Gustav Sobottka

Gustav Sobottka
Born	July 12, 1886 Turowen (Turowo), East Prussia
Died	March 6, 1953 Berlin
Nationality	German
Occupation	Politician, unionist
Political party	Communist (KPD), (SED)
Children	Bernhard Sobottka, Gustav Sobottka, Jr.,

Gustav Sobottka (July 12, 1886 – March 6, 1953) was a German politician in East Germany. He was a member of the Communist Party and was in exile during the Nazi era. He returned to Germany in 1945 as head of the Sobottka Group and later worked in the East German government.

Gustav Sobottka was born in Turowen (Turowo), in the administrative district of Johannisburg (Pisz) in East Prussia. His father, Adam Sobottka, was a roofer and day laborer, his mother was Auguste Sobottka. In 1895, the family moved to Röhlinghausen, today the southwestern part of Herne, in the Ruhr region. The family were Muckers Pietists, a pious movement within the Lutheran church. Sobottka was confirmed in 1901 and began working in the coal mines that same year. In 1909, he married Henriette, née Schantowski, called "Jettchen" (March 9, 1888 – September 15, 1971). He and his wife had a daughter and two sons. In World War I Sobottka served in the German Army from August 1914 to November 1918.

Sobottka joined the Social Democrats in 1910 and his wife joined in 1912. Later, he was one of the founders of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and became the leader in the Bochum-Gelsenkirchen district. At the end of 1920, he joined the Communist Party (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, or KPD). He was also one of the founding members and head of the "Miners' Group" in the communist-leaning Union of Manual and Intellectual Workers, whose 1925 merger into the confederation of unions, the Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, he initially opposed, but later worked to accomplish.

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