Hermann Kranold


Hermann Kuno Julius Kranold was a German political writer active in the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

In the German Revolution

Following the German Revolution, Kranold worked with Otto Neurath and Wolfgang Schumann on the Programm Kranold-Neurath-Schumann in Saxony. All three subsequently went to Bavaria, where Neurath was appointed President of the Central Economic Administration for the Bavarian Soviet Republic.

During the Weimar Republic

Kranold was elected to the Silesian provincial parliament to represent Sprottau District from 1925-32.

Exile in the United States

In 1933 he was arrested on the day of the Reichstag fire. However his uncle, Max Planck, was able to arrange his release and exile. After a short period in London, he found a job at Talladega College, Alabama. He received financial help from the American Friends Service Committee for the travel costs for him and his family who arrived in the US in 1936. Here he did work on the economic situation of African Americans in Alabama and elsewhere.

Family life

He married "Red Sophie" Steinhaus, an art historian and revolutionary. They had three children, Candida, Peter, and Johanna Kranold who were born in Sprottau, Silesia. Both Hermann and his wife died of heart disease in 1942.

Works