Robert Danneberg

Robert Danneberg (23 July 1882, in Vienna – approx 12 December 1942, in Auschwitz) was an Austrian politician, a member of the Social Democratic Workers Party of Austria (SDAPÖ) and a prominent Austro-Marxist theoretician.[1][2] Danneberg was one of the architects of Red Vienna and he was killed in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942.[3]

Robert Danneberg Portrait

Life

Danneburg was born in Vienna on 23 July 1885 in to an intellectual Jewish family. He joined SDAPÖ and the Workers Youth Association in 1903. Danneberg was active in the international youth movement, and became the Secretary of the International Union of Socialist Youth Organisations in 1908, however when the war broke out he withdrew from his position because he thought working for the Youth International was pointless during war time so the chairmanship was given to Willi Münzenberg. In the same year, he became responsible for the educational and cultural programmes of the party and took on the editorship of the SDAPÖ educational journal Die Bildungsarbeit. In 1909 Danneberg obtained a doctorate in Law.[1][2][4]

During the First World War, Danneberg belonged to the 'Anti-War left' inside SDAPÖ. Nevertheless, he opposed division of the party and the launching of the Communist Party of Austria.[2] Danneberg married Gertrud Schröbler in 1918. They had two children together.[2]

Danneberg was a parliamentarian between 1919 and 1934.[1] Moreover, he became the president of the Vienna Provincial Assembly.[5] Danneberg was also influential in the municipal government of Vienna.[1][2] As the author of the housing policy of the Vienna SDAPÖ and a co-author of its municipal and taxation policies, he played a pivotal role in shaping 'Red Vienna'.[4] He represented the SDAPÖ in the Executive of the Labour and Socialist International between October 1931 and December 1935.[6]

Danneberg was arrested and jailed after the Austrian Civil War in 1934. He was, however, released the following year. After the Anschluss, Danneberg tried to flee to Prague by train, but was arrested again.[7] He was interned in three different concentration camps; Dachau, Buchenwald and Auschwitz. He was killed in Auschwitz in 1942.[1] An empty urn at Feuerhalle Simmering serves as his cenotaph in Vienna.

References
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  1. Kreisky, Bruno, Matthew Paul Berg, Jill Lewis, and Oliver Rathkolb. The Struggle for a Democratic Austria: Bruno Kreisky on Peace and Social Justice. New York: Berghahn Books, 2000. p. 420
  2. Lane, A. Thomas. Biographical Dictionary of European Labor Leaders 1. A - L. Westport, Conn. [u.a.]: Greenwood Press, 1995. pp. 242-243
  3. "Robert Danneberg Papers". 2009. hdl:10622/ARCH00446. Archived from the original on 2017-11-08.
  4. Blau, Eve. The Architecture of Red Vienna, 1919-1934. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1999. p. 135
  5. Blau, Eve. The Architecture of Red Vienna, 1919-1934. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1999. p. 33
  6. Kowalski, Werner. Geschichte der Sozialistischen Arbeiter-Internationale: 1923 - 1940. Berlin: Dt. Verl. d. Wissenschaften, 1985. p. 283
  7. MacDonogh, G. 1938: Hitler's Gamble. New York: Basic Books, 2009. p 99.
  • Kane, Leon (1980). Robert Danneberg, ein pragmatischer Idealist. Schriftenreihe des Ludwig Boltzmann Instituts für Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung (in German). Wien: Europaverlag. ISBN 3-203-50743-9.
  • Pacher, Roland (2014). Robert Danneberg: eine politische Biografie (in German). Frankfurt am Main [Germany]: Peter Lang Edition. ISBN 978-3-653-02815-7.
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