Erkelenz, Anton

(1878-1945)

   politician; chairman of the DDP exec-utive board and among the Republic s champions. Born in Neuss in the Rhine-land,* he apprenticed as a locksmith and lathe operator. Following studies at a technical school, he became secretary in 1902 at the Düsseldorf office of the nonsocialist Hirsch-Duncker Federation of Labor Associations. Although Hirsch-Duncker advocated self-help and antistatism, Erkelenz was drawn to Friedrich Naumann s* social liberalism, which aimed at diminishing class ten-sions and achieving social harmony. Already thirty-six and married when World War I erupted, he nevertheless enlisted and, despite a severe wound suffered in 1915, remained in the army until 1917. During the Armistice* he joined the Neuss Workers' and Soldiers' Council* and helped found the German Trade-Union Federation* (Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund, or DGB), which linked Hirsch-Duncker with the League of Christian Trade Unions.

   Upon learning of the formation of the DDP, Erkelenz abandoned efforts to revive Düsseldorfs Progressive Party, campaigned as a labor leader, and was elected to the National Assembly.* He soon led the left wing of the DDP s parliamentary faction. As an outspoken advocate for the 1919 Factory Council Law,* he antagonized Party colleagues on the Right. Although he was elected chairman of the Party s Vorstand (executive) at the 1921 Party Congress, a position second in importance to that of DDP chairman Carl Petersen,* the victory was offset when Hermann Fischer, leader of the right wing, was named his deputy. Until he retired, Erkelenz fought incessantly with Fischer, often over cooperation with the SPD.

   By the mid-1920s Erkelenz had reembraced the Hirsch-Duncker concepts of self-help and union self-administration. Although his ideas remained imprecise, he was most concerned with moderating class struggle and giving workers a larger share in industry s decision-making process. He was an adherent of Gus-tav Stresemann s* foreign policy, but he opposed DDP efforts to form a stronger relationship with the DVP (Stresemann's Party); instead, he wanted the DDP to bridge the gap between labor and the middle class. His final years in the Party were marked by frustration and bitter rivalry with Erich Koch-Weser* and Fi-scher. His relationship with Gertrud Baumer,* with whom he had worked as a coeditor of Naumann s Die Hilfe since before the war, was also strained. Mental and physical breakdown forced his retirement in 1929; disapproval of the DDP s shift to the Right in 1930, exemplified by its alliance with Jungdo* and its transformation into the DStP, led him to join the SPD.

   From 1928 Erkelenz engaged in a futile effort to fuse Germany s three trade-union* federations. When the Nazis dissolved the unions in May 1933, he re-turned to private life, but persisted in his outspoken opposition to Hitler.* Although he survived World War II despite close ties with members of the resistance, he was stabbed to death by Soviet soldiers while defending his home on 25 April 1945.

   REFERENCES:Benz and Graml, Biographisches Lexikon; Frye, Liberal Democrats; Larry Jones, German Liberalism.