# Hermann Duncker

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{{Short description|German historian and politician}}
{{Infobox person
| name            = Hermann Duncker
| image           = Hermann Duncker 1953.jpg
| caption         = Duncker {{circa}} 1953
| birth_name      =
| birth_date      = {{birth date|1874|05|24}}
| birth_place     = [Hamburg](/source/Hamburg), [German Empire](/source/German_Empire)
| death_date      = {{death date and age|1960|06|22|1874|05|24}}
| death_place     = [Bernau bei Berlin](/source/Bernau_bei_Berlin), [German Democratic Republic](/source/German_Democratic_Republic)
| resting_place   = [Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde](/source/Zentralfriedhof_Friedrichsfelde), [Berlin](/source/Berlin)
| political_party = [Socialist Unity Party of Germany](/source/Socialist_Unity_Party_of_Germany) (1947–1960) <br> [Communist Party of Germany](/source/Communist_Party_of_Germany) (1919–1947) <br> [Social Democratic Party of Germany](/source/Social_Democratic_Party_of_Germany)
| alma_mater      = [University of Leipzig](/source/University_of_Leipzig) <br> [Leipzig Conservatory](/source/Leipzig_Conservatory)
| parents         = 
| spouse          = {{marriage|[Käte Duncker](/source/K%C3%A4te_Duncker)|1898|1953|end=died}}
| children        = Hedwig Duncker <br> [Karl Duncker](/source/Karl_Duncker) <br> [Wolfgang Duncker](/source/Wolfgang_Duncker)
| other_names     = 
| occupation      = 
| awards          = [Order of Karl Marx](/source/Order_of_Karl_Marx) (1953) 
}}

'''Hermann Ludwig Rudolph Duncker''' (24 May 1874 – 22 June 1960) was a German [Marxist](/source/Marxism) politician, historian and social scientist. He was a lecturer for the workers' education movement, co-founder of the [Communist Party of Germany](/source/Communist_Party_of_Germany), professor at the [University of Rostock](/source/University_of_Rostock), and rector of [East Germany](/source/East_Germany)'s trade union academy.

== Biography ==
[[File:Käte and Hermann Duncker around 1900.jpg|thumb|left|Hermann and his wife [Käte](/source/K%C3%A4te_Duncker) {{circa}} 1900]]
Duncker was born in Hamburg as a son of a businessman and teacher. He studied music at the [Leipzig Conservatory](/source/Leipzig_Conservatory), then history, economics and philosophy at the [University of Leipzig](/source/University_of_Leipzig). He joined the [Social Democratic Party of Germany](/source/Social_Democratic_Party_of_Germany) (SPD) in 1893. In 1898 he married [Käte Duncker](/source/K%C3%A4te_Duncker) (née Döll) who was then a teacher, but also became a socialist politician, journalist and feminist.<ref name="HDK">{{Cite book |author1=Hermann Weber |author2=Andreas Herbst |title=Deutsche Kommunisten. Biographisches Handbuch 1918 bis 1945 |publisher=K. Dietz |year=2008 |pages=202–203 |url=https://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/de/recherche/kataloge-datenbanken/biographische-datenbanken/hermann-duncker}}</ref> The couple had three children: daughter Hedwig (1899–1996, physician), and sons [Karl](/source/Karl_Duncker) (1903–1940, Gestalt psychologist) and [Wolfgang](/source/Wolfgang_Duncker) (1909–1942, journalist and film critic).

In 1900, Duncker started teaching at the Leipzig workers' educational association. In 1903 he completed his Ph.D. under supervision of [Karl Bücher](/source/Karl_B%C3%BCcher) and [Karl Lamprecht](/source/Karl_Lamprecht). In the same year, Duncker became a journalist at the SPD-affiliated ''[Leipziger Volkszeitung](/source/Leipziger_Volkszeitung)''. In 1904, he founded a "workers' secretariat" (information and advice centre for the labour movement) in Leipzig, and in the following year in Dresden. In 1907, the family moved to Stuttgart from where Hermann Duncker toured the country as an [itinerant teacher](/source/itinerant_teacher) for workers' education.<ref name="HDK"/>

thumb|left|Duncker in uniform with his daughter Hedwig in 1915

During the [First World War](/source/First_World_War), Hermann and Käte Duncker were protagonists of the SPD's leftist, internationalist and pacifist wing, though Hermann was forced into military service from 1915 to 1918. Together with [Karl Liebknecht](/source/Karl_Liebknecht), [Rosa Luxemburg](/source/Rosa_Luxemburg) and [Clara Zetkin](/source/Clara_Zetkin) they were among the founders of the [Spartacus League](/source/Spartacus_League) that became the [Communist Party of Germany](/source/Communist_Party_of_Germany) (KPD) during the [German Revolution of 1918–1919](/source/German_Revolution_of_1918%E2%80%931919). Both Käte and Hermann Duncker were elected to the KPD's first central committee. He resumed his lecture tours and directed KPD schools on the regional and national level. In 1925 he co-founded the Berlin [Marxist Workers' School](/source/Marxist_Workers_School). In the KPD central committee he was responsible for education and instruction. He represented the relatively moderate "Middle Group" within the party that aimed for a [united front](/source/united_front) with the Social Democrats. Therefore, he was sidelined from the radicalising party leadership after 1929.<ref name="HDK"/>

After the [Nazis'](/source/Nazi_Party) [seizure of power](/source/Adolf_Hitler's_rise_to_power), Duncker, like most communist leaders, was taken into "[protective custody](/source/Protective_custody)" in February 1933, but he was released in November of the same year. In 1936 he emigrated to Denmark, then to England and France. Duncker was distraught over the persecution of his son Wolfgang who was a comrade and friend [Nikolai Bukharin](/source/Nikolai_Bukharin) during [Stalin](/source/Stalin)'s [Great Purge](/source/Great_Purge) in the [Soviet Union](/source/Soviet_Union) (Wolfgang died at [Vorkutlag](/source/Vorkutlag) in 1942, but his parents were uncertain about his fate until 1948). Duncker also fell out with the KPD's Moscow leadership over the [Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact](/source/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact) between the Soviet Union and [Nazi Germany](/source/Nazi_Germany), which he strongly opposed.<ref name="HDK"/>

Käte Duncker had fled to the United States, living with their son Karl who suffered from depression and committed suicide in 1940. When the German ''[Wehrmacht](/source/Wehrmacht)'' [invaded France](/source/Battle_of_France) in the summer of 1940, Hermann Duncker fled from Paris to [Vichy France](/source/Vichy_France)'s so-called ''[zone libre](/source/zone_libre)''. His wife organised a visa for his entry to the United States in late 1940. During a stopover in [Casablanca](/source/Casablanca) ([French Morocco](/source/French_Morocco)), he was temporarily detained, and only arrived in New York in September 1941.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Mario Keßler |title=Westemigranten: Deutsche Kommunisten zwischen USA-Exil und DDR |publisher=Böhlau Verlag |year=2019 |pages=57–58}}</ref> In the US, Duncker joined the [Council for a Democratic Germany](/source/Council_for_a_Democratic_Germany) in 1944.<ref name="HDK"/>

{{multiple image
| align         = right
| caption_align = center
| total_width   = 450
| image1        = Statue Treskowallee 114 (Karlh) Hermann Duncker&Walter Howard&1976.jpg
| caption1      = Statue of Hermann Duncker in [Berlin-Karlshorst](/source/Berlin-Karlshorst)
| image2        = Berlin Friedrichsfelde Zentralfriedhof, Gedenkstätte der Sozialisten (Urnenwand) - Duncker.jpg
| caption2      = Grave of Hermann Duncker at the [Memorial to the Socialists, Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery](/source/Friedrichsfelde_Central_Cemetery)
}}

After the end of the war, Käte and Hermann Duncker returned to Germany ([Soviet occupation zone](/source/Soviet_occupation_zone)) in May 1947. He joined the ruling [Socialist Unity Party of Germany](/source/Socialist_Unity_Party_of_Germany) (SED; created in April 1946 by the [forced merger of KPD and SPD](/source/Merger_of_the_KPD_and_SPD_into_the_Socialist_Unity_Party_of_Germany)). In the same year he was appointed professor at the [University of Rostock](/source/University_of_Rostock), teaching history of social movements, and dean of the faculty of social sciences.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://cpr.uni-rostock.de//resolve/id/cpr_person_00002207 |title=Duncker, Hermann  |work=Catalogus Professorum Rostochiensium |publisher=University of Rostock |accessdate=21 May 2020}}</ref> He became rector of the [Free German Trade Union Federation](/source/Free_German_Trade_Union_Federation) (FDGB) academy in [Bernau bei Berlin](/source/Bernau_bei_Berlin) in 1949. Almost blind by that time, he held that position until his death.<ref name="HDK"/> From 1955 to 1960 he was also a member of the East German trade union federation's executive board.

Duncker was awarded the [Order of Karl Marx](/source/Order_of_Karl_Marx) (highest decoration of the GDR) in 1953, an [honorary doctorate](/source/honorary_doctorate) of the University of Leipzig in 1954 and the highest class of the [Patriotic Order of Merit](/source/Patriotic_Order_of_Merit) in 1955. He was buried near the Memorial to the Socialists at the Berlin [Friedrichsfelde central cemetery](/source/Zentralfriedhof_Friedrichsfelde).<ref>{{Cite book |author=Joachim Hoffmann |title=Berlin-Friedrichsfelde. Ein deutscher Nationalfriedhof |publisher=Das Neue Berlin |year=2001}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons}}
* [https://www.marxists.org/archive/duncker/index.htm Hermann Duncker Archive] at [marxists.org](/source/marxists.org)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20041209232832/http://marxistische-bibliothek.de/_duncker.html Texts by Hermann Duncker in German]
* [https://archive.org/details/ernst-thalmann-1986/page/123/mode/1up "KPD Party School Course, 1921. In the first row (fifth from the right): Hermann Duncker" in Ernst Thälmann (1986)]
* [https://archive.org/details/ernst-thalmann-1986/page/225/mode/1up "Hermann Duncker (second row, center) with party students during a procession in Elgersburg, October 1930" in Ernst Thälmann (1986)]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duncker, Hermann}}
Category:1874 births
Category:1960 deaths
Category:20th-century German historians
Category:German Marxist historians
Category:20th-century German social scientists
Category:20th-century German educators
Category:Leipzig University alumni
Category:Workers' education
Category:Heads of schools in Germany
Category:Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians
Category:Communist Party of Germany politicians
Category:Socialist Unity Party of Germany members
Category:Emigrants from Nazi Germany
Category:German emigrants to the United States
Category:Academic staff of the University of Rostock
Category:Free German Trade Union Federation members
Category:Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold
Category:German emigrants to France

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Hermann Duncker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Duncker) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Duncker?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.