 thumb|dr. hermann brill dr. hermann louis brill (february 9, 1895 â june 22, 1959) was a german doctor of law and a politician (spd). == biography == brill was born in the small town of grÃ¤fenroda, thuringia on february 9, 1895 as the son of a tailor; after finishing school, he attended the herzog-ernst-seminar in gotha to become a teacher. his political career began in 1918, when he entered the uspd; less than two years later, he became a member of the thuringian parliament (landtag) for the first time, where he stayed until 1933. however, brill only stayed a member of the uspd for four years; in 1922, he left the party again and found his new political home in the social democratic party of germany (spd) instead. in 1932, brill was also a member of the federal german parliament (reichstag). the nazis were met with resistance from brill ever since he first came in contact with them after they became part of the reigning coalition in thuringia in 1930; brill was especially opposed to the politics of nazi minister of the interior wilhelm frick, and led a committee of investigation established by the landtag in 1932 that scrutinised frick's practices. it was also during this time that he met adolf hitler, who appeared as a witness in front of the committee, an experience that led to brill making the decision to resist hitler "at any time, anywhere and under every circumstance" ("jederzeit, Ã¼berall, unter allen umstÃ¤nden"). following hitler's rise to power, brill left the spd in may 1933, scandalised by the party executive's passive attitude towards hitler; one year later, he founded the deutsche volksfront, a resistance group, in berlin together with otto brass. brill also wrote a number of essays and leaflets during this time; he was arrested several times by the gestapo, and after the workings of the deutsche volksfront were discovered, was convicted of high treason in 1938 and sentenced to 12 years in prison.german resistance memorial center short biography of brill. retrieved march 22, 2010 after first being jailed in the zuchthaus brandenburg-gÃ¶rden, he was brought to the buchenwald concentration camp in 1943; following the liberation of buchenwald on april 11, 1945, he wrote the buchenwald manifesto (buchenwalder manifest der demokratischen sozialisten). the same month, brill also began creating a plan for the administrative rebuilding of thuringia for the american administration. in june 1945, he was appointed [[regierungsprÃ¤siden
1895_births 1959_deaths Independent_Social_Democratic_Party_politicians Members_of_the_Reichstag_of_the_Weimar_Republic Ministers-President_of_Thuringia People_from_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha Social_Democratic_Party_of_Germany_politicians