Hermann Brill
Biography
A Thuringian Social Democrat who was convicted of preparing high treason, formed a cross-party committee of political prisoners inside Buchenwald, and helped write the constitution of the country that followed.
A career ended in 1933
Born at Gräfenroda on 9 February 1895, Brill was a Social Democrat and a doctor of law who sat in the Thuringian state parliament and then in the Reichstag. The National Socialist seizure of power ended that. He moved to Berlin and stayed active in resistance until his arrest; in 1938 he was convicted of "Vorbereitung zum Hochverrat" — preparing high treason — and in 1943 was moved from prison to Buchenwald.
The Volksfront committee
In the camp he formed the Volksfrontkomitee, a secret circle of political prisoners that deliberately crossed party lines. That is not a small distinction. The clandestine organisation at Buchenwald was largely communist-led, and a Social Democrat building a cross-party body inside it was making an argument about what should come after the camp, at a time when there was no guarantee any of them would see it.
"Für Freiheit, Frieden und Sozialismus"
The committee produced a manifesto under that title, which Brill presented after the liberation. A programme written by prisoners for a Germany that did not yet exist is the sort of document that usually vanishes; this one survived because the man who wrote it did.
Two republics, 1945–1959
In 1945 he was briefly Regierungspräsident in Thuringia before going to Hesse. He then worked on the Grundgesetz and sat in the Bundestag. His life therefore runs across the whole of this theme: elected under the Weimar Republic, imprisoned by what replaced it, and drafting the constitution of what came after — the same sequence the town's own name has had to carry.
Questions visitors ask
- What is Hermann Brill's connection to Buchenwald?
- Convicted of preparing high treason in 1938, he was moved from prison to Buchenwald in 1943. In the camp he formed the Volksfrontkomitee, a secret cross-party circle of political prisoners.
- What did the Volksfrontkomitee produce?
- A manifesto titled "Für Freiheit, Frieden und Sozialismus" (For Freedom, Peace and Socialism), which Brill presented after the liberation.
- What did Hermann Brill do after the war?
- He was briefly Regierungspräsident in Thuringia in 1945, then worked on West Germany's Grundgesetz (Basic Law) and sat in the Bundestag.
- Can I learn more about Hermann Brill at Buchenwald?
- Yes, at the Buchenwald Memorial, which preserves the camp where he formed the Volksfrontkomitee.
Connected Places in Weimar
Buchenwald, 99427 Weimar
A prisoner of the camp the memorial preserves, and the author of the manifesto its political prisoners wrote there.
Historical Context
A Thuringian state deputy and Reichstag member under the Republic, until 1933 ended his career.
Germany's first democracy is named after this town for an almost accidental reason: in 1919 the capital was too dangerous to write a constitution in, and Weimar was quiet.
Read more about this period →Convicted of preparing high treason in 1938 and moved from prison to Buchenwald in 1943.
The regime wanted Weimar for what its name meant, and it built a concentration camp on the hill above the town. Both facts belong to the same twelve years.
Read more about this period →Quick Facts
1895
1959
German
In Weimar's history
In Weimar's history
From July 1937 the SS had prisoners build a camp on the Ettersberg, the wooded hill above the town. 277,800 people from more than fifty countries were held there; 56,000 did not survive.
In the camp he formed the Volksfrontkomitee, a secret cross-party circle of political prisoners.
On 11 April 1945, with armoured divisions of the US Third Army approaching, the SS were ordered out and armed prisoners took the camp gate.
He presented the committee's manifesto after the liberation.