Walter Cramer

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Walter Cramer

Wilhelm Bernardo Walter Cramer (born May 1, 1886 in Leipzig ; † November 14, 1944 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a German textile entrepreneur and resistance fighter against National Socialism . He was an influential and long-standing member of the board of the Leipzig worsted yarn spinning mill Stöhr (1923-1944), a member of the supervisory board of the Leipzig cotton mill and chairman of the Saxon advisory board of Deutsche Bank . Cramer was one of Carl Friedrich Goerdeler's closest confidants and was executed as a co-conspirator of the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944 in Plötzensee.

Life

Origin and education

Thomas School in Leipzig (around 1900)

Walter Cramer was born in Leipzig in 1886 as the son of textile entrepreneur Wilhelm Cramer (1851–1921) and his wife Josepha Cramer, née Sala (1861–1940), of Italian descent. His father was the owner of the wholesale company woolen yarns Polter & Co. Member of the Supervisory Board of Kammgarnspinnerei Gautzsch AG in Gautzsch (now Markkleeberg ) in Leipzig and honorary commercial judge at the district court of Leipzig . The mother also came from a merchant family. From 1896 to 1904 Walter Cramer attended the humanistic Thomas School in Leipzig .

Afterwards, with the help of his father's contacts, he was trained from 1904 to 1906 at the J. & W. Roberts textile company in Bradford , Northern England . He did his military service from 1906 to 1907 as a one-year volunteer in the 1st Royal Saxon Field Artillery Regiment No. 12 in Königsbrück near Dresden. In 1910 he was promoted to lieutenant in the reserve. After his service, he became a partner and authorized signatory in his parents' company. He was married to Charlotte Weber (1889–1975), the daughter of the manufacturer Emil Weber . The marriage resulted in two daughters and a son who died as a soldier in World War II . In 1910 Cramer became a member of the Leipzig Harmony Society , a respected citizens' association. In 1913 he was granted the citizenship of the city of Leipzig, which he u. a. granted the right to vote. He took part in the First World War as a reserve officer and fought on the western and eastern fronts. He was eventually promoted to first lieutenant in the reserve and was awarded the Iron Cross II. (EK II) and I. Class (EK I) from 1914 for his bravery .

Textile entrepreneur

From 1919 Cramer became managing director of the worsted spinning mill Gautzsch AG . As he stood up for the social needs of his workers, he enjoyed high recognition. From 1923 he was a member of the board of the worsted yarn spinning mill in Leipzig- Plagwitz . At his instigation, Gautzsch merged with the Stöhr Group in 1928. Strategically, he advocated a mixture of synthetic staple fiber and wool , making the company headed by him were less dependent on wool imports and the global economic crisis from 1,928 to 1,930 survived. In 1934 he founded the society of processors of wool with synthetic staple fibers (Wokafa). Experiments with viscose fibers were supported by IG Farben . Since the Reich Ministry of Economics interfered more and more in the affairs of the association, he stopped his engagement after just a few months. Instead, in 1937 he founded the association for the evaluation and technical training of the processing of rayon, a rayon and sliver association. The board member Fritzludolf Koch at Stöhr stated in retrospect: "He was one of the first in his branch of industry to anticipate the development in the supply of raw materials [...]". The company achieved a further milestone in the development of the so-called perfect ring spinning machine , which later successfully replaced the self-actuator machines used worldwide .

With his decisive contribution, the Stöhr company, with several subsidiaries, developed into one of the leading worsted yarn spinning mills in Germany. He presided over the supervisory boards of the German parts of the group and was vice president of the European subsidiaries. Koch reported on Walter Cramer in 1944: "After [...] joining the board of directors [...] he played a decisive role in the reorganization [...]. His initiative succeeded in consolidating the endangered situation of the company and preventing foreign infiltration [...]. [...] In doing so, Mr. Cramer [...] made great financial sacrifices of his own. "

In the 1940s, however, the Nazi regime introduced price penalties for non-war industries that also affected Stöhr AG. At the beginning of 1943 the Reich Ministry of Armaments and Ammunition threatened the takeover of the company by the Dessau armaments company Junkers & Co. , which was prevented at the instigation of the management. In autumn 1943 Stöhr was partially shut down, as the majority of the workforce was drafted into the Wehrmacht , and in February 1944 the Leipzig works were severely destroyed by air raids by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces .

Cramer held other positions in the economy, such as supervisory board mandates at the Leipziger cotton spinning mill , Paul Schettlers Erben AG , Walter Leberecht Stein AG and Thüringer Wollgarnspinnerei AG as well as chairing the Saxon advisory board of Deutsche Bank .

resistance

From 1920 Cramer was a member of the German National People's Party (DNVP). In 1930, however, he resigned from the party due to the cooperation between the DNVP and the NSDAP , which was promoted by Alfred Hugenberg . In 1933 the entrepreneurs Werner Stöhr and Hermann Rausch tried in vain to persuade him to join the NSDAP. Above all, Cramer rejected the influence of convinced National Socialists on the Supervisory Board of Stöhr AG. Furthermore, historical events such as the Röhm Putsch and the sermons of Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen against the killing of so-called “ life unworthy of life ” made him decide to resist.

After the death of his son in 1941, Cramer took part in the Goerdeler circle around the former Mayor of Leipzig, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, in the civil resistance against National Socialism . He mediated u. a. between the Goerdeler circle and the generals in resistance such as Ludwig Beck , Wilhelm Canaris , Alexander von Falkenhausen , Erich Hoepner and Friedrich Olbricht . He also acted as intermediary between Carl Friedrich Goerdeler in Leipzig and Friedrich Siegmund-Schultze in Zurich. He was also in contact with Robert Bosch in Stuttgart.

From July 1942, Cramer's company employed ex officio forced laborers from Russia and Poland. On trips abroad, including to branches of Stöhr AG in Eastern Europe, he witnessed the expulsion and deportation of the Jews to the concentration camps. This is one of the reasons why he resisted the creeping forced Aryanization of the Leipzig worsted yarn spinning mill Stöhr and Co. He also campaigned for several Jewish employees and business partners. In 1940 he asked the industrialist Günther Quandt , in vain , to transfer license rights to the Jewish businessman Siegfried Spiegel, who had fled to South America . In April 1944, criminal proceedings were opened against him at the Leipzig District Court for undermining military strength (according to Section 5 of the KSSVO ). The reason for the charge was Cramer's comment to his in-house critic Werner Stöhr about the occupation of Hungary by the National Socialists: Cramer had to go to Hungary to “look after his poor Jews”.

As a good friend and confidante of Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, Cramer was privy to the assassination plans of July 20, 1944 . This convinced him in 1943, despite initial concerns, to become politically active after Adolf Hitler's intended death. As the planned “Political Representative” in Military District IV (Dresden), Cramer was a member of the Beck / Goerdeler shadow cabinet . After Operation Valkyrie was triggered as a result of the assassination, Cramer's new function Colonel General Erich Hoepner was telegraphed to the Wehrmacht High Command (OKW). After it became known that the assassination attempt had failed, Cramer fled that evening to St. Johann near Reutlingen in Württemberg , until he was finally tracked down and arrested by the Secret State Police on July 22, 1944 .

Middle section of the stele for Walter Cramer in the Johannapark in Leipzig

From July 23 to 31, 1944, he was imprisoned in the Dresden police prison. He then spent two months in the Lehrter Strasse prison in Berlin. Interrogations involving severe mental and physical abuse, etc. a. by SS-Sturmbannführer Hans Helmut Wolff and SS-Sturmbannführer Kriminalrat Herbert Lange took place in the “house prison” at Prinz-Albrecht Strasse 8 . Despite the torture he was exposed to, he kept silent about other conspiratorial names such as Theodor Strünck , Wilhelm Schomburgk (friend from Leipzig) and Hans Bernd Gisevius . On September 27, 1944, he was transferred to Tegel remand prison . Several diary-like notes from Cramer's imprisonment reached his family through the Catholic priest Peter Buchholz . His trial before the People's Court took place on November 14, 1944, together with the trials against Oswald Rösler and Ernst Schoen von Wildenegg . He was charged with high treason and treason (according to § 88 RStGB ), found guilty and finally sentenced to death by the 1st Senate, chaired by Roland Freisler (Ref .: OJ 28/44 Geheime Reichssache ). This mocked him in the process as "commis voyageur [salesmen] of the putschists". On the same day, Cramer was hanged in Berlin-Plötzensee prison. At the same time he lost all his honorary rights and his entire property was confiscated. a. also his country house in Leulitz near Wurzen.

Posthumous honors

literature

Monographs

  • Beatrix Heintze (Ed.): Walter Cramer (1886–1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. Documentation . Deutscher Instituts-Verlag, Cologne 1993, ISBN 3-602-14350-3 .
  • Helga Raue, Cultural Office of the City of Leipzig (Ed.): Walter Cramer Honor of the City of Leipzig 1994. Documentation . City of Leipzig, Cultural Office, Leipzig 1994, DNB 944538517 .
  • Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer, the worsted yarn spinning mill Stöhr & Co in Leipzig and the so-called “Jewish question”. Materials on walking the tightrope between help and surrender. (= Memories. 3). With a foreword by Hans Mommsen . Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2003, ISBN 3-935693-87-7 .
  • Beatrix Heintze (Ed.): Walter Cramer - the last few weeks. Prison letters and notes to his family after July 20, 1944. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2013, ISBN 978-3-86583-758-5 .

Anthologies

  • Annedore Leber (Ed.): The conscience decides. Areas of German resistance from 1933–1945 in pictures of life. In collaboration with Willy Brandt and Karl Dietrich Bracher . Mosaik, Berlin 1957, pp. 208 ff.
  • Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886–1944). In: Reiner Groß, Gerald Wiemers (ed.): Saxon life pictures. (= Sources and research on Saxon history. 17). Volume 4, Verlag der Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Leipzig 1999, ISBN 3-515-07469-4 , pp. 63–73.

Lectures

  • Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer. A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance against National Socialism. (= Texts of the Leipziger Geschichtsverein eV 20). Lecture given on May 18, 1994 in the hall of the Alte Handelsbörse. Leipzig History Association, Leipzig 1994.

Lexicons

  • Horst Riedel, Pro Leipzig (Ed.): Stadtlexikon Leipzig from A to Z. Pro Leipzig, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-936508-03-8 , p. 96 f.
  • Peter Steinbach (Ed.): Lexicon of Resistance 1933–1945. (= Beck series. 1061). 2nd Edition. CH Beck, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-43861-X , p. 98.

Web links

Commons : Walter Cramer  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886–1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 10.
  2. ↑ a b c Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886–1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 11.
  3. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 13.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886–1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 14.
  5. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 20.
  6. ↑ a b Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886–1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 22.
  7. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 23.
  8. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 16.
  9. ↑ a b Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886–1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 17.
  10. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 19.
  11. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 26.
  12. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 27.
  13. ↑ a b Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886–1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 51.
  14. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 60.
  15. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 80.
  16. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 82.
  17. ^ Joachim Scholtyseck: Robert Bosch and the liberal resistance against Hitler 1933-1945 . CH Beck Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-406-45525-5 , p. 329.
  18. ^ Joachim Scholtyseck : Robert Bosch and the liberal resistance against Hitler 1933-1945 . CH Beck Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-406-45525-5 , p. 330.
  19. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 44.
  20. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 99.
  21. ↑ Detlef J. Blesgen (Ed.): Financiers, finances and financing forms of resistance. (= Series of publications by the Research Association July 20, 1944 eV Volume 5). Lit Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-8258-7662-4 , p. 15.
  22. ↑ Joachim Scholtyseck: The rise of the Quandts. A German entrepreneurial dynasty . CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-62251-9 .
  23. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 118.
  24. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, pp. 78, 97.
  25. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 114.
  26. ^ Joachim Scholtyseck : Robert Bosch and the liberal resistance against Hitler 1933–1945 . CH Beck Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-406-45525-5 , p. 652.
  27. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 124.
  28. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 130.
  29. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 131.
  30. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 139.
  31. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 151.
  32. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 156.
  33. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 168.
  34. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 172.
  35. ^ Walter Wagner: The People's Court in the National Socialist State. 2nd Edition. Oldenbourg, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-54491-6 , p. 741.
  36. ↑ Beatrix Heintze: Walter Cramer (1886-1944). A Leipzig entrepreneur in the resistance. 1993, p. 14.
  37. ↑ In 1945 a street in Gohlis was named after Walter Cramer. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung. November 30, 2010, p. 18.
  38. ^ Memorial to Walter Cramer . Website by Klaus Friedrich Messerschmidt. Retrieved April 17, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Cramer, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cramer, Wilhelm Bernardo Walter (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German textile entrepreneur and confidante of Carl Friedrich Goerdeler
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH November 14, 1944
Place of death Berlin-Plötzensee