member of the Wurtember Provincial Parliament. Not lop after, he was elected to Ihe Reichstai Nazism was heginning its assau" on decency -and democracy, an Schumacher fought it tooth and nai His biting denunci'ations of Hitle and his followers and their "appea to the beast in men" stung- them 1 ' fury! He wqs a mapked man. There was never. much doubt abpu his fate when Hitler won to power i 1933 — lenst of all in Schumacher' mind. He went into hiding immedi ately. Then, gambling all on or.. quixotic gesture of belief in the demc cracy he still hoped for in Germany he ertierged from cover to attend on meeting of the Nazi-dominatec Reichstag. He was not seen agai until 1943, when the Nazis helievc. him so weakened — "finished" — tha they released him. The marks of what he suffered in those 10 years can be seen on his face to-day — a face that is lined, • drawn» gaunt and scarred. That his weak body ever survivc is miraeulous. At Dachau he wa; tortured and beaten ahout the 'hea( so brutall jr _that it appeared for : long time that he would lose hi sight. In this and other concentra ion camps he saw so many of hi. friends and.. colleagues die that i seemed his spirit as well as his bod; must ihe -broken. So, in 1943, the Nazis x^lensed hin to creep away and die quietly by himself. Ten Years' Gaol Schumacher himself says, dryly "The ten years' impisonment did noJ .impress nie very much. I am no. dependent on the material things o.' life." In 1945, after his crazed enemy •. had killed himself among the ruins ' of the city ' they both loved, Schu- *« .macher was able almost immediately to announce that the iSocial Democratic Party was reorganised. He had used the.two years given him by the Nazis to good effect. In. the race between the - conflicting- ideologies of . East and West he was first away from the mark and a little more than a year later, in the Berlin .elections, his party polled as many votes as the ' other parties together. He owes his success primarily to his brilliant, ironic oratory which. has captivated German audiences, to his hahit of marshalling facts into logical . realistic argument, regardless of whether it offends either friend - or foe, and to* the political acuteness that enafyle.d him to weld the scattered fragments of his old party once again into a poyverful political instrument.