Wilhelm Dittmann

Wilhelm Friedrick Karl Dittmann (1 November 1874 – 7 August 1954), was a German Social Democratic politician who was a founding member of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) and on its Central Committee from 1917 to 1922, after which he returned to the Social Democrats. He was a member of the imperial Reichstag (1912–1918), of the Council of the People's Deputies (1918), the Weimar National Assembly (1919–1920) and the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic (1920–1933). After the Nazi Party came to power he went into exile and returned to Germany in 1951. Dittmann was born in Eutin in the Duchy of Oldenburg where he attended primary school. He completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter in 1894 and worked in the profession for five years. In 1894, he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Woodworkers' Association. Beginning in 1899, Dittmann worked as an editor for party newspapers in Bremerhaven and Solingen. In 1904, he took up a position as party secretary in Frankfurt am Main, where he also became a city councillor in 1907. He returned to Solingen in 1912 where he won a seat in the Reichstag of the German Empire in 1912. After having initially supported loans to finance World War I, he voted against them on 21 December 1915 because he believed that Germany was to blame for starting the war.