Friedrich Wehmer

Friedrich Wehmer (25 December 1885 – 7 February 1964) was a German politician of the SPD during the Weimar period and in the German Democratic Republic, where he served as a member of the Volkskammer.

Life

Early years Friedrich Wehmer was born during the closing years of the Bismarck era, near Schwerin, in the coastal region of central northern Germany. His father worked in forestry and in brick making. Wehmer was schooled locally between 1892 and 1900, and then trained for farm work till 1903. From then on he was employed intermittently by the Buchholz Forestry Office till 1941. In parallel to that, between 1912 and 1955 he worked a small holding on his own account as a tenant farmer.

Military service and politics From 1905 till 1907 he undertook his military service, and was then called up in 1914 when the First World War began, serving in the army till 1918. After the war he began to take an interest in politics. In the revolutionary year of 1918 he joined a workers' and soldiers' council. He returned to Plate and became chairman of his Forestry Office. In February 1919 he joined the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Later that year he also joined the Agricultural Workers' Union. In 1920 he also became a member of the SPD group in the regional assembly (Landtag) for Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Medal for Fighters Against Fascism (1958) Order of Karl Marx (1960) A street has been named after him in his birth town.

Reading list Martin Broszat and others (edited): SBZ-Handbuch: Staatliche Verwaltungen, Parteien, gesellschaftliche Organisationen und ihre Führungskräfte in der Sowjetischen Besatzungszone Deutschlands 1945–1949. Oldenbourg, Munich 1993, page 1053. Klaus Schwabe: Zwischen Krone und Hakenkreuz. Die Tätigkeit der sozialdemokratischen Fraktion im Mecklenburg-Schwerinschen Landtag 1919–1932. Verlag A. Tykve, Böblingen 1994, page 199. Martin Schumacher: M.d.L. Das Ende der Parlamente 1933 und die Abgeordneten der Landtage und Bürgerschaften der Weimarer Republik in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus. Politische Verfolgung, Emigration und Ausbürgerung 1933–1945. Droste, Düsseldorf 1995, page 172. Friederike Sattler: Wirtschaftsordnung im Übergang. Politik, Organisation und Funktion der KPD/SED im Land Brandenburg bei der Etablierung der zentralen Planwirtschaft in der SBZ/DDR 1945–52. Lit, Münster 2002, page 969. Berit Olschewski: „Freunde“ im Feindesland. Rote Armee und deutsche Nachkriegsgesellschaft im ehemaligen Großherzogtum Mecklenburg-Strelitz 1945–1953. BWV Verlag, Berlin 2008, page 528. Handbuch der Volkskammer der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, 3. Wahlperiode, Kongress-Verlag Berlin, 1959