Paul Wittich (politician)

Paul Wittich (1877–1957[1]) was a Carpathian German social democratic politician in Slovakia (then part of Austria-Hungary and later Czechoslovakia).

Wittich emerged as the main leader of the social democratic movement in Pressburg following the departure of Heinrich Kalmár to Budapest.

[2] Wittich was the editor of the weekly newspaper Westungarische Volkstimme (a regional organ of the Social Democratic Party of Hungary) between July 1905 and May 1914, and then again from September 1914 to 1918.

[4] In November 1914 Wittich was elected to the Pressburg town council, being the first social democrat to be able to win a seat in that body.

His constituency was the Theresienstadt ward, an urban working class and multi-cultural district with a large Jewish population.

Wittich's campaign had three main themes; the introduction of a progressive income and property tax, autonomy from central and county government control and electoral reform (seeking to scrap the system that automatically accorded seats to the 'virilists').

[6] On 9 November 1918 Wittich was part of a delegation that met with the Czechoslovak envoy Vlastimil Tusar in Vienna, to discuss the future of Pressburg.

[9] On the same day, the Volksrat Presidium adopted a unanimous resolution, appealing to the population of Pressburg not to resist the imminent Czechoslovak occupation of the city.

On 2 January 1919, after Pressburg had been seized by Czechoslovak troops, Wittich (in his function as People's Commissar) and the acting mayor Kánya issued a joint appeal.

[15] In the following February Strike of 1919, Wittich played a leading role, as the main leader of the German-Hungarian labour movement in the city.

Wittich, who had denounced the Hungarian Soviet Republic at the meeting, was deposed from his leadership position in the party.