Karl Mache (9 December 1880 – 19 October 1944) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

politician (

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together wi ...

). Between 1928 and 1930 he served as a member of the national parliament (Reichstag).

Life

Karl Mache was born in Deutsch Lissa, then a small industrial town a short distance to the west of Breslau, as

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

was known till 1944/45. Very little is known of his early years. He attended junior and middle school in Breslau between 1886 and 1894. He trained for work in the bakery and confectionery sector and worked as a baker's assistant in various places in central Germany. He was also active in the trades union movement, serving as chairman of the Breslau branch of the Bakers' Association between 1900 and 1908. In 1901 Mache joined the Social Democratic Party (''"Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands"'' / SPD). In 1909 he became a full-time trades union official, serving as the regional head of the Bakers' Association and based in

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; ) is the Capital city, capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river. Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archbishopric of Mag ...

till 1919, although for much of the time between 1914 and 1918 he was away from home due to the

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

in which he served as a soldier and as a result of which he was injured. After the war he was briefly a city councillor in

, before moving back to Breslau where he was based between 1919 and 1933 as a full-time

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...

official, serving as regional party secretary for central and upper Silesia. At the same time, between February 1921 and 1933, he sat as a member of the regional parliament (''"Provinziallandtag"'') for

Lower Silesia Lower Silesia ( ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ) is a historical and geographical region mostly located in Poland with small portions in the Czech Republic and Germany. It is the western part of the region of Silesia. Its largest city is Wrocław. The first ...

. In Breslau he also worked on an honorary basis (i.e. unpaid) for the workers' insurance organisation and was at one point chairman of the local health provision insurer (''"Krankenkasse"''). Between 1930 and 1933 he also served a deputy mayor of Breslau. On the national stage, between May 1928 and September 1930 he sat as one of the

153 Year 153 ( CLIII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rusticus and Rufinus (or, less frequently, year 906 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 153 for this y ...

SPD members of the national parliament (Reichstag), representing Election District (''Wahlkreis'') 7 (Breslau). In January 1933 the political context changed dramatically when the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

took power

and And or AND may refer to: Logic, grammar and computing * Conjunction, connecting two words, phrases, or clauses * Logical conjunction in mathematical logic, notated as "∧", "⋅", "&", or simple juxtaposition * Bitwise AND, a Boolean oper ...

converted

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

into a one-

party dictatorship A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a governance structure in which only a single political party controls the ruling system. In a one-party state, all opposition parties are either outlawed or en ...

. In the aftermath of the

Reichstag fire The Reichstag fire (, ) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday, 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Marinus van der Lubbe, ...

which took place at the end of February, the new government took the opportunity to arrest large numbers of people, including former Reichstag members who had represented left-wing parties. Mache was arrested in March 1933 and detained till December 1933. He was held at Dürrgoy and Lichtenburg concentration camps. He was re-arrested in August 1944, during the course of a mass round up of people with records of left-wing political activity, which came in the wake of a failed assassination attempt against the leader, and taken to

Gross-Rosen concentration camp Gross-Rosen was a network of Nazi concentration camps built and operated by Nazi Germany during World War II. The main camp was located in the German village of Gross-Rosen, now the modern-day Rogoźnica in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland, di ...

. Here he died a couple of months later. According to the testimony of

Paul Löbe Paul Gustav Emil Löbe (14 December 1875 – 3 August 1967) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), a member and president of the Reichstag (Weimar Republic), Reichstag of the Weimar Republic, and member of the B ...

, who was detained in the same concentration camp at the same time, the immediate cause of Karl Mache's death was a heart attack.Martin Schumacher (editor/compiler): ''M.d.R. Die Reichstagsabgeordneten der Weimarer Republik in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus. Politische Verfolgung, Emigration und Ausbürgerung 1933−1945.'' Droste-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1991, , p. 381.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mache, Karl Politicians from Wrocław Politicians from Magdeburg German Army personnel of World War I Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic Members of the Reichstag 1928–1930 People who died in Gross-Rosen concentration camp 1880 births 1944 deaths Politicians from the Province of Silesia