Ludwig Frank
Ludwig Frank was a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party. He represented his party in the Baden Ständeversammlung in Karlsruhe between 1905 and 1914, as well as in the Imperial Parliament in Berlin between 1907 and 1914.
He was active as an organiser within the socialist youth movement, and emerged at an early stage as an advocate of political reformism in south Germany. He was willing to work with liberal politicians in matters of shared concern, such as the need for improvements in state institutions and working conditions. The replacement of the infamous "Dreiklassenwahlrecht" of Prussia was a particular priority, though he died before this democratic reform was enacted. Much of the reformist agenda that he backed was already considered relatively mainstream in Baden, his home region, but drew more concerted criticism in other parts of Germany.
During the build-up to the First World War Frank tried to engineer an understanding between parliamentarians in France and Germany. At his instigation parliamentarians in Switzerland invited German and French counterparts to a conference in Bern in order to progress the project by devising international criminal justice mechanisms that could contribute to the peaceful settlement of disputes between governments. The Bern conference was held in May 1913, but the outbreak of war in July 1914 demonstrated the near-term limitations of the project. Over the next few weeks of the war Ludwig Frank emerged as a leading and uncompromising SPD proponent in the Reichstag of a parliamentary truce for the duration of the war. Ludwig Frank volunteered for military service on 5 August 1914 and was enrolled into the Imperial Army on 13 August 1914 as a member of the "Mannheim Landwehr Battalion". Despite his passionate attempts to avoid the outbreak of war, now that it was under way he became convinced that "the foundations for unforeseeable progress will be laid in this war", as he explained in a letter to his friend and political ally Albert Südekum, sent from the frontline on 31 August 1914. His first experience of battle came on 3 September 1914 in a skirmish near Nossoncourt, a strategically located village in the hill-country south-east of Nancy. He was shot in the head and died a few hours later.
Biography
Provenance
Ludwig Frank, the second of his parents' four recorded children, was born at Nonnenweier, a village positioned to the west of Lahr and short distance upriver of Kehl, on the strip of fertile flatlands that has paralleled the right-bank of the Rhine since the river was channelled. His father, Samuel Frank, was a businessman. His mother, born Fanny Frank, and both his grandmothers were all the daughters of rabbis. Religion played no significant part in his own childhood and upbringing, however.School
In 1880 he was enrolled at the so-called "Simultanschule" in Nonnenweier, an elementary school at which children from Christian and Jewish backgrounds were taught together, and which he attended for the next five years. There were no fixed ratios, but during Frank's time three of the course teachers at the school were identified as Christian and one as Jewish. In terms of religious affiliation Nonnenweier was a mixed community. Census data show that there were approximately 200 people identifying themselves as Jewish, and there is no indication that Frank encountered concrete race-based discrimination as he grew up, but he would have been conscious of the low-level background antisemitism that persisted across western Europe during the nineteenth century.He was then prepared for admission to secondary school by the local Lutheran minister, and in 1885 transferred to the "Gymnasium" in Lahr, an hour's walk to the east, across the fields. His elder brother had already been a pupil at the school for several years. Ludwig Frank was not a particularly compliant pupil, but he nevertheless excelled at his school work. In order to avoid the daily trek from Nonnenweier he rented a room at Dillingen. While still a schoolboy, he joined the Lahr "Lessing Society" which a primary school teacher had established. A fellow member was Paul Engert, a lithographer and a committed Social Democrat who did his best to move the society in a socialist direction. Frank was strongly influenced by Engert and by one or two other politically like-minded society members. He was also influenced towards socialist ideas by Emil Hauth, the teacher and lodging house keeper from whom he was renting his room. The Social Democratic party was at this stage still outside Germany's political mainstream and was indeed till 1890, outlawed under Bismarck's "Anti-Socialist Laws... against the public danger of Social Democratic endeavours". Nevertheless, long before he left school Ludwig Frank had studied works by Friedrich Engels, August Bebel, Karl Kautsky, and Franz Mehring. Sources are largely silent over how much his parents knew about the parallel curriculum that he pursued after school hours: it is a matter for speculation how they will have reacted when they discovered that their second son was growing into a "socialist intellectual".
At the end of his time at school Frank passed his "Abitur" with a grade that placed him at the top of the list. As "Primus Omnium" he was given the honour of delivering the graduation speech on behalf of his cohort. This he did on 23 July 1893, taking as his subject "The importance of Lessing in his own time". His thesis seems to have taken his listeners by surprise. He drew direct links from Lessing's writings to contemporary Social Democratic demands. It was not enough to join with Lessing in the search for truth: it was necessary to follow through with practical consequences. Those feeling a sense of obligation to the Enlightenment icon must also take cognizance of the sufferings of the disadvantaged and dedicate themselves to the welfare of all. They must serve the "common good". Frank's speech created waves well beyond Lahr. In Karlsruhe the Education Ministry refused to provide the miscreant with his graduation certificate, relenting only after a large part of the press came out in support of the boy, and following a number of public protests. With the benefit of hindsight it becomes possible to see the speech he delivered when he was seventeen as the core of the political philosophy that would define his entire career.
University
In 1893 Frank transferred to the University of Freiburg and embarked on a degree course in Jurisprudence. He also took the opportunity to attend lectures on Sociology and Zoology. He performed his Military service as a ""one year volunteer" between April 1894 and April 1895. He was able to do this while remaining in Freiburg, which according to some sources permitted him to pursue his academic studies in parallel with his military training. At Freiburg he was a co-founder of the Student Social-Scientific Association, which combined social activities with intellectual debate. In the Autumn/Fall of 1895 he switched to the Frederick William University in Berlin. While maintaining his focus on Jurisprudence he also found time to take part in classes on Germany's unfolding palette of new and revised social legislation and - more critically - on Socialism. He was back at Freiburg when he concluded his undergraduate studies by passing his Level I government law exams in 1897. He would pass the Level II exams three years later, in 1900.Meanwhile, it was also at Freiburg that on 23 November 1899 Ludwig Frank received his doctorate in return for a piece of work on craft guilds in the Grand Duchy.
Beyond university
In April 1897 he embarked on his "Referendariat" work with a succession of small-town legal firms in Lahr, Staufen, Mosbach and Waldshut. In May 1898 he moved to Karlsruhe where he remained for a year, before moving on the Mannheim where he completed his legal training with two more firms.During this period Frank also published poems, aphorisms, short stories and "folk tales" in the popular left-of-centre satirical magazine Der wahre Jacob.
In 1900 Ludwig Frank embarked on a career as a lawyer in Mannheim, accepted as a junior partner by Dr. Julius Loeb, whose law firm he already knew as a result of having been employed there during his legal apprenticeship. It was clear from the outset, however, that he was more interested in working as a journalist in support of socialism and democracy than in any challenges or opportunities that his work as a newly qualified lawyer might offer. According to one commentator his decision to make his base in Mannheim, the largest industrial city in Baden, and directly across the river from Ludwigshafen in the "Bavarian West", a boom city thanks in particular, to the accelerating expansion of the chemicals industry, was no accident. The growth of the industrial cities went hand in hand with that of the labour movement and of socialist awareness in Germany.
On 1903 Frank moved on and set himself up in his own legal business, still in Mannheim. This might be construed as professional progress. However, according to at least one source it came about only after Dr.Loeb, managing partner at the firm with which he had been working, proved reluctant to renew his contract, on account of concerns for his very active involvement with the Social Democrats - still perceived by many, even in traditionally liberal Baden, as a radical movement beyond the political mainstream.
Politics and Mannheim
Frank joined the SPD in 1900. In the Autumn/Fall of 1903 he attended the Party Conference at Dresden as a delegate. The next year, in August, he represented Baden Social Democrats in Amsterdam as a delegate to the International Socialist Congress. Later that year, in October 1904, he joined the Mannheim "Bürgerausschuss" as an SPD representative.In 1905 Ludwig Frank was elected to membership of the lower house of the Baden Ständeversammlung as one of 6 SPD members in the 63 seat assembly. Less than two years later, in January 1907, he was also elected to the Imperial Reichstag. In that year's elections the SPD won only 43 of the 397 seats in the parliament despite receiving nearly 29% of votes counted and recorded. This was due to the uneven size of the electoral districts, which disadvantaged voters from densely populated industrial regions. Frank represented Electoral district "Baden: 11", the Mannheim-Weinheim district. He had also, shortly before this, taken over leadership of the Mannheim party branch following the death of the widely respected previous incumbent, August Dreesbach.
In Mannheim, described sometimes at that time as "The Stronghold of Social Democracy in Baden", Ludwig Frank's public and social involvement extended far beyond the local SPD. He was closely involved with institutions that contributed to the city's intellectual and cultural life. He was a member of the "Verein für Volksbildung" which supported a "Lesehalle" in the city's Neckarstadt quarter, down by the rivers. He also maintained cordial links to Mannheim's "haute-bourgeoisie" and intellectuals, and was a frequent presence at the salon events arranged by Bertha Hirsch, and was accordingly well networked with the artists, poets and culturally inclined politicians in the area. Frank was a co-founder of Mannheim's "Gartenvorstadt-Genossenschaft" and sat as a member of its supervisory board. He belonged to the local Peace Society group and to "Liederkranz", a Jewish choral society. Through his involvement these and other local organisations and activities Ludwig Franz became a well-known member of the community, respected by many whose party loyalties did not necessarily lead them to vote for Social Democrats.
In October 1904 Ludwig Frank established the "Verband junger Arbeiter Mannheims", drawing inspiration from the Belgian "Jeunes gardes socialistes" set up eighteen years earlier.