|
Hans-Georg von Beerfelde
b. 12 Aug 1877, Schloß Sommerfeld, Crossen, German Reich (now Lubsko, Poland)
d. 25 Sep 1960, Berlin-Nikolassee, West Berlin |
| Title: |
(Zweiter) Vorsitzender des Vollzugsrats der Arbeiter- und Soldatenräte Groß-Berlins [(Second) Chairman of the Executive Council of the Workers' and Soldiers' Councils of Greater Berlin] |
| Term: |
11 Nov 1918 - 12 Nov 1918 |
| Chronology: |
11 Nov 1918, elected by consensus of the Council's members [1] |
| |
12 Nov 1918, dismissed by decision of the Executive Council |
| Biography: |
| Future journalist and writer, Hans-Georg von Beerfelde graduated as military officer in 1897 and served in a grenadier regiment. During World War I, Beerfelde became an active pacifist and joined a revolutionary organization close to the independent social democrats (USPD). In January 1918 he helped organizing workers' strikes in Berlin and was twice arrested. Freed after the November revolution, Beerfelde, as a representative of soldiers' councils, was elected to Vollzugsrat der Arbeiter- und Soldatenräte Groß-Berlins (Executive Council of the Workers' and Soldiers' Councils of Greater Berlin) during the meeting in the Busch Circus on 10 Nov 1918. He became one of the chairmen in this body on 11 Nov 1918, but the next day (12 Nov 1918) he was dismissed after his attempt to arrest the Prussian war minister Scheüch, an action considered unnecessary by the Executive Council. Later von Beerfelde worked for the Human Rights' League for exposure of warmongers. After the Nazi regime came to power in 1933, Beerfelde was several times arrested. |
| Biographical sources: "Groß-Berliner Arbeiter- und Soldatenräte in der Revolution 1918/19. Dokumente der Vollversammlungen und des Vollzugsrates. Vom Ausbruch der Revolution bis zum 1. Reichsrätekongress", ed. by Gerhard Engel, Bärbel Holz and Ingo Materna (Berlin: Akademie, 1993); "Karl Hampe: Kriegstagebuch 1914-1919", ed. by Folker Reichert and Eike Wolgast (Walter de Gruyter, 2004) |
| |
| [1] |
Executive summary of the first metting of the Executive Council (11 Nov 1918) was published unsigned and does not mention the election of chairmen. The appointment of Müller and von Beerfelde as chairmen is noted in Vorwärts, No. 311, 11 Nov 1918. |
| [2] |
"Groß-Berliner Arbeiter- und Soldatenräte in der Revolution 1918/19. Dokumente der Vollversammlungen und des Vollzugsrates. Vom Ausbruch der Revolution bis zum 1. Reichsrätekongress", ed. by Gerhard Engel, Bärbel Holz and Ingo Materna (Berlin: Akademie, 1993), pp. 40-43. |
