Adolf Herrmann

Memorial stone for Adolf Herrmann in the cemetery of Hohen Neuendorf

Karl Wilhelm Adolf Herrmann (* around 1873 in Rackau, Züllichau-Schwiebus district ; † September 29, 1906 in Berlin ) was a functionary of the Workers 'Cyclists' Association Solidarity (ARBS). He was shot dead by a police officer in 1906.

Situation before the act

Adolf Herrmann was a carpenter by profession; he was a member of the SPD as well as of the party-affiliated workers' cycling association Solidarity . In the "Solidarity", Herrmann acted as district leader in Gau 9 ( Brandenburg ). The workers' cyclists were called the “Red Hussars of the Class Struggle” because they supported the SPD at meetings and propaganda campaigns by distributing leaflets, for example; they saw themselves as “reconnaissance patrols” of the social democracy.

In 1905 and 1906 the political situation in the empire was tense: across the country, the number of strikes rose to around 3,500 with lockouts of 350,000 workers. In Birkenwerder , too , a municipality near Berlin characterized by brickworks , the workers working there fought for their rights and better working conditions. A fatal incident occurred in this heated atmosphere.

The act and the consequences

On the late evening of September 23, 1906, Adolf Herrmann was in Stolpe , a town near Birkenwerder , on his way home to Hohen Neuendorf after an SPD meeting . Police officer Hermann Jude shot him on the way. After it was initially said that Herrmann had been attacked by a robber, there were reports that Herrmann was traveling alone and Jude had ambushed him, other reports say that the shot was in the course of a confrontation between a group of participants in the meeting with two foot policemen Civil fell, who also came from a meeting. Adolf Herrmann died six days later in the Berlin Charité from the consequences of his gunshot wound; he left a wife and three children.

On October 5th, Adolf Herrmann was buried in the cemetery in Hohen Neuendorf with a large public attendance. Three years later, on September 26, 1909, a memorial stone was unveiled on his grave; Around 10,000 people took part in a previous memorial service in Stolpe, including around 1,000 worker cyclists. The Social Democratic Reichstag member Arthur Stadthagen , to whose constituency the town belonged, gave a fiery speech. Then the people moved to the cemetery, watched by a large contingent of gendarmes and security officers.

The military court initially refused to bring charges against Jude. This came about only after a decision by the Reich Military Court , and the gendarme was charged with "willful bodily harm with fatal outcome". At the trial before the court martial of the 1st Guard Division on August 11, 1908, Jude reported that he and his colleague Tietz had observed the meeting of the SPD for official reasons. The Social Democrats, in his opinion to blame for the incident, "founded clubs to hold entertainment that would otherwise have been banned by the police". After the end of the meeting there was a meeting in front of the restaurant, at which Tietz was beaten; he, a Jew, therefore acted in self-defense and shot.

Two social democratic witnesses, including a brother of the victim, testified that it was Tietz who struck with a stick. One witness reported that he had "blood on his face" flowed down from the blows, and that Tietz had also hit the Herrmann brothers. The second gendarme had hidden, then came out of hiding and shot; then the gendarmes ran away. After a day in court, Jude was acquitted of self-defense. He remained on duty and was only transferred. A claim for damages against him, in which the lawyer Karl Liebknecht represented the widow, was kidnapped, the outcome is unknown. However, during the Weimar Republic , the widow is said to have been sentenced to pay the legal costs, for which the wages of the eldest daughter Emma were seized. The son of Herrmann fell in the First World War .

The memorial stone

The memorial stone for Herrmann bore the inscription "Our unforgettable district leader Adolf Herrmann was shot dead on the way home from Paying evening on the night of September 23, 1906 by the gendarme Jude" and was the reason for arguments several times in the years to come. Because of the label, the authorities demanded that the stone be removed as it endangered public safety. When this did not happen, a wooden box was put over the stone on the initiative of the head of the office of Birkenwerder, on which a short time later strangers painted the words "The veiled truth". Ultimately, the words "shot by the gendarme Jude" were removed at the instigation of the authorities. After 1918, the stone was returned to its original state and again unveiled on May 21, 1919 at a large rally.

In 1926, 20 years after Herrmann's death, there was another rally, after which the inscription was chiseled out of the memorial plaque shortly afterwards, presumably by supporters of the NSDAP . The workers put up a postcard with a photo of the memorial stone, the sale of which was supposed to finance the restoration of the inscription, but this did not happen due to political developments. The money raised was kept until the end of World War II , and in 1945 a stonemason re-affixed the label. In the 1980s the stone was cleaned and restored and has since been in the grove of honor in the Hohen Neuendorf cemetery. It is a listed building .

From 1955 to 1964, a memorial bike race named after him was held annually in Hohen Neuendorf in memory of Adolf Herrmann. In Stolpe, the street on which the fatal incident occurred was named after Herrmann. Until 1995, there was a small plaque that had since disappeared to remind of the crime.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Standesamt Berlin XII a: Death register . No. 1828/1906.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Peter Richter / Sven Dewitz: A police murder and its consequences . In: The bone shaker. Magazine for lovers of historical bicycles . No. 61 , 2016, p. 35 .
3. ↑ Bruno Gebhardt: Handbook of German History: Das Kaiserreich 1871-1914. Klett-Cotta, 2001, ISBN 978-3-608-60016-2 , p. 84 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
4. ^ ^{A b} Siegfried Herfert: Incorrect Sunday work. In: birkenwerder.de. Retrieved June 4, 2016 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b} Peter Richter / Sven Dewitz: A police murder and its consequences . In: The bone shaker. Magazine for lovers of historical bicycles . No. 61 , 2016, p. 34 .
6. ↑ ^{a b} Briesetal-Bote. Official district indicator for Birkenwerder, Hohen Neuendorf, Borgsdorf, Lehnitz and the surrounding area . August 13, 1908. p. 2
7. ↑ ^{a b} Peter Richter / Sven Dewitz: A police murder and its consequences . In: The bone shaker. Magazine for lovers of historical bicycles . No. 61 , 2016, p. 36 .
8. ↑ List of monuments of the State of Brandenburg: District Oberhavel (PDF) Brandenburg State Office for Monument Preservation and State Archaeological Museum