Career
Imperial Germany The skilled toolmaker joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (Social Democratic Party of Germany) in 1905, and was chosen to be shop steward in Jena in 1907. In 1912, he went to the Social Democratic Party School in Jena, where Rosa Luxemburg discovered his journalistic gifts. The Social Democratic Party of Germany posted him at the Leipziger Volkszeitung newspaper in 1913 as editors
During World War I, Schumann joined the Gruppe Internationale (see Spartacist League) founded by Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and Clara Zetkin and agitated in the Leipziger Arbeiterjugend (Leipzig Working Youth) against the war.
In 1916, he was conscripted, and for doing illegal work for the Spartacist League within the army, he was sentenced to imprisonment. Weimar Republic In November 1918, Schumann led the Spartacist League in Leipzig and in 1919 was elected Political Leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) Leipzig District, and in 1921 Political Leader of the KPD Halle-Merseburg District and the local Prussian Landtag member.
In 1923, the Party Congress chose him for a position in the Party"s Central Committee. In the factional struggles after the KPD"s so-called "October Defeat" in 1923, Schumann joined the so-called Middle Group.
In late 1924, his Landtag mandate expired, and along with it, his immunity.
He emigrated in early 1925 to Moscow. In March 1926, he returned to Germany to become Party leader in Halle-Merseburg once again, but instead he was arrested, and spent almost a year in pre-trial custody. In the factional struggles in 1929, he once again sided with the Middle Group, the Conciliator faction.
The victorious left wing about Ernst Thälmann therefore removed him from his post as Leader in West Saxony over storms of protest.
In late 1929, he submitted to the Thälmann line. Nazi Germany.