Sepp Oerter

Sepp Oerter (24 September 1870 – 14 December 1928) was a German politician and journalist. As a young man he was an activist member of various anarchist groups. He later moved over to socialist groupings and parties, including the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and, after the SPD split, the anti-war Independent Social Democratic Party ("Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands" / USPD). During and directly after the revolution, for two months during the first half of 1919 and then for more than a year during 1920/21, he served as head of the regional government / Minister-president in the Free State of Braunschweig (Brunswick). By the time of his death he had broken with the political left and joined the Nazis.

Biography Provenance and early years Josef "Sepp" Oerter was born in Straubing, the small town at the heart of the fertile Gäuboden region of Lower Bavaria, to the north-east of Munich. His father was a Bavarian "Feldwebel" (junior army officer). While he was still young the family moved to nearby Furth which is where he grew up. After leaving school he completed an apprenticeship as a book binder. He joined the Social Democratic Party ("Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands" / SPD) in 1887, but left it in 1890 after a radical youth group which he had supported was expelled from party. Together with his elder brother, Fritz Oerter (1869-1935), he now turned towards anarchist politics. With financial assistance from Emma Goldman, Sepp Oerter returned to Germany. He travelled via London where he arrived in October, and where the editorial group publishing "Autonomy" gave him a mission to take printed material across Belgium to the German frontier in order to effect a clandestine introduction of the anarchist propaganda to Germany. Sepp Oerter was able to complete his mission with the help of his brother Fritz who had stayed behind when Sepp had escaped to America. At some point between his release in 1902 and 1908 he also found time to produce an autobiography covering his time in prison.

In 1908 Sepp Oerter lost his various political after it "became known" that in the course of his work on "Der Freie Arbeiter" he had engaged in embezzlement. Personal rivalries and the "Henri Boinville affair" also played their part in his sudden fall from grace among the comrades.

During the ensuing months of power shifts between Soviet-council republicanism and parliamentary governance Oerter played a leading political role locally, having emerged as a leader of the Braunschweig Workers' and Soldiers' Soviet. Some sources describe him as "chairman", while elsewhere he is identified as one of several "Volkskommissare" ("People's Commissioners"). Approximately two months after the election of December 1918, on 22 February 1919 a minority coalition government for Braunschweig was constructed under his chairmanship, containing members of the USPD and of the "majority" SPD (as the SPD was sometimes known for a few years following the SPD/USPD split). As well as chairing the cabinet, he also held the "Finance" and "Internal Affairs" portfolios. Sepp Oerter's "Worker's Council administration" would later be characterised by Heinrich Jasper, a political rival, as the "dictatorship by an undemocratic minority" ("Diktatur einer undemokratischen Minderheit"). The administration resigned at the end of April 1919 in an atmosphere of resurgent crisis, with a general strike in the city and a brief invasion and take-over by an ad hoc alliance of Freikorps militias under the leadership of General Georg Maercker. A new coalition government, now headed up by Heinrich Jasper of the SPD, was elected and installed by the Landtag (regional parliament) at the end of April 1919. Oerter became Minister-president of the new government. His time at the top lasted little more than a year and he had only limited success in implementing his programme: the USPD was obliged to govern in coalition with the SPD. Nevertheless, sources insist that he continued to enjoy high levels of popularity with working-class voters.

Much of the energy of the USPD Braunschweig branch as they exercised their Landtag mandate was taken up with internal party disagreements that were raging nationally. Issues of the moment included whether or not the party should join the Moscow sponsored Communist International ("Comintern") and whether the time had come for the USPD to merge with the recently formed Communist Party of Germany. Within the Braunschweig party leadership team ("Bezirksleitung"), Oerter lined up with Rudolf Löhr on the side of Arthur Crispien. That meant opposition to Carl Eckardt who in the Braunschweig party branch championed Comintern membership and would later transfer to a version of the Communist Party. Oerter believed that the underlying principles of the USPD and of the Comintern were incompatible, and advocated closer cooperation with the SPD "Second International", for tactical reasons.

Exclusion from the USPD and membership of NSDAP During 1921 Oerter faced allegations of corruption and of deriving personal benefit from public office. On 24 November 1921 he was obliged to resign as Minister-president. His younger party comrade Otto Grotewohl took over the post. A few months later, in the first part of 1922, Oerter was expelled from the USPD because of these same allegations. There are suggestions that he avoided a prison sentence for corruption only because of a general amnesty which the government implemented, keen to avoid a return to more widespread insurrection. Between 1922 and 1924 Oerter continued to sit as a member of the Landtag (regional parliament), now without party affiliation. According to one source he joined the Nazi Party in January 1924. Elsewhere it is stated that in 1925 he stood (unsuccessfully) for re-election to the Landtag as an SPD candidate. After 1925 he withdrew from active politics. He died in 1928 due to a heart attack. His obituary, compiled by Erich Mühsam was published in the anarchist journal, Fanal.