Geyer, Curt

(1891-1967)

   politician and journalist; edited the SPD's Vor-warts* during 1924-1933. He was born in Leipzig. His father was Friedrich Geyer, a founder of the SPD in Saxony.* Soon after he earned his doctorate in 1914, he became chief editor of the SPD's Würzburg newspaper,* the Frank-ischer Volksfreund, and turned the paper into a mouthpiece of the socialist op-position. His dismissal in February 1917 forced him to return to a position with the Leipziger Volkszeitung. (His father was among fourteen Reichstag* deputies to break with the SPD, vote against war credits, and form the USPD.)

   Geyer was a crisp and persuasive writer, an effective agitator, and Leipzig's principal USPD politician during the November Revolution.* He was the leader of the Workers' Council* and became USPD faction leader at December's Con-gress* of Workers' and Soldiers' Councils. After election to the National As-sembly,* he slowly lost influence in Leipzig to rightist elements within the Party. But he retained a leading position in the council movement, being one of the first to advocate Bolshevik methods in Germany. In May 1920 he transferred his activities to the more congenial Hamburg, becoming editor of the radical Hamburger Volkszeitung. Coeditor of the pro-Moscow Kommunistische Rund-schau from October to December 1920, he was among those who broke with the USPD to unite with the KPD at the founding congress of the short-lived United Communist Party (VKPD). He was sent to Moscow in January 1921 to represent the new Party, but came back disillusioned and, after opposing the VKPD's new leadership in February, broke with the Party. He was briefly in the Communist Alliance (Kommunistische Arbeitsgemeinschaft), but soon re-joined the USPD. The entire Geyer family reunited with the SPD in the fall of 1922.

   Although Geyer coedited Vorwarts from 1924 with Friedrich Stampfer,* he lost his Reichstag seat the same year and thereafter led a subdued political life. He emigrated to Paris late in 1933, helped Stampfer reestablish Vorwarts (re-named Neuer Vorwarts), and served as editor until his internment by the French in 1939. During 1938-1942 he was on the SPD's exiled Parteivorstand.He emigrated to England in 1941 and was London correspondent during 1947-1963 for the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

   REFERENCES:Angress, Stillborn Revolution; Benz and Graml, Biographisches Lexikon; Morgan, Socialist Left