August Merges

August Ernst Reinhold Merges (3 March 1870 – 6 March 1945) was a German activist, politician and revolutionary. He was a member of various communist and syndicalist organisations; becoming one of the leaders of the German Revolution in Braunschweig, and subsequently a member of the Weimar National Assembly, convened in 1919 to draw up a constitution for the new German republic. In 1933, he came to the notice of the authorities as a "background member" of an anti-government resistance group. In 1945, after he was found dead in the little summer-hut in his son's allotment (where he lived for the last two years of his life) it was determined that ever since undergoing a succession of severe torture sessions at the hands of the security services during and after 1935, he had suffered without a break from the bone tuberculosis that killed him. His name is accordingly listed on the "Reichstag Memorial" to the 96 members of the parliament who died "unnaturally" during the twelve Hitler years.

Life Provenance and early years August Ernst Reinhold Merges was born into a Protestant family in 1870 at Malstatt-Burbach, just outside Saarbrücken (into which it has subsequently been subsumed). He was born just six months before the Battle of Sedan which opened the way for the rapid political unification of Germany, formally in January 1871. The outbreak of war forced the family to relocate to Idar-Oberstein in the hill country a short distance to the north of Saarbrücken. Fortunately his formidable mental abilities more than made up for his physical difficulties. After he grew up and took to public speaking, some thought him garrulous, others eloquent.

By the time he was six his father had brought the family back together, and he spent six years attending junior school at Idar-Oberstein. The family then moved away from the Saarbrücken area, settling in Melle (a short distance to the south-east of Osnabrück). August was keen to progress to secondary education, but there was not enough money for that: instead, in 1884, his father sent him away to Bremen to undertake an apprenticeship in tailoring.

After his apprenticeship he moved to Berlin where he pursued his study of tailoring at a vocation college. However, he became convinced that if he spent his life in tailoring it would only be a matter of time before his health was completely destroyed. There was still no question of being able to pursue higher education. Aged 21, and desperate to find an opening in politics, he wrote to the leading SPD Reichstag member, Georg von Vollmar, begging for help in finding him a way to an "academic education, in order to be able to devote himself to the socialist cause afterwards", and setting out his political abilities and experiences. The letter was kept, has been retained among Georg von Vollmar's papers, but there is no sign that its writer ever received an answer. Merges abandoned his course in Berlin and returned to Bremen where he supported himself as a wandering journeyman tailor. He continued with his programme of self-education: after his marriage he would work full-time for the party as an economist at their Alfeld (Hildesheim) trades union building. Between 1901 and 1907 the marriage produced four more recorded children.

Socialist activism in a period of accelerating social and political tension In 1906 he was finally able to abandon tailoring work, becoming instead a salaried party official, working in nearby Hildesheim and Alfeld. Two years later, in 1908, he was elected to membership of the Delligsen municipal council. He was by now gaining a reputation in the region as an effective political orator (or "agitator"). He took a leading role in Labour movement demonstrations, campaigning powerfully for democratic state elections, which meant campaigning against the contentious three-class franchise used in Prussia, whereby the 80% of voters paying the lowest amounts in tax had the same levels of influence in election results as the richest 5% paying the highest amounts. (The precise proportions varied slightly over time according to tax rates and levels of prosperity, but the underlying inequality would endure till 1918.)

In 1910 or 1911 August Merges relocated with his family to the city of Braunschweig, an important commercial and administrative centre for the region. Here he returned to his former trade, running a tailors' shop. He combined this with work as a promoter and contributing editor with "Der Volksfreund" (literally, "The Friend of the People". Founded in 1871, the "Volksfreund" was one of the longest established regional daily party newspapers anywhere in Germany. His written pieces, like his other political activity, marked him out as a representative of the more radical "left-wing" elements in the party. The overturning of "bourgeois capitalist society" was high on his political agenda throughout his political career.

Wartime Pacifist War broke out in July 1914. Socialist activists in the affected countries were appalled to see "patriotism" trumping "internationalism" in the party leaderships. In Germany though not all) of the party's members of parliament backed their parliamentary leadership group by voting in favour of funding for the war. Among the membership, more than four years of war caused a steady increase in anti-war sentiment, as the deaths mounted in the battle zones and extreme hunger became commonplace in the cities. August Merges was among many left-wing members of the party who from the outset campaigned energetically against the "capitulation of social democracy" in 1914.

In 1917 the party finally split over the contentious issue of parliamentary party support in for war funding. In Braunschweig, where anti-war sentiment was particularly strong, a majority of party members transferred their memberships to the breakaway Independent Social Democratic Party ("Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands") / USPD. Merges, by this time no longer in prison, was naturally among those switching to the USPD. He was in practice already a member of the Spartacus League and during 1918 also became actively engaged in the emerging International Communists of Germany ("Internationalen Kommunisten Deutschlands"), a short-lived anti-war group that had originated in Bremen, and which a few months later joined with other organisations at a three day congress held in Berlin between 30 December 1918 and 1 January 1919, to form the Soviet inspired Communist Party.

"He was derided and despised, just a little tailor, almost too small to be noticed, and badly deformed physically. He was always smoking a cigar: his cigars never went out. When you were with him, he would ask, 'did you bring a cigar with you? Then we can talk'". "Er wurde verhöhnt und verpönt, daß er nur ein kleines Schneiderlein war, kaum sichtbar und schwer körperlich gelähmt; dauernd ’ne Zigarre rauchte, die Zigarre, die ging nicht aus bei ihm. Wenn man mit ihm zusammen war, dann frug er: haste denn ’ne Zigarre mitgebracht? Dann können wir uns mal unterhalten." right|Herbert Wallbaum (a young socialist activist), 1918

The Soldiers' and Workers' soviets were now in charge, under their chairman identified simply as "Husar Schütz". Husar Emil Schütz is thought to have been a former infantryman, like hundreds of thousands of others recently returned from the military defeat in France. Two days later, on 10 November 1918 the Socialist Republic of Braunschweig was proclaimed by the Soldiers' and Workers' soviets, to be administered by a USPD government. At the suggestion of Sepp Oerter, the soviets proclaimed August Merges as their president. It was in many ways the high-point of his political career.

On 23 November 1918 Merges became a participant in the "Rat der Volksbeauftragten" (loosely, "Council of People's Representatives"), which was fulfilling some of the functions that would have been the responsibility of the German government, if there had been one in the aftermath of the resignation of Chancellor Max von Baden. When the assembly took a vote on 30 November 1918 to provide for elections to a new National Assembly mandated to devise a new constitution for a new kind of Germany, there were just two votes opposing the idea. One came from a member from Gotha called Geitner. This may have seemed a significant development, but larger forces were in play. During the first three months of 1919 the revolution continued to develop across Germany. Political differences were increasingly being played out on the streets: approximately three months after his election to the regional USPD party chairmanship, August Merges appears to have switched his own political allegiance to the Communist Party. Fearing arrest, August Merges nevertheless went into hiding in Braunschweig, living "underground" (with his place of residence not registered at the city hall). At some point over the next few weeks he fled to Berlin. Within the KAPD he was noted as a member of the so-called "federalist minority", calling for the dissolution of communist parties and the creation of "Unions". He was strongly hostile to any move towards a centralise organisation, and therefore also acutely suspicious of the recently launched Communist International.

Schöningen incident On 15 March 1920 August Merges addressed a political rally at Schöningen, a small town to the east of Braunschweig, and along the main road towards Magdeburg. He had been invited to do this by an action committee of SPD, USPD and Communist Party members that had come together in response to the opening salvoes, in Berlin on 12/13 March, of the (ultimately unsuccessful) Kapp Putsch against Germany's republican government. The workforces at all the significant factories in Schöningen were already participating in a general strike, and the agricultural workers in at least 18 small towns and villages around Schöningen had already been on strike even before news came through of the antics of Wolfgang Kapp. Mergers gave a characteristically fiery speech. With a return to civil war a realistic prospect, the speech culminated with a call to disarm the Schöningen citizen militia, on the grounds that "the bourgeoisie do not need to be armed". After the speech Merges pulled together an apparently ad hoc "workers' commission": these men were tasked with demanding the surrender of the weapons of the citizen militia from Adolf Lindemann, its leader. Lindemann, who was also a town councillor, was in the town hall while this was going on: when he became aware of the demand that he should hand over the weapons he refused. A section of the demonstrators now stormed the town hall and extracted Lindemann, applying a combination of threats and physical encouragement. On the town hall steps he again refused to order the hand over of the weapons. Initially the crowd let him go free, but then others of them grabbed him and forced him to accompany them to the castle square ("Der Burgplatz"), where members of the citizen militia had already gathered in order to protect the weapons stored in the medieval castle. Merges now joined with Mayor Schelz to try and calm the mood and dissuade the angry crowd gathered outside the town hall from following Lindemann and his captors to the castle square, but many demonstrators refused to be put off. Fighting broke out: according to eye witness reports the number involved ranged between 500 and 900 people. The first shots were fired shortly after midday, and the first person to be killed was a militia man called Tankmar Eisfeld. In the end nine people were killed, and at least a further twenty suffered significant injuries.

August Merges did not accompany the demonstrators to the castle square, but instead, according to reports, "disappeared". It was not till after nightfall that government forces arrived, "narrowly averting a further bloodbath", according to at least one source. By 20.00 order had been restored. A number of arrests took place the next day, and although it is unclear just how long the soldiers remained in town, but it seems likely that they had departed by 26 March, the day on which the factory strikes in Schöningen following the resignation from the council of Lindemann and an amnesty for most of the after most of the demonstrator-suspects detained following the fighting. It is not clear whether he was ever arrested in connection with the events at Schöningen during March 1920: if he was, he cannot have been detained for long. Sources do, in any case, mention that he was prosecuted several times in connection with his political involvements during the 1920s and early 1930s. Merges and Rühle inferred that acceptance of these ground rules was a pre-condition for attending the congress. The men from the KAPD objected to the centralised and bureaucratic structure on which Radek's guidelines were predicated. They objected to the idea of any sort of "power centre" for the Comintern. The organisational and structural assumptions underlying the congress preparations were, they asserted, opposed to the core values of the KAPD. Having stated their position, Merges and Rühle departed, and started on their return to Berlin. Before they had travelled very far, they received a renewed invitation to attend the congress, however, accompanied by an assurance that the KAPD delegation would enjoy full voting rights, and their participation would not be constrained by any preconditions. As far as can be determined, however, August Merges and Otto Rühle continued on their way home, without attending the congress itself. The idea was to replace the squabbling splintering parties of the far-left in Germany (and possibly internationally) with a single political and operational entity. In Braunschweig, along with Merges, the AAU gained approximately twenty members, including the former people's commissioner for education and culture during the early months of the "Socialist Republic of Braunschweig", Minna Faßhauer. Merges and Faßhauer also both involved themselves with the anarcho-syndicalist Free Workers' Union (" Freie Arbeiter Union") / FAU, appearing as guest speakers at FAU meetings.

In 1926 Merges was a co-founder of the "Spartakusbund linkskommunistischer Organisationen" (known more simply as the "Spartakus League Nbr. 2"). That year he chaired its first (and only) national conference. which took place on 20/21 November in Göttingen. In 1934 the group began to show its hand, producing a number of political pamphlet with titles such as "Kampfsignal" (loosely, "Battle call"), "Der Rote Rebell" and "Die braune Pest" ("The brown – i.e. Nazi – plague"). These were distributed in and around Braunschweig, presumably left in small piles at tram stops or railway stations, on park benches and bandstands, or in public toilets; wherever those interested might find them. August Merges undoubtedly was one of those working on these anti-government publications.

In December 1934 four members of the group were arrested by the police. Six or sixteen more arrests followed in April 1935. Sources differ as to whether August Merges was one of those arrested in April, or whether he was arrested only a few weeks later, on 27 May 1935. During his lengthy interrogation sessions by members of the security services he was subjected to serious physical abuse, suffering pelvic and spinal fractures. According to his son he was unable to stand up after the torture, According to at least one source the extent and duration of his suffering was intensified because, during his detention, treatment of his injuries was forbidden.

Merges faced trial, with others, at the district high court in Braunschweig early in October 1935. Found guilty of "high treason", on 7 October he was given a three year prison term. He served some of his time in the infamous jail at Wolfenbüttel. He was also detained for some time at Fuhlsbüttel, near Hamburg. Here he was identified and derided as one of the "November [1918/19] criminals": he was subjected to further physical torture. According to his son his weight sank to 74 European pounds (37 kg or 82 Anglo-American pounds) On 27 December 1937 Merges was released, having been deemed unfit for further imprisonment ("... wegen Haftunfähigkeit"). Following his release he was immediately taken into "protective custody" on the personal orders of Braunschweig's National Socialist Minister-President, Dietrich Klagges. However, his son Alfred petitioned the People's Court on his behalf, successfully obtaining a conditional release. The conditions amounted to house arrest, in that Merges was not to leave his registered place of residence, and was forbidden from receiving visitors. August Merges would remain under close security service surveillance for the rest of his life, and was subjected to regular, albeit from now on always brief, further periods of detention at the hands of the security services.

In 1943 or 1944 his wife and son Alfred managed to have August Merges relocated to the hut on the family allotment. This seems to have been located where it was easier for his family to look after him, and the allotment hut was sufficiently robust to constitute suitable sleeping accommodation. The allotment was bordered by a civilian internment camp, and he was able to strike up some sort of a relationship with one or two of the Polish and Soviet internees in it, as well as with several "reliable" (presumably politically reliable as in communist and untainted by National Socialism) German comrades. He was nevertheless still subject to surveillance, and Gestapo officers frequently turned up without warning. By 1945 it was widely accepted that the war would be won by the Soviet Union and its western allies, but August Merges did not survive long enough to experience that fearsome liberation. On 6 March 1945 his wife found him dead in the allotment garden in which he lived.

Celebration Ever since he emerged on the political stage, August Merges had numerous admirers on the extreme left of the political spectrum. A memorial on behalf of the political mainstream came in 1992, a couple of year after reunification, when his name was included on the "Reichstag Memorial" to the 96 members of the parliament who died "unnaturally" during the twelve Hitler years. However, the memorial indicates that he died in the prison at Wolfenbüttel. That is incorrect. He died in the hut on his son's allotment garden, which is where he was living at the time. Wolfenbüttel prison is nevertheless relevant, since it was one of a number of institutions in which he suffered the physical abuse at the hands of the authorities which caused his early death.