Martin Hoop
Encyclopedia
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
in Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
and a supporter of the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
presidential candidate Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Thälmann was the leader of the Communist Party of Germany during much of the Weimar Republic. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and held in solitary confinement for eleven years, before being shot in Buchenwald on Adolf Hitler's orders in 1944...
.
Life
Hoop was born in Lägerdorf northwest of HamburgHamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
. His father was the cottager and painter Johann Martin Hoop (1864–1939). His mother was Catharine Wilhelmine Augusta née Paulsen (1863–1962). Martin was the second oldest of six brothers and a sister - Heinrich, Johannes, Wilhelm, Helene, Max (died in infancy), Walter, Bernhard. After elementary school, Martin Hoop undertook an apprenticeship as electrician in Hamburg. During his apprenticeship, he joined a trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
and became a member of a workers' singing group
Men's chorus
A men's chorus or male voice choir , is a choir consisting of men who sing with either a tenor or bass voice, and whose voices are arranged into high and low tenors , and high and low basses —and shortened to the letters TTBB...
. After his apprenticeship, he traveled. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
he served in heavy artillery, then trained as radio operator and served on the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
.
At the end of the war Hoop went to Bautzen
Bautzen
Bautzen is a hill-top town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and administrative centre of the eponymous district. It is located on the Spree River. As of 2008, its population is 41,161...
where on December 28, 1918 he married Anna Elizabeth Frieda Holtsch. In Bautzen he and his wife joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany was a short-lived political party in Germany during the Second Reich and the Weimar Republic. The organization was established in 1917 as the result of a split of left wing members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany...
(USPD). After establishment of the Communist Party of Germany
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
(KPD), he became a member of the local Bautzen chapter, in which he served as chairman, as well as member of the KPD of the District of Bautzen. In 1924 he was elected to the Bautzen Town Council, as well as became chairman of the Red Front Fighter Federation
Rotfrontkämpferbund
Rotfrontkämpferbund was a paramilitary organization of the Communist Party of Germany created on 18 July 1924 during the Weimar Republic. Its first leader was Ernst Thälmann...
in Bautzen. At the end of 1926 he was appointed Secretary of the KPD in east Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
and moved to Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, where he and his wife resided in the Dresden city-district Plauen at Hegerstrasse 10.
The marriage with Frieda remained childless. After divorce (March 27, 1931), Hoop became Secretary of the KPD in the district of Zwickau
Zwickau
Zwickau in Germany, former seat of the government of the south-western region of the Free State of Saxony, belongs to an industrial and economical core region. Nowadays it is the capital city of the district of Zwickau...
. In this capacity he was active in organizing protests and demonstrations in opposition to the impending seizure of power
Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
by the National Socialist German Workers Party
National Socialist German Workers Party
The National Socialist German Workers' Party , commonly known in English as the Nazi Party, was a political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945. Its predecessor, the German Workers' Party , existed from 1919 to 1920...
, as well as preparing for undercover work for the KPD. In early 1933, under the pseudonym 'Peter', Hoop conducted undercover work in Chemnitz
Chemnitz
Chemnitz is the third-largest city of the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Chemnitz is an independent city which is not part of any county and seat of the government region Direktionsbezirk Chemnitz. Located in the northern foothills of the Ore Mountains, it is a part of the Saxon triangle...
.
Arrest and death
Circumstances of the arrest of Martin Hoop indicate that no legal proceedings took place against him and/or that no warrant for his arrest was issued. Very probably the secret state police (GestapoGestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
) or storm troopers (Sturmabteilung
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
) took him into custody because of his political activity. In East German law records, there are two cases in the year 1933 concerning crimes in the concentration camp Schloss Osterstein in Zwickau
Osterstein Castle
Osterstein Castle is the former castle of the town of Zwickau, Germany, in Saxony . Now it houses the nursing home.- History :...
, in which Hoop is mentioned. The first case record contains the following entry (cf link under ref 7 for dates of cases):
A second case concerning espionage for the Nazi regime contains the following entry.
Evidently the accused (Z) betrayed Martin Hoop. On May 2, 1933 (cf also Gleichschaltung
Gleichschaltung
Gleichschaltung , meaning "coordination", "making the same", "bringing into line", is a Nazi term for the process by which the Nazi regime successively established a system of totalitarian control and tight coordination over all aspects of society. The historian Richard J...
), Hoop was arrested in the café restaurant of the department store "Tietz"
Kulturkaufhaus Tietz
The Kulturkaufhaus Tietz is a cultural centre in Chemnitz, sometimes also called Cultural Department Store.In 1913 the house was built by Wilhelm Kreis....
in Chemnitz
Chemnitz
Chemnitz is the third-largest city of the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Chemnitz is an independent city which is not part of any county and seat of the government region Direktionsbezirk Chemnitz. Located in the northern foothills of the Ore Mountains, it is a part of the Saxon triangle...
and transported to Schloss Osterstein in Zwickau
Osterstein Castle
Osterstein Castle is the former castle of the town of Zwickau, Germany, in Saxony . Now it houses the nursing home.- History :...
, which at the time served as concentration camp. After 1945, a public trial was conducted against former guards of the Zwickau prison. In the trial proceedings, details of mistreatment of prisoners are reported in depth, including the following testimony that refers to the death of Martin Hoop during the night of 10 – May 11, 1933.
Martin Hoop's body was never found.
In a letter dated December 27, 1949 to the Bautzen office of the Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime
Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime
The Society of People Persecuted by the Nazi Regime – Federation of Anti-Fascists is a political organization founded in 1947....
(VVN), a Bautzner neighbor of the former wife of Martin Hoop wrote the following:
Relevance
In the contemporary history of the German communist partyCommunist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
(KPD) in Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
, the Bautzen
Bautzen
Bautzen is a hill-top town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and administrative centre of the eponymous district. It is located on the Spree River. As of 2008, its population is 41,161...
City Councillor Martin Hoop was known as an ardent supporter of the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
presidential candidate Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Thälmann was the leader of the Communist Party of Germany during much of the Weimar Republic. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and held in solitary confinement for eleven years, before being shot in Buchenwald on Adolf Hitler's orders in 1944...
. It was, for example, only the Bautzen district leadership who was opposed to the expulsion from the Party of Ruth Fischer
Ruth Fischer
Ruth Fischer was a German Communist, a co-founder of the Austrian Communist Party in 1918. According to secret information declassified in 2010, she was a key agent of the American intelligence service known as "The Pond."-Life and work:Born in Leipzig, Ruth Fischer was the daughter of the...
and Arkadi Maslow
Arkadi Maslow
Arkadi Maslow , born Isaak Jefimowitsch Tschemerinski was a communist politician.-Early life and education:...
, two of Thälmanns political predecessors, Hoop was one of the few KPD functionaries opposed to the theory of “relative stabilization” and of its implications in the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
(see also, German presidential election, 1925
German presidential election, 1925
The presidential election of 1925 was the first direct election to the office of President of the Reich , Germany's head of state during the 1919-1933 Weimar Republic. The first President, Friedrich Ebert, died on 28 February, 1925...
), called for a return to agreements made at the July 10, 1925) KPD congress (only weeks before the intervention of the Communist International), and brought attention to the failure of United Front
United front
The united front is a form of struggle that may be pursued by revolutionaries. The basic theory of the united front tactic was first developed by the Comintern, an international communist organisation created by revolutionaries in the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.According to the theses of...
politics in Saxony.
In autumn of 1923 an extensive weapons cache was discovered in the Bautzen machine factory Münckner & Co., where Hoop had once been employed. In a joint action, a group of communist and social-democratic workers secured the weapons, which led to a court action against several individuals, among them Hoop, as well as the social-democratic labor union secretary Konrad Arndt and communist workers such as Kurt Pchalek. Accused of actions conducive to high treason, Pchalek was sentenced to 15 months prison. Other defendants, including Hoop and Arndt, were acquitted.
On May 2, 1924, the Reichstag
Reichstag (Weimar Republic)
The Reichstag was the parliament of Weimar Republic .German constitution commentators consider only the Reichstag and now the Bundestag the German parliament. Another organ deals with legislation too: in 1867-1918 the Bundesrat, in 1919–1933 the Reichsrat and from 1949 on the Bundesrat...
Representative Siegfried Rädel
Siegfried Rädel
Siegfried Rädel was a German politician, a member of the Communist Party of Germany and a resistance fighter against the Nazi régime. -Biography:Rädel was born in Pirna-Copitz, Saxony....
spoke at a public meeting of the KPD in Bautzen. On the same occasion, Martin Hoop also spoke about the May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
workers’ demonstration, characterizing the treatment by the Bautzen police as 'disgraceful and brutal'. On 5 September Rädel spoke on the subject of the Dawes Plan
Dawes Plan
The Dawes Plan was an attempt in 1924, following World War I for the Triple Entente to collect war reparations debt from Germany...
and “How Are Reparations
War reparations
War reparations are payments intended to cover damage or injury during a war. Generally, the term war reparations refers to money or goods changing hands, rather than such property transfers as the annexation of land.- History :...
To Be Paid.”
Among other activities during his service as Bautzen City Councilman, Hoop led a demonstration against the Tscheka
Cheka
Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
trial taking place in Leipzig in early 1925. “Judging from its appearance, the entire procession resembled a carnival parade, rather than a protest demonstration." Siegfried Rädel
Siegfried Rädel
Siegfried Rädel was a German politician, a member of the Communist Party of Germany and a resistance fighter against the Nazi régime. -Biography:Rädel was born in Pirna-Copitz, Saxony....
observed, '…although the intellectual spiritus rector is Hoop, ...he has as good as no support behind him.'
Weakness in the east Saxon KPD leadership made possible more effective control of local party affairs through national parliamentary representatives like Siegfried Rädel
Siegfried Rädel
Siegfried Rädel was a German politician, a member of the Communist Party of Germany and a resistance fighter against the Nazi régime. -Biography:Rädel was born in Pirna-Copitz, Saxony....
, who, together with the left majority, supported the politics of Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Thälmann was the leader of the Communist Party of Germany during much of the Weimar Republic. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and held in solitary confinement for eleven years, before being shot in Buchenwald on Adolf Hitler's orders in 1944...
. The east Saxon leadership was however unaware of the Thälmann-Stalin correspondence and sent to the KPD a resolution of endorsement. Martin Hoop was one of the eight endorsers.
United front
The united front is a form of struggle that may be pursued by revolutionaries. The basic theory of the united front tactic was first developed by the Comintern, an international communist organisation created by revolutionaries in the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.According to the theses of...
policies ‘from below.’ One form of this tactic, endorsed by Siegfried Rädel
Siegfried Rädel
Siegfried Rädel was a German politician, a member of the Communist Party of Germany and a resistance fighter against the Nazi régime. -Biography:Rädel was born in Pirna-Copitz, Saxony....
, with support from the KPD central committee, was a letter campaign to individual SPD workers and to factory workers’ assemblies. Martin Hoop was of the opinion that no contact be made with local SPD representatives.
Discouraged by political developments, Martin Hoop began to consider a 'new life' in the 'new world'. However, he remained in Saxony as an active organizer in the revolutionary Zwickau
Zwickau
Zwickau in Germany, former seat of the government of the south-western region of the Free State of Saxony, belongs to an industrial and economical core region. Nowadays it is the capital city of the district of Zwickau...
workers' movement. At the end of World War II
History of Germany since 1945
As a consequence of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II Germany was split between the two global blocs in the East and West, a period known as the division of Germany. While seven million prisoners and forced laborers left Germany, over 10 million German speaking refugees arrived there from...
, the trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
of coal miners “Morgenstern” resumed its activities as a state-owned enterprise
Government-owned corporation
A government-owned corporation, state-owned company, state-owned entity, state enterprise, publicly owned corporation, government business enterprise, or parastatal is a legal entity created by a government to undertake commercial activities on behalf of an owner government...
which operated until 1977 under the name Martin Hoop Pits.
Literature
Brief biographies in:- Hermann Weber: Die Wandlung des deutschen Kommunismus. Die Stalinisierung der KPD in der Weimarer Republik (The transformation of German communism. The Stalinization of the KPD in the Weimar Republic). Volume 2. Frankfurt/Main 1969, p. 169
- Hermann Weber, Andreas Herbst: Deutsche Kommunisten: Biographisches Handbuch (German communists: Biographic manual), 1918-1945. Berlin: Karl Dietz publishing house, 2004, p. 328.