Georg Groscurth

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Berlin memorial plaque for Georg Groscurth at the former Moabit Hospital
Memorial stone dedicated to Georg Groscurth on the mountain cemetery in Hauneck-Unterhaun
Sign: Anneliese-und-Georg-Groscurth-Platz
Honorary graves of Georg and Anneliese Groscurth in the Heerstrasse cemetery in Berlin-Westend

Georg Groscurth (born December 27, 1904 in Unterhaun , today in Hauneck , Hesse-Nassau province ; † May 8, 1944 in the Brandenburg-Görden prison ) was a German doctor and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Georg Groscurth was the son of a farmer , he studied medicine at the University of Marburg , the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg im Breisgau , the University of Graz and the University of Vienna . He completed his studies in Berlin in 1930 with a doctorate to become a Dr. med. from. Then Groscurth worked as an assistant at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry . There he made the acquaintance of the chemist Robert Havemann , with whom he founded a resistance group a few years later. Robert Havemann and Georg Groscurth were politically active together in the Marxist group Neu Beginnen .

From 1933 Groscurth worked as an internist at the Berlin Moabit Hospital and later as an employee of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry in Berlin. Since he and his friend Havemann were suspected of communist tendencies, they lost their positions at the institute. At the Moabit Hospital, renamed “Robert Koch Hospital” in 1935, Groscurth became senior physician in 1939 and took over the management of the hospital at the beginning of the war. In 1940 he became a private lecturer at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin.

After Groscurth had seen from 1933, among other things, how his Jewish colleagues were removed from their offices, he decided to break medical confidentiality when the "Deputy of the Führer", Rudolf Hess , became his patient, and gave everything that hypochondriac Hess told him in his consultations on to resistance groups, including plans for new concentration camps or the planned attack on the Soviet Union . Together with Robert Havemann, the architect Herbert Richter (-Luckian) and the dentist Paul Rentsch , Groscurth founded the European Union resistance group . They hid Jews and deserters . As far as he could, Groscurth also wrote soldiers unfit for military service . In 1943 he met the doctor Galina Romanowa , who had been deported to Germany for forced labor , provided her with medication, gave her professional advice and supported her in organizing the resistance.

The European Union resistance group was betrayed in 1943 and Groscurth and his wife Anneliese were arrested on September 4, 1943 while on vacation. On December 16, 1943, he was sentenced to death by the People's Court for “preparing for high treason” and “favoring the enemy”. The death sentence was signed by the judges at the People's Court, Roland Freisler and Hans-Joachim Rehse . Georg Groscurth was beheaded on May 8, 1944 in the Brandenburg-Görden prison .

After the end of the war, his widow Anneliese Groscurth lived with their two sons Peter (professor of anatomy) and Jan in Wehrda in Hesse , and later in West Berlin . The writer Friedrich Christian Delius grew up with the sons of Groscurth and published the novel Mein Jahr als Mörder in 2004 , in which he portrayed the lives of Georg and Anneliese Groscurth.

Georg Groscurth's grave is in the state-owned cemetery Heerstraße in Berlin-Westend . His wife Anneliese was buried next to him in 1996.

The last resting places of the Groscurth couple (grave location: I-Erb.-Mauer) have been dedicated as honorary graves of the State of Berlin since 2020 . The dedication is initially valid for the usual period of twenty years, but can then be extended.

Honors

  • A memorial plaque for Georg Groscurth is located at Turmstrasse 21 in Berlin-Moabit .
  • In 1977 “Groscurthstrasse” was named after him in the Berlin district of Pankow .
  • In 2005 the "Anneliese-und-Georg-Groscurth-Platz" was inaugurated in Berlin-Westend .
  • In 1980 a memorial stone was placed on the mountain cemetery in Hauneck-Unterhaun . On its front is a quote from his farewell letter: “I am dying for a life without human hatred”. On the back there is a quote from the Gospel of John (15:13): “Nobody has greater love than that, that he gives his life for his friends”.
  • 2005: Honorary title “ Righteous Among the Nations ” in the Israeli Yad Vashem memorial for the help he gave to persecuted Jews during the Nazi era .

literature

Web links

Commons : Georg Groscurth  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Peter Steinbach and Johannes Tuchel : Lexicon of Resistance 1933–1945 . CHBeck; 2., revised. u. exp. Edition 1998; ISBN 3-406-43861-X ; P. 75.
  2. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 487.
  3. ↑ Senate Department for Environment, Transport and Climate Protection: Honorary Graves of the State of Berlin (as of June 2020) (PDF, 439 kB), p. 29. Accessed on August 12, 2020. Recognition of graves as honorary graves of the State of Berlin (PDF, 163 kB ). Berlin House of Representatives, printed matter 18/2864 of August 7, 2020, pp. 1 and 5. Accessed on August 12, 2020.
  4. ↑ Georg Groscurth on the website of Yad Vashem (English)
personal data
SURNAME Groscurth, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor and resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH December 27, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Unterhaun , today in Hauneck , Province of Hesse-Nassau
DATE OF DEATH May 8, 1944
Place of death Brandenburg-Görden prison