Theodore Eggeling

Theodore Eggeling was a German seaman active against Nazism in New York. Nazi supporters attacked him for wearing an anti-Nazi pin, and he was detained for deportation to Germany. Authorities placed him aboard the Albert Ballin. International Labor Defense attorneys obtained a writ of habeas corpus and secured his release twenty minutes before the ship sailed. The Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born campaigned for his right to remain in the United States as a political refugee in 1934. On June 28, 1934, he was scheduled to speak at a meeting at the Queens Labor Lyceum calling for the release of Ernst Thaelmann and other prisoners in Nazi Germany.

Daily Worker, July 10, 1934: Page 6 spells his name “Theodore Eggaling” and reports that Nazi supporters beat him after he publicly voiced anti-Nazi views in Yorkville while on shore leave on June 6, 1934. He was arrested for disorderly conduct. After release from jail, two private Hamburg-American line policemen seized him and confined him aboard the Albert Ballin. An ILD representative obtained a habeas corpus writ and rescued him shortly before sailing. The report then describes a campaign for immigration permission to remain in the United States; it does not establish completed deportation, continuous custody across the release, or a final asylum ruling. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n164-jul-10-1934-DW-LOC.pdf

Page 6 describes a habeas-corpus writ stopping immediate deportation of Frederick Beijerback (printed spelling; existing Beijerbach identity) and announces an August 13 organizational meeting to defend him and German refugee seaman Theodore Eggeling. The article’s seamen-union characterization of Beijerback is retained as this report’s claim alongside his independently documented baker background. It supplies neither a new admission nor permanent immigration permission. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n193-sect-one-aug-13-1934-DW-LOC.pdf

Page 2 announces a Committee for Protection of the Foreign Born meeting and a petition campaign for his right to asylum as a German anti-fascist seaman. The same notice separately discusses twenty unnamed workers held on Angel Island following the San Francisco strike; it does not place Eggeling among those twenty or establish a new detention, completed deportation or asylum decision. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n190-aug-09-1934-DW-LOC.pdf