Fritz Tarnow

Who was Fritz Tarnow?

Fritz Tarnow was an important Social Democrat trade unionists and Reichstag deputy during the Weimar Republic.

Tarnow was the son of a carpenter and attended elementary school in Hanover, where he also became a carpenter's apprentice. He then became a journeyman and traveled throughout Germany. He worked until 1906 as a carpenter, and in the years 1901 to 1906, he was also a board member of the Rastatt, Oos, Bonn and Berlin branches of the Wood Workers Association. Then he worked until 1908 as a literary and statistical assistant in the main office of the Wood Workers Association in Stuttgart. In 1909, he graduated from the central school of the Social Democratic Party in Berlin. From 1909 to 1919, Tarnow was then head of the Literary Agents in the main office of the Wood Workers Association in Berlin. In addition, from 1909 to 1915, he was a community representative, a member of the district assembly and a board member of the SPD in Berlin-Friedrichshagen.

Tarnow fought in the First World War and was severely wounded, causing lasting injury. During the November Revolution, Tarnow was a member of the Workers and Soldiers Council in Brandenburg an der Havel. He became secretary of the Wood Workers Association, later serving as chairman from 1920 to 1933. He was one of the leading figures in the national executive of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, a German trade union confederation. In the latter half of the 1920s, he was one of the main proponents of Fritz Naphtali's concept of economic democracy. He was briefly secretary of the International Woodworkers Association. In addition, from 1920 to 1933, he was a member of the provisional Reichswirtschaftsrat. He was also the leader of the Society for Social Reform and German Werkbund. In 1928, he joined the Reichstag as a member for the SPD.