Schumann, Georg

Schumann, Georg

 

Born Nov. 28, 1886, in Leipzig; died Jan. 11, 1945, in Dresden. Figure in the German working-class movement.

Schumann joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1905 and became associated with its left wing. During World War I he was tried several times for spreading antiwar propaganda. He joined the Communist Party of Germany (CPG) in 1919 and served on the party’s Central Committee in the 1920’s. From 1921 to 1924 he was a deputy to the Prussian Landtag, and from 1928 to 1933 he was a deputy to the Reichstag.

After the establishment of the fascist dictatorship in 1933, Schumann was sent to a hard labor prison and later to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. After his release in 1939, he established an underground organization of the CPG in Leipzig; the organization was to become the center of the antifascist struggle in Saxony. In 1943, Schumann became a member of the underground operational leadership of the CPG. Together with a number of other leaders of the antifascist underground, he was arrested by the Gestapo in July 1944. Schumann was subsequently executed.