Werner Scholem
German politician (1895-1940)
Werner Scholem (29 December 1895 – 17 July 1940) was a German communist politician and journalist who served in the Landtag of Prussia from 1921 to 1925 and the Reichstag from 1924 to 1928. He was a leading member of the Communist Party of Germany from 1924 to 1925, part of a triumvirate alongside Ruth Fischer and Arkadi Maslow. He was executed in Buchenwald in 1940. Scholem and his wife, Emmy, were portrayed in the 2014 documentary "Between Utopia and Counter Revolution."
Background
Scholem was born on December 29, 1895, into a Jewish family in Berlin. His father was a print shop owner. His brother was Gershom Scholem.
In their youth, Werner and Gerhard (later Gershom) were members of the Zionist youth-movement "Jung Juda". Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, Werner joined a socialist workers' youth group. During the war, both brothers debated the conflicts and common grounds of Zionism and socialism.
From the age of 16, Scholem became involved in journalism.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Werner Scholem” is german politician (1895-1940). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Werner, Scholem and German, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “german politician (1895-1940)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q114474. VIAF identifies the subject as 70008877. The Library of Congress control number is n2014073319. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1895, 1940, 1921 and 1925.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Werner Scholem”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Werner Scholem primary sources, Werner Scholem archive and Werner research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Werner Scholem” 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.