Hermann Lüdemann
German politician (1880-1959)
Hermann Lüdemann (5 August 1880 – 27 May 1959) was a German engineer, trade union leader and politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. During the Weimar Republic, he served in the Landtag of Prussia, was the Prussian finance minister and the Oberpräsident of Lower Silesia. Persecuted by the Nazis, he was arrested and detained in various concentration camps. After the end of the Second World War, he was released and resumed a political career, serving in the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein and as the minister-president of Schleswig-Holstein from 1947 to 1949.
Early life and education
Lüdemann was born in Lübeck and attended the local Realschule and vocational school. He completed a three-year apprenticeship in mechanical engineering and studied at the University of Applied Sciences in Zwickau. Following six months of practical experience as a maritime machinist at sea, he continued his studies at the Technical University of Berlin. In 1905, he left engineering, which he had practiced since 1899, to dedicate himself full time to trade union activities as managing director of the Federation of Technical Employees and Civil Servants, which he had co-founded in 1904. He joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in 1912 and worked as a freelance writer in Berlin.
Political career in the German Empire and the Weimar Republic
Lüdemann's political career began in 1915 with his election to the Berlin-Wilmersdorf city council, where he served until 1922.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Hermann Lüdemann” as german politician (1880-1959). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q70064. VIAF identifies the subject as 32770322. The Library of Congress control number is n2006077275. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1880, 1959, 1947 and 1949.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hermann Lüdemann” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.