Alfred Steinhage

Alfred August Steinhage (born July 19, 1889 in Mülheim am Rhein , † October 15, 1955 in Wuppertal ) was a German communist and resistanceist against National Socialism . He was called the Red General von Elberfeld by his political opponents .

First World War and Weimar Republic

Alfred Steinhage learned the profession of blacksmith . During World War I he served in the Imperial Navy , and in 1917 he joined the SPD . After the war he settled in Elberfeld ; Whether he belonged to a group of revolutionary sailors who arrived in Wuppertal on November 7, 1918, is unclear. Steinhage joined the KPD in 1919 , married in the same year and had a daughter. As a “combat leader” he took an active part in the suppression of the Kapp Putsch , but then experienced the defeat of the Red Ruhr Army against the Reichswehr and Freikorps .

In 1924 a local group of the Red Front Fighters' Union (RFB) was founded in Barmen , and Steinhage joined it. Two years later a local group in Elberfeld was added. Steinhage became the leader of this group and organized military sports exercises at the Lenneper dam . Observing detectives attested his combat groups "exact military leadership, commands and turns". As the organizer of demonstrations, Steinhage showed imagination: For example, illuminated banners were carried during nightly processions, and in the course of the campaign for the expropriation of the princes , the old system was literally buried in the form of a coffin with a crown on it.

In 1929 the RFB was banned after bloody clashes with other political fighting groups. As a result, personal animosities broke out in the Elberfeld KPD; Alfred Steinhage as well as his brothers Fritz and Leo were supposed to be pushed out of the party. Many comrades believed that the militancy of the fighting groups had harmed the party. Steinhage and some of his friends prevented an expulsion by leaving the party and founding their own group, the "Association of Proletarian Friends".

Steinhage's departure from the KPD caused a sensation in circles of his comrades, but there was greater anger that the members of the RFB band also transferred to his new group. “Under the name of 'Freedom', it becomes the focus of agitation by the new political group.” From then on, the band was used by Steinhage's group on many occasions, to the great annoyance of the KPD, which saw this as a “shame”.

time of the nationalsocialism

After the " seizure of power " in 1933, Alfred Steinhage was picked up on June 24 by members of the SA and severely mistreated. He decided to flee to Saarland . A few days later members of the SS knocked out his wife's teeth and forced her to give the friend of one of their leaders the license for Steinhage's restaurant, which he had meanwhile opened. Then she and her daughter followed her husband to Saarland.

In exile in Saarland, the Steinhage family was in double isolation: as refugees from Germany and as despised "renegades" of the communist movement. After the Saar referendum and the subsequent annexation of the Saarland to Germany, the family fled to France . When they were picked up by the French police, they pushed the Steinhages back to Germany. They went back to Wuppertal and Alfred Steinhage surrendered to the Gestapo .

Steinhage was first imprisoned in Bendahl prison, transferred from there to the Esterwegen concentration camp and repeatedly mistreated; among other things, three ribs were broken and all teeth knocked out with a rifle butt. The exile press falsely spread the news that he had been murdered in the Oranienburg concentration camp . He was later brought to Sachsenhausen and released in November 1936. The Gestapo, which he was still under observation, noted: "Alfred Steinhage avoids intercourse with former like-minded people."

After the war

After the war, Steinhage bought a small kiosk from his compensation. He died in 1955 at the age of 66. In 1962 - seven years after his death - his reparation case was on the agenda of the relevant committee. Former party members appeared before the committee to testify that Steinhage had illegally appropriated the musical instruments of the RFB band in 1929.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ LAV NRW R, Political Reports No. 16976. Quoted from: Stephan Stracke: "The 'Red General von Elberfeld' - Alfred Steinhage". In: “… We don't get broken.” Faces of the Wuppertal resistance . Edited by the Wuppertal Resistance Research Group. Essen 1995. p. 49
2. ↑ Stephan Stracke: "The 'Red General von Elberfeld' - Alfred Steinhage". In: “… We don't get broken.” Faces of the Wuppertal resistance. Edited by the Wuppertal Resistance Research Group. Essen 1995. p. 52
3. ↑ Stephan Stracke: "The 'Red General von Elberfeld' - Alfred Steinhage". In: “… We don't get broken.” Faces of the Wuppertal resistance. Edited by the Wuppertal Resistance Research Group. Essen 1995. p. 42

literature

• Stephan Stracke: "The 'Red General von Elberfeld' - Alfred Steinhage". In: “… We don't get broken.” Faces of the Wuppertal resistance. Edited by the Wuppertal Resistance Research Group. Essen 1995. pp. 39-61