Hermann Nuding

Hermann Nuding (3 July 1902 – 30 May 1966) was a German politician, political party official (KPD) and, after 1945, an opponent of German re-armament.

Life

Early years Nuding was born in Oberurbach, Baden-Württemberg on 3 July 1902. His father was a factory worker. An early ambition to become a teacher was thwarted by the outbreak of war when he was twelve.

Disgrace and Expulsion from The Party At the end of April 1945 thirty German communists, grouped in three teams of ten, arrived in what was becoming the Soviet occupation zone in Germany. The men, led by Walter Ulbricht, had spent the war years in Moscow: as matters turned, out they had used their years in exile to formulate a clear nation-building program for what would become the German Democratic Republic. German communists who had spent the war somewhere other in the Soviet Union did not necessarily share the objectives or strategy of the Ulbricht Group and during the later 1940s tensions between the Communist Party's leaders in the Bundestag, based in West Germany, and the men now governing East Germany, became increasingly apparent. In June 1950, at the Communist Party's sixteenth party conference, Nuding was condemned as the party's leading opportunist and the next month, in July 1950 he was stripped of party functions. It was reported in October 1950 that despite being seriously ill he had rejected an "urgent recommendation" to relocate to the German Democratic Republic. His resignation from the German Bundestag on health grounds in April 1951 came as the result of an instruction received from the Berlin-based SED (party).

The underlying differences that led to his resignation were numerous. Issues that triggered his disgrace by the Communist Party included his rejection of the Communist Party's official opposition to the German Trades Union Confederation (founded in Munich in 1949) and his further rejection of the party line that in the event of a war between the Soviet Union and her (former) western allies, the German Communists should actively support the Soviet Union. More generally, while there was unanimity between Nuding and the German Communist Party in opposing German rearmament in respect of West Germany, Nuding also held that rearmament of East Germany was similarly unacceptable: this was at variance with the strategy of the Ulbricht government and their Soviet backers.

Despite his exclusion from his party posts, Hermann Nuding continued to be listed as a party official till May 1955. He was excluded from party membership only on 17 August 1956, although even after this he continued to be consulted by party officials on political and trades union matters.

Personal Hermann Nuding was married twice. His first marriage to Paula Kopp lasted from 1923 till 1947. Paula then, in 1947, married Hans Rueß, and so is frequently identified in sources as Paula Rueß. Hermann Nuding's second marriage to Helene took place in 1957. Neither marriage gave rise to surviving children.

Hermann Nuding himself spent his final years in poor health as a pensioner in Luginsland (Stuttgart) where he died in December 1966.