Franz Jacob (Resistance fighter)

Franz Jacob (August 9, 1906 – September 18, 1944) was a German Resistance fighter against the National Socialists and a Communist politician.

Jacob was born in Hamburg in a working-class family. His mother, Marie Pgetz, was a maid and his father, August Moser, was a house servant, who died young. His family lived with his grandfather, an active member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) until his mother remarried in 1917. Her new husband, Gustav Jacob, adopted Franz.

Jacob only attended one year of Oberrealschule. He then learned the trade of machine fitting on Hamburg wharfs and joined the metalworkers' union, where he was elected representative of the apprentices. The First World War and the economic situation in Germany prompted Jacob to join the youth branch of the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1920, at the age of 15. A year later, he joined the SPD. In 1925, he left the SPD for the youth group of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), over the objections of family.

He also joined the Rote Hilfe and the Rote Frontkämpferbund (RFB). His activity in the Communist Youth group, led to him being elected the organization leader of the waterfront district. In 1928, he joined the KPD itself and was allowed to be a delegate to the 5th International Congress of Communist Youth and the 6th World Congress of the Communist International, both in Moscow. As a result, Jacob lost his job at the Hamburg Telegraph Office. His next job was at Reiherstieg-Werft, but he was fired without notice after calling for a short strike.

In 1929, Jacob began working as a correspondent for the KPD publications for Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, the Hamburger Volkszeitung (Hamburg Peoples' Press) and the Norddeutsche Echo (North German Echo). For a short time, he went to Kiel to help build a new anti-fascist organization to replace the RFB, which had been made illegal. In 1931, he became Secretary for agitation and propaganda for the KPD's Hamburg waterfront district, working then primarily for the KPD. His flyers made his name well known and in April 1932, he became a member of the Hamburg Parliament, at the age of 26.

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