Josef Friedrich Matthes

Josef Friedrich Matthes (10 February 1886 – 9 October 1943) was head of the short lived Rhenish Republic.[1]

Josef Friedrich Matthes on November 22, 1923 in Koblenz

Biography

He was born on 10 February 1886 in Würzburg. He moved to Switzerland in 1909 and worked as an editor in Baden. By 1918, he was editor of the Social Democratic Party of Germany's newspaper in Aschaffenburg. In 1921 he was convicted of libel and sentenced to 6 months in prison after accusing the major of hoarding food. He fled to Wiesbaden, then under French occupation, where he worked as editor of the magazine "The Torch" (Die Fackel).

In early 1923, he was co-founder of the "Rheinischer Unabhängigkeitsbund", which sought independence for the Rhineland. In October 1923, he and his supporters seized the city of Koblenz in a putsch, founding the Rhenish Republic with Matthes as its leader. The power of the new government relied essentially on the French occupiers and the "Rhineland-protection forces". A massive wave of looting by the peacekeepers led to resistance in the population. By November riots led to killings in clashes between the security forces and opponents of the separatists. The strength of the resistance proved too much for the government and the "Republic" collapsed. Matthes fled to France.

By 1930, he was working as a journalist in Paris. After the Fall of France in 1940, he was arrested. In the following year, he was extradited to Germany and deported to the Dachau concentration camp. He died there on 9 October 1943.[2]

References

"Separatists Split; Matthes Is Ousted. Active Head Is Overthrown by Secretary, Rosenbaum, and Coblenz Force". New York Times. November 29, 1923. Retrieved 2011-01-23. Joseph Matthes chief of the "Rhineland Republic," announced today that he had dissolved the Separatist Government at Coblenz. He is back at Düsseldorf, where he told the New York Times correspondent he intended "to start the movement afresh along better lines, freed from compromising elements which had done no much to discredit it."
Schlemmer, Martin (2007). "Die Bestrebungen des Josef Friedrich Matthes (1922 bis Sommer 1923)". "Los von Berlin": die Rheinstaatbestrebungen nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg. ISBN 978-3-412-11106-9.

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[1] "Separatists Split; Matthes Is Ousted. Active Head Is Overthrown by Secretary, Rosenbaum, and Coblenz Force". New York Times. November 29, 1923. Retrieved 2011-01-23. Joseph Matthes chief of the "Rhineland Republic," announced today that he had dissolved the Separatist Government at Coblenz. He is back at Düsseldorf, where he told the New York Times correspondent he intended "to start the movement afresh along better lines, freed from compromising elements which had done no much to discredit it."

[2] Schlemmer, Martin (2007). "Die Bestrebungen des Josef Friedrich Matthes (1922 bis Sommer 1923)". "Los von Berlin": die Rheinstaatbestrebungen nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg. ISBN 978-3-412-11106-9.