Wilhelm Sollmann

Friedrich Wilhelm Sollmann (1 April 1881 – 6 January 1951), later William Frederick Sollmann, was a German journalist, politician, and interior minister of the Weimar Republic. In 1919, he was on the staff of the German delegation that was to receive the Treaty of Versailles. In 1933, he emigrated and eventually moved to the United States where he became an advocate for the peaceful resolution of conflicts.

Life

Early life in the German Empire Wilhelm Sollmann was born on 2 April 1881 in , Saxe-Meiningen (today a part of Sonneberg, Thuringia). His father was Johan Jakob Sollmann, a brewer and farmer in Oberlind and after 1889 tenant of the Ratskeller at Coburg. His mother was Christiane Sollmann, inn keeper. After the move to Coburg, Wilhelm attended the Casimirianum gymnasium from 1891 to 1897, when he had to leave due to the family's financial difficulties. That year, his family moved to Cologne. There, he began work as an apprentice (kaufmännische Lehre). From 1901-11 he worked as a Handlungsgehilfe whilst attending night school at the Handelshochschule Köln. Originally rooted in Lutheran Christianity, he was a member of the Internationaler Guttempler-Orden and the CVJM. However, in 1902 he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and in 1907 co-founded the Workers' Youth at Cologne. He was also active in the temperance movement and was chairman of the Arbeiter-Abstinenzbewegung (workers' temperance movement, 1906–10). He was also a member of the Angestelltengwerkschaft (white-collar workers' union). In 1906, Sollmann married Anna Katharina (Käthe, Kate) née Grümmer (born 1883, died before 1975). They had one daughter, Elfriede (1912–97). In 1908, Sollmann became a Freidenker.

In 1911, Sollmann became editor of the socialdemocratic newspaper Fränkischer Volksfreund at Würzburg, but soon returned to Cologne where he became editor (1912) and later editor-in-chief (1920–33) of the Rheinische Zeitung. During World War I, Sollmann was the chairman of the social democratic union (Verein) of Cologne.

On 6 January 1951, Sollmann died in Mount Carmel, Connecticut.

A street in Cologne is named after him.

Works "Zum Ausbau unserer sozialistischen Jugendbewegung", in: Die Neue Zeit, Wochenschrift der deutschen Sozialdemokratie, 1911 Der Kölner Polizeiprozeß vom 7. – 17. 1. 1914, 1914 "Ernährungsbeirat von Frauen", in: Die Gleichheit 26, 1916 Die Revolution in Köln, 1918 Sozialismus der Tat, 1925 "Untergang Amerikas", in: Studierstube 23, 1927 "Antwort an Josef Wirth, Wahlrecht und Parteien", in: Deutsche Republik 3, 1929 Presse und Kommunalverwaltung, in: Vorträge und Abhandlungen internationaler Institute (Köln), R. 11, 1930 "Jugend und Partei", in: Neue Blätter für den Sozialismus 2, 1931 Alkohol und öffentliche Meinung, in: Alkoholismus, Gesundheitspolitik, Gesundheitswirtschaft, 1931 "Schankstätten und Sozialhygiene", in: Zeitschrift für Gesundheitsverwaltung und Gesundheitsfürsorge 1, 1932 Der politische Antisemitismus, in: Gegen die Phrase vom jüdischen Schädling, 1933 "Sozialistische Machtpolitik", in: Zeitschrift für Sozialismus 2, 1935, pp. 758–65 Religion and Politics, 1941 German Labour, Hitler's Nemesis, in: Peace Aim Leaflets 1, 1943 Educational Reconstruction in Germany, in: Schoolmen's Week Proceedings, 1944 Zwischen Krieg und Frieden, 1948