Ernst Jennrich

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Ernst Jennrich (born November 15, 1911 in Wedringen , † March 20, 1954 in Dresden ) is a victim of the GDR dictatorship. He was executed in the GDR after participating in the popular uprising of June 17, 1953 .

Life

Ernst Jennrich, eight of nine children in a working-class family, began an apprenticeship as a baker after eight years of elementary school, and shortly afterwards an apprenticeship as a gardener, which he also completed. During the time of National Socialism he was called in for "emergency work" and was involved in the construction of the Mittelland Canal , among other things . From 1940 he was conscripted for the Junkers factories until 1942 when he was drafted into the Wehrmacht. Because of a serious wound on the Eastern Front, he was temporarily released from military service until he was called up again in 1944. He deserted shortly before the end of the war and was taken prisoner by the Americans, from which he was soon released. After trying unsuccessfully as a greengrocer, he returned to working as a gardener in an agricultural production cooperative (LPG). Politically, Jennrich was first organized in the Socialist Workers' Youth before 1933 , then in the SPD . After 1945 he was back in the SPD, after its compulsory union with the KPD in 1946 a member of the SED . In 1947 he resigned from the SED.

Contributing on June 17, 1953

On June 17, 1953, Ernst Jennrich was traveling in the urban area of Magdeburg , where he lived with his wife and four children. With the order to get a "wood release", he rode his bike to the LPG administration in the morning and was amazed at the many people on the streets. He drove to the furniture factory where his wife worked, reported excitedly about the strike, and asked if they would not also want to strike here, which was later interpreted in court as " boycottism ".

With one of his sons he roamed the city to see what was happening on the streets up close. When he arrived in front of the Sudenburg detention center , the guards were already disarmed. Jennrich took the carbine from the hand of an adolescent and fired two shots, about the intent, direction and effect of which there were very different statements. According to his own statements, at the urging of the demonstrators, he fired two untargeted shots at the detention center wall and in the air to unload the rifle. Finally he smashed the weapon.

On the night of June 19, he was arrested and, after being interrogated by Soviet interrogators, transferred to the German authorities and charged with “boycott and incitement to murder against democratic institutions and organizations and, after May 8, 1945, through propaganda for fascism, the peace of the to have endangered the German people; in the act of unity thus insidious for low motives, in order to enable another criminal act to have deliberately killed a person. "

Death sentence with no evidence

Although it controlled the statements of several witnesses, the court could not prove that Ernst Jennrich had targeted the police officer Georg Gaidzik on duty . At the hearing on August 25, 1953, Jennrich defended himself with haunting words: “Mr. Richter, I can only say one thing, that I never wanted to become a murderer. And I never committed the murder because I know for sure that I didn't fire a shot at a member of the People's Police in the right window. And I was never willing to become the tool of these people, or the tool of the provocateurs from the West, nor mostly of people who try to exploit the workers. I'm not a person who wants to be exploited. ”On August 25, 1953, the court, which had serious doubts about the testimony, sentenced Jennrich to life imprisonment.

On August 27, 1953, the public prosecutor protested against this judgment: “The protection of our peace-loving state requires the death penalty for the crime committed by the accused .” On the instructions of the Supreme Court of the GDR , the same judges who had passed the first sentence sentenced Ernst Jennrich to death on October 6, 1953. This process only took 15 minutes; further taking of evidence was not considered necessary. In the judgment of October 6th, it says: "In view of this danger, the protection of our social order requires that the highest sentence, namely the elimination of the accused from our society and thus the death penalty, is recognized." A detailed petition for clemency from Ernst Jennrich to President Wilhelm Pieck , in which he stated that he would take on the toughest working conditions, "so that I can later be accepted as a person in the social order of the German Democratic Republic", remained ineffective: his request for clemency was rejected, as was the appeal .

Death by "falling sword machine"

The verdict was carried out on March 20, 1954 at 4:00 am in the central execution site of the GDR in Dresden using the " falling sword machine ". The causes of death according to the funeral certificate were " pneumonia " and "acute circulatory insufficiency". It testifies to the specific conception of law in the GDR that the then Justice Minister Hilde Benjamin passed this judgment at the beginning of August 1953, i. H. could instruct personally before starting the process. Jennrich received an urn burial in the Tolkewitz urn grove ; after the fall of the Wall, the urn was transferred to Magdeburg.

Acquittal posthumously

At the request of his son (Ernst Jennrich Jr.), the 4th Criminal Senate of the Halle District Court overturned the judgment on August 20, 1991: Ernst Jennrich was acquitted. The Senate considered the condemnation of Jennrich to be unconstitutional under the law of the GDR at the time. A criminal offense can only be “judged if there is a specific threat of punishment”. According to the judges, Article 6 of the constitution of the GDR does not contain such a threat of punishment, but "merely the general statement that boycotting is a crime within the meaning of the penal code". The binding instruction of the Supreme Court with regard to the presentation of evidence and the sentence also constituted a serious violation of the law. According to the unanimous opinion of the Senate, Ernst Jennrich was also acquitted because his participation in the uprising of June 17, 1953 as an "exercise of political contradiction and - in the Essential - nonviolent resistance ”. These were constitutional fundamental political rights.

Processing as a play

The "Ernst Jennrich" case served as a template for the documentary theater play "Der Massenmensch", which premiered on the occasion of the Dresden Museum Night in 2003 at the Münchner Platz Dresden Memorial . The Ernst-Jennrich-Theater e. V. staged one-person play documents the trial against Ernst Jennrich before the 1st criminal division of the Magdeburg District Court (on August 25/26, 1953). It is based on a sound recording made by the Ministry of State Security .

Processing as a radio broadcast

Judgment on Order - The death penalty is appropriate - January 19, 2014, WDR 5.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b wdr5.de ( Memento from December 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Jennrich, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German gardener, victim of the GDR dictatorship
DATE OF BIRTH November 15, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Wedringen
DATE OF DEATH March 20, 1954
Place of death Dresden