Background
Julius Leber was born in Biesheim, Alsace, on 16 November 1891.
Julius Leber was born in Biesheim, Alsace, on 16 November 1891.
After his Abitur in 1913, Leber studied national economics and history in Strasbourg (then Strassburg, Germany) and at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau. He also joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany in this year (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands; SPD). In 1914, with the outbreak of the First World War, Leber volunteered for military service.
From a poverty-stricken background, Leber worked for a time in a rug factory and then joined the Social Democratic Party. During World War I he served as an officer in the Imperial army and was decorated for his bravery in combat. In 1920 he took an active part in the overthrow of the right-wing Kapp putsch in Berlin.
In 1921 he was appointed editor of the Volkshote in Lubeck and three years later became a member of the SPD parliamentary faction in the Reichstag.
From 1933 to 1937 he was imprisoned and sent to concentration camps at Esterwegen and Oranienburg as a "danger to the State". After his release Leber became closely involved in the resistance to Hitler, establishing contacts with the Kreisau Circle, a small group of officers and professional people who regarded Nazism as a disaster for Germany. One of the leading Social Democrats around Goerdeler, Leber’s left-wing views drew him politically close to Claus von Stauffenberg , the dynamic General Staff officer who became the driving-force of the Resistance after 1943. Leber was to have been von Stauffenberg’s candidate for Reich Chancellor had the conspiracy against Hitler succeeded.
Leber, together with his fellow Social Democrat Adolf Reichwein , was however arrested before the July plot was put into operation, as a result of contacts with communist agents, one of whom proved to be working for the Gestapo.
On 20 October 1944 Leber was condemned to death by the People's Court for high treason and hanged at Plotzensee prison on 5 January 1945.
A strong opponent of Hitler and National Socialism, Leber was a marked man after 30 January 1933 and narrowly escaped an attempt on his life the day after the Nazis came to power.