Ollenhauer first secretary of the SJI

© AdsD Ollenhauer (back row, middle) with members of the Socialist Workers Youth (1923)

In 1923 the Youth International, founded in 1907, splits into a Socialist and a Communist Youth International (SJI and KJI). On 24 May 1923 in Hamburg, the founding congress of the SJI convenes. It elects the later SPD chairman Erich Ollenhauer as its first party secretary.