User:Jonowles/Paul Göhre

Paul Göhre (April 18, 1864 – June 6, 1928) was a Protestant theologian, journalist, and socialist politician. In 1900, he became one of the first Protestant pastors publicly to join the Social Democratic Party.

Early Life and Christian Social Activity
Göhre was born in 1864 in Wurzen, Saxony to Christiane and Ernst Göhre, a court clerk. After his military service, he studied theology and national economy at the Universities of Leipzig  and Berlin between 1885 and 1888. Following that he became an assistant parish priest in the small village of Schönbach in eastern Saxony, and an assistant editor of Martin Rade’s progressive theological journal Die Christliche Welt.

In the summer of 1890, Göhre spent three months working in a factory in Chemnitz, and in 1891 he published a book, Drei Monate Fabrikarbeiter und Handwerksbursche: eine praktische Studie, about his experiences as a member of the working class. That same year he became the secretary of the Protestant Social Congress, an organization formed by Adolf Stöcker to encourage Christian efforts to address the "social question." Along with Friedrich Naumann, Göhre aligned himself with the more radical Jungen faction of the Congress. In 1894, he partnered with Max Weber to present a controversial paper about land redistribution. By 1897, however, Göhre, along with many of the other Jungen, grew frustrated with the conservatism of the Protestant Social Congress and joined Naumann's newly-formed National-Social Association. Göhre served as vice-president of this organization until he split with Naumann over ideological differences in 1899.

Entry in the Socialist Party
In the spring of 1900, Göhre announced that he had taken the step of joining the Social Democratic Party and claimed that his "religious convictions drove [him] to the Social Democrats."