August Winnig | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Oberpräsident of East Prussia | |
| In office 1919–1920 | |
| Generalbevollmächtigter to the Baltic Provinces | |
| In office 1917–1918 | |
| Reichskommissar for East and West Prussia | |
| In office 1917–1918 | |
| Member of the Landtag of Hamburg (SPD) | |
| In office 1913–1921 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 31 March 1878 Blankenburg |
| Died | 3 November 1956 (aged 78) Bad Nauheim |
| Nationality | German |
| Political party |
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| Occupation | bricklayer, trade unionist, essayist. |
| This article is part of a series on |
| Conservatism in Germany |
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August Winnig (31 March 1878 – 3 November 1956) was a German politician, essayist and trade unionist.
Early involved in trade unionism and editorship, Winnig held elected and public offices from 1913 to 1921 as a Social Democratic Party (SPD) member. As Generalbevollmächtigter ("Minister Plenipotentiary") for the Baltic Provinces in 1918, he signed the official recognition of the Latvian Provisional Government by the German Empire (1871–1918) that ended German claim over the region, despite being an opponent of that renouncement. He was nominated Oberpräsident of East Prussia in 1919, and pressured the Weimar Republic (1918–1933) to create an autonomous State in the eastern Baltic Sea region.
After his participation in the Kapp putsch of 1920 against the Weimar Republic, Winnig was removed from his position by the regime and expelled from the SPD, in which he belonged to the "social-imperialistic" wing. He then became more involved into far-right thinking and, along with Ernst Niekisch, joined the Old Social Democratic Party of Germany (ASP), a splinter group of the SPD with nationalistic tendencies. The ASP failure in the 1928 German federal election led Winnig to abandon his revolutionary programme and join the Conservative People's Party in 1930.
Initially welcoming the Nazis in 1933 as providing the "salvation of the State" from Marxism, his Lutheran convictions led Winnig to oppose the Third Reich (1933–1945) for its neo-pagan tendencies. In 1937, he published a best-selling essay named Europa. Gedanken eines Deutschen ("Europe. Thoughts of a German"). Translating a cultural rather than racial view of European peoples, the work diverges from the official Nazi doctrines on race, although it is tainted by antisemitism. Winnig wrote in his autobiographies that he went from being a Nazi sympathiser to a Christian conservative during Hitler's rule. Winnig died in Bad Nauheim on 3 November 1956, at the age of 78.