Erich Schnake
Chilean politician (1930–2005)
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Álvaro Erich Schnake Silva (22 July 1930 – 22 November 2005) was a Chilean lawyer and politician.
Erich Schnake | |
|---|---|
| |
| Member of the Senate | |
| In office 15 May 1973 – 11 September 1973 | |
| Constituency | 6th Provincial Group |
| Member of the Chamber of Deputies | |
| In office 15 May 1969 – 11 September 1973 | |
| Constituency | 7th Departmental Group |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 22 July 1930 |
| Died | 22 November 2005 (aged 75) |
| Party | |
| Spouses |
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| Children | Eleven |
| Alma mater | University of Chile (LL.B) |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Profession | Lawyer |
He served as Deputy (1969–1973) and Senator (1973) until the military coup, later becoming a prominent socialist leader, political prisoner, and co-founder of the Party for Democracy (PPD), which he presided over from 1990 to 1992.
Biography
He was born in Chillán in 1930, the son of Enrique Schnake Vergara and Marina Silva Maturana. He studied at the Liceo José Victorino Lastarria and the Liceo Experimental Manuel de Salas, then graduated as a lawyer from the University of Chile in 1953 with a thesis on mining safety.
He practiced labor law and represented workers from major Chilean unions. Active in the Socialist Party of Chile, he became a key leader during the Unidad Popular era, close to President Salvador Allende.
Elected Deputy in 1969 for the 7th Departmental Group and Senator in 1973 for the 6th Provincial Group, his mandate was cut short by the 1973 Chilean coup d'état. Arrested, tortured, and imprisoned — including at Dawson Island concentration camp — he was later forced into exile, contributing to the renewal of Chilean socialism abroad.
Returning in the 1980s, he co-founded the PPD and became its first president. In his later years, he wrote his memoirs, Schnake, un socialista con historia, before dying in Peñalolén, Santiago, in 2005.