Ernst Schneller

Ernst Schneller
Schneller c. 1928
Member of the Reichstag
for Chemnitz–Zwickau
In office
5 January 1925 – 28 February 1933
Preceded byMulti-member district
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Member of the Landtag of Saxony
In office
5 April 1921 – 24 February 1924
Preceded byGottfried Weimer
Succeeded byRichard Schmincke
Personal details
Born8 November 1890
Died11 October 1944 (aged 53)
Cause of deathExecution by shooting
PartySPD (before 1920)
KPD (after 1920)
Spouse
Hildegard Schwedler
(m. 1916)
Children
Occupation
  • Schoolteacher
  • Politician
  • Anti-Nazi Activist
Military service
Allegiance German Empire
Years of service1914–1918
RankBattalion Adjutant
Battles/wars
Central institution membership

Other offices held

Ernst Hugo Schneller (8 November 1890 – 11 October 1944) was a German school teacher. In 1914 he volunteered to join the army when war broke out. Sent to fight on the Eastern Front, he became politicised and radicalised, especially as the ideas behind the Russian Revolution filtered through to the German troops. After the war he joined first the Social Democratic Party and then, in 1920, the recently launched Communist Party of Germany. He served as a regional member ("Landtagsabgeordneter") of parliament in the Saxon parliament ("Landtag") between 1921 and 1924, and then between 1924 and 1933 as a member ("Reichstagsabgeordneter") of the national parliament ("Reichstag"). He was arrested in 1933 and imprisoned. Transfer to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp followed in 1939.

On 11 October 1944, Ernst Schneller was one of 24 German camp inmates deemed culpable of "illegal activities", taken out, and together with three French antifascists shot dead by Nazi paramilitaries (SS).