Alfred Andreas Heiss

Alfred Andreas Heiss (born April 18, 1904 in Triebenreuth near Stadtsteinach , † September 24, 1940 in Brandenburg-Görden ) was a religiously motivated opponent of the Nazi regime . He refused military service in 1940 and was sentenced to death for it .

Life

Stolperstein , Georg-Wilhelm-Strasse 3, in Berlin-Halensee

Alfred Andreas Heiss was born as the sixth child of a small farmer family. They made it possible for your youngest to train as a commercial clerk. In 1930 he went to Berlin and received the post of "unskilled laborer in the middle justice service" with an annual salary of 2,003 Reichsmarks . In 1932 he joined the German Center Party because, as he later said to the Gestapo , he was convinced “that the Center Party would look after the interests of my religion”. In September 1934, in a discussion with SA men , he expressed himself critical of the published opinion about the Röhm Putsch and remained seated when the SA men stood up to deliver the usual triple victory Heil on the Führer and Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler . On March 26, 1935, he was arrested by the Gestapo and held for ten weeks in the Columbia concentration camp in Berlin. After his release he had to appear before the special court in Bamberg because of a "harmful defamation according to § 3 d. VO of 21 III. 33 “but was acquitted. He did not get his job as an unskilled worker in the middle justice service in Berlin. He was silent about what he had experienced in prison.

He wrote to his parents: “[...] I can say that there are not very many in Germany who clung to their convictions as firmly and unshakably as I did or do. Dear ones, this day requires sacrifice! […] I have already written to you once, whoever has eyes to see sees, and whoever has ears to hear hears. You have to be able to endure something for your opinion, and I am ready for that. ”The Archdiocese of Berlin gave him a position as a porter of a church tax office in Berlin. He remained unmarried.

In 1940 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht . In the barracks yard of the Hindenburg barracks in Glogau (Silesia) he refused to greet the swastika flag . Before the examining magistrate, he explained that National Socialism was anti-Christian and that he therefore had to refuse to serve as a soldier for the National Socialist state . He stayed with this statement even before the Reich Court Martial . This sentenced him to death for decomposing his military strength . He was executed on September 24, 1940 in Brandenburg prison . There is no news about the whereabouts of the body.

Commemoration

In the parish church of St. Michael von Stadtsteinach, a plaque commemorates Alfred Andreas Heiss.

In 1999 the Catholic Church accepted Alfred Andras Heiß as a witness of the Christian faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century .

On April 24, 2014 , a stumbling block was laid in front of his former home, Georg-Wilhelm-Straße 3, in Berlin-Halensee .

literature

• Thomas Breuer: The "public enemy" stands up for his faith. In memory of the Catholic conscientious objector Alfred Andreas Heiss, † 1940. In: Imprimatur. 22 (1989), pp. 126-128.
• Catalog for the special exhibition The Reich Court Martial and the Resistance to National Socialist Rule. edited by Norbert Haase, German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin, Berlin 1993, p. 77.
• Helmut Moll (Ed. On behalf of the German Bishops' Conference): Witnesses for Christ. The German martyrology of the 20th century . Paderborn u. a. 1999. 7th revised and updated edition 2019. ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 . Vol. IS 101-104.
• Alwin Reindl: Alfred Andreas Heiss. Alone against National Socialism. Volume 37 of the series of the Historisches Verein Bamberg, Bamberg 2003.

Web links

• Literature by and about Alfred Andreas Heiss in the catalog of the German National Library