Jacob Walcher

Jacob Walcher
Walcher in 1912
Born	(1887-05-07)May 7, 1887 Wain, German Empire
Died	March 27, 1970(1970-03-27) (aged 82) East Berlin, German Democratic Republic
Resting place	Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde, Berlin
Political party	Socialist Unity Party of Germany (1946-1951)
Other political affiliations	Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (1932-1946) Communist Party of Germany (Opposition) (1929-1931) Communist Party of Germany (1918-1928) Social Democratic Party of Germany (1906-1918)
Awards	Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold (1967)

Jacob Walcher (May 7, 1887 – March 27, 1970) was a German communist politician and trade unionist.

Biography

Walcher was born in 1887 in the rural Swabia to a family of poor religious Protestant farmers and learned the profession of metal working. He became a member of the German Metal Workers' Union and of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

After World War I, he joined the newly founded Communist Party of Germany. He was a delegate to the Second Congress of the Communist International in 1920.[1]

Walcher split from this party and become a leading member of the illegal Socialist Workers' Party of Germany after 1933.

In the German Democratic Republic he was a member of the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). He was the victim of a purge in 1952[2] but was re-admitted in 1956.

References

1. Delegates to the Second Congress of the Communist International
2. Ernst Stock, et.al.: Jacob Walcher. Gewerkschafter und Revolutionär zwischen Berlin, Paris und New York. Berlin 1998.