Ewald Latacz (born 24 June 1885 in Kattowitz (Katowice); died 12 February 1953 in Frankfurt am Main) was a Silesian politician. He practiced as a lawyer in Racibórz since 1913, and as a civil law notary since 1919. He also co-founded the Union of Upper Silesians, a movement dedicated to independence of Upper Silesia, in 1918.
He was active in the workers rights movement acting as a chairman of the Workers' Council in WodzisÃ
Âaw Ã
ÂlÃÂ
ski, and in the independence movement of Upper Silesia. He co-founded the Union of Upper Silesians in 1919. Latacz was a political prisoner from January to Spring 1919.
He was accused by German authorities of high treason. After his release, he became a civil law notary and lawyer in Berlin during 1922âÂÂ1945, specialising in work with oil companies in the period 1922âÂÂ1939.
A member of the Nazi party since 1933, Latacz joined three months after Hitler came to power. Latacz was also a member of the Nazi Union of German Lawyers until the end of the Second World War. In 1940, he applied for, but failed to receive, the permission of Nazi German judicial authorities of Silesian Province to open a law office in Upper Silesia.
Latacz never returned to Upper Silesia, which was undergoing the denazification process in the Soviet occupation zone in 1945.
See also
Sources
- Stefan Pioskowik, Ewald Latacz (1885-1953). Ein Politiker in der Abstimmungzeit, Confinium â materiaÃ
Ây do historii Górnego Ã
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ska, 2/2007.
- Oberschlesier, rettet Eucht selbst! Eine Streitschrift für ein freies und unteilbares Oberschlesien von Dr. Latacz â Geschäftsleiter des Bundes der Oberschlesier, Beuthen O/S 1921.
- Rudolf Vogel, Deutsche Presse und Propaganda des Abstimmungkampfes in Oberschlesien, Beuthen O.S. 1931.
- Edmund Klein, Miarodajne czynniki niemieckie a sprawa Górnego Ã
ÂlÃÂ
ska w grudniu 1918 roku, âÂÂStudia Ã
ÂlÃÂ
skieâ tom XIII, Opole 1968.
- Edmund Klein, Niemieckie plany separatystyczne na Ã
ÂlÃÂ
sku w listopadzie i grudniu 1918, Prawo XXXIV, WrocÃ
Âaw 1971.
- Edmund Klein, Konferencja górnoÃ
ÂlÃÂ
skich rad robotniczych i Ã
¼oÃ
Ânierskich 22 listopada 1918 roku w Gliwicach (PodróÃ
¼ Hugona Haasego na Górny Ã
ÂlÃÂ
sk), âÂÂStudia Ã
ÂlÃÂ
skieâ tom 23, Opole 1973.
- Edmund Klein, Niemieckie separatystyczne koncepcje na Ã
ÂlÃÂ
sku w okresie konferencji wersalskiej, âÂÂStudia Ã
ÂlÃÂ
skieâ tom XXXV, Opole 1979.
- Piotr Dobrowolski, Ugrupowania i kierunki separatystyczne na Górnym Ã
ÂlÃÂ
sku i w CieszyÃ
Âskiem w latach 1918âÂÂ1939, Warszawa â Kraków 1972.
- Guido Hitze, Carl Ulitzka (1873-1953) oder Oberschlesien zwischen den Weltkriegen, Düsseldorf 2002.
- Andrea Schmidt-Rösler, Autonomie und Separatismusbestrebungen in Oberschlesien 1918âÂÂ1922, âÂÂZeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschungâ 48, 1999, 1, pp. 1âÂÂ49.