Tarnow was the son of a carpenter and attended elementary school in Hanover, where he also became a carpenter's apprentice. He then became a
journeyman and traveled throughout Germany. He worked until 1906 as a carpenter, and in the years 1901 to 1906, he was also a board member of the
Rastatt, ,
Bonn and Berlin branches of the . Then he worked until 1908 as a literary and statistical assistant in the main office of the Wood Workers Association in
Stuttgart. In 1909, he graduated from the central school of the
Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Berlin. From 1909 to 1919, Tarnow was then head of the Literary Agents (Press Office) in the main office of the
German Wood Workers' Union, in Berlin. In addition, from 1909 to 1915, he was a community representative, a member of the district assembly and a board member of the SPD in Berlin-Friedrichshagen. Tarnow fought in the
First World War and was severely wounded, causing lasting injury. During the
November Revolution of 1918, Tarnow was a member of the
Workers and Soldiers Council in
Brandenburg an der Havel. He became secretary of the Wood Workers Association, later serving as chairman from 1920 to 1933. He was one of the leading figures in the national executive of the
Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, a German trade union confederation. In the latter half of the 1920s, he was one of the main proponents of
Fritz Naphtali's concept of
economic democracy. He was briefly secretary of the International Woodworkers Association. In addition, from 1920 to 1933, he was a member of the provisional
Reichswirtschaftsrat. He was also the leader of the
Society for Social Reform and
German Werkbund. In 1928, he joined the Reichstag as a member for the SPD. During the
Great Depression he advocated, alongside
Vladimir S. Voitinsky, a proto-Keynesian public works program dubbed the
WTB plan. After
Adolf Hitler's
rise to power in early 1933 and the dismantling of the trade unions, Tarnow was arrested on 2 May.
Hans Staudinger, who had been a State Secretary in the Prussian Ministry of Trade until the
Preußenschlag, succeeded in obtaining Tarnow's release from
Gestapo custody. Staudinger impersonated a senior Prussian officer and ordered Tarnow's release. After his release, he immediately left the country, and fled first to the Netherlands, then Denmark and finally, Sweden. There, he tried to rebuild the trade unions in exile. He returned to
West Germany in 1946 and was the secretary of the
Württemberg and
Baden Trade Union Confederation in 1946 and 1947. From 1947 to 1949, he was secretary of the union council of
Bizone and then the
Trizone. He retired in 1949, but continued as a lecturer at the
Academy of work in
Frankfurt. == References ==