Adolf Hennecke was the son of a miner, raised by his uncle after the death of his parents. Between 1919 and 1922 he worked as an apprentice salesman. From 1925, finding himself jobless during Germany's Weimar-era hyperinflation, Hennecke started work as a miner and moved in 1926 to Oelsnitz, Erzgebirge to work in the Saxon coal mines. In 1931, Hennecke joined the Revolutionäre Gewerkschafts-Opposition and, after the Second World War, the Social Democratic Party of Germany. In 1948, given his anti-nazi credentials, he was elected to the Trade Union Management Board and was a member of the Competition Commission of the mining company Steinkohlenwerk Karl Liebknecht, as well as the Board of Directors of the coal industry Union of People's Enterprises, or VVB.
