Wilhelm Florin
| Wilhelm Florin | |
|---|---|
| Born |
16 March 1894 Cologne, Germany |
| Died | 5 July 1944 (aged 22) Moscow, USSR |
| Political party |
USPD KPD |
| Spouse(s) | Therese Althammer/Florin (1902-1990) |
| Children | Peter Florin (1921-2014) |
Wilhelm Florin (born Cologne 16 March 1894:died Moscow 5 July 1944) was a German Communist Party (KPD) politician and a campaigner in opposition to National Socialism.
Wilhelm Florin was born in Poll, already a suburb of Cologne, across the river and to the south-east of the city centre. His family was working class and strongly Catholic: early on he became involved with the Catholic Young Men's Association. He qualified as a riveter and worked in several metal based factories making items such as wagons and boilers. By 1913 he was also a member both of the German Metal Workers' Union and of the Socialist Youth Organisation.
In 1914 he was drafted into the infantry. During the war he was wounded and, for a period in 1917, sent to join a punishment unit. This was because he became opposed to the war and in 1917 joined the newly formed Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD / Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands), which had broken away from the mainstream Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD / Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands)) over the issue of support for the war.
When the USPD itself split in 1920 Florin was a part of the left-wing faction that joined Germany's fledgling Communist Party (KPD / Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands). Between 1918 and 1920 Florin was a member of the Works Council at a Cologne river-ship yard. He was also a Works Council leader at the gas-engine factory where he worked in the early 1920s, and continued as a volunteer union activist till 1923. That was the year in which, at the instigation of , Florin was appointed Leader of the KPD Organisation and Publicity Department for the Middle-Rhine region, an appointment that was formally terminated at the end of that year when the French, who were still occupying the Rhineland militarily, expelled him from the region. Florin nevertheless continued, now illegally, with his political activities.
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