August Baumgarte

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August Baumgarte (born November 1, 1904 in Hanover ; † April 17, 1980 there ) was a German communist. He was imprisoned in several concentration camps during almost the entire period of National Socialism . After the war he became involved in the Association of Those Persecuted by the Nazi Regime (VVN) and the KPD . In 1958 he was sentenced to prison for his work for the KPD. His claims for compensation because of the injustice suffered during the Nazi era under the Federal Compensation Act were denied to him, with reference to the fact that he was still active for the party after the KPD ban .

Life

Having grown up in a family with a social democratic orientation, Baumgarte joined the Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ) soon after starting an apprenticeship as a locksmith and in 1923 the Republican Protection Association of Hanover , which later became part of the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold . In 1926 he joined the communist youth association , in which he worked in the district management. Baumgarte was elected chairman of the works council of a large Hanoverian metal works, but there he was dismissed and became involved in the fight against fascism , which he headed in Lower Saxony from 1930.

After the Reichstag fire , on February 28, 1933, Baumgarte was one of the first communists to be arrested in Hanover . From April 11, 1933, he was imprisoned in the Moringen concentration camp . In autumn 1933 he was transferred to the Esterwegen concentration camp and released on February 18, 1934. Baumgarte was under police supervision and illegally moved to Chemnitz , where he organized "anti-fascist youth groups". On August 8, 1934, he was arrested again and eventually sentenced to six years in prison for “preparing for high treason”. He served his sentence from 1937 in the Papenburg II prison camp and was transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp after his release in autumn 1940 . In October 1944 he was taken to the Mauthausen concentration camp , where he was liberated on May 5, 1945.

After the end of the war, Baumgarte continued to be politically active in the KPD and the Association of Those Persecuted by the Nazi Regime (VVN) and became state secretary of the party and the VVN. Karl Abel , from 1946 to 1951 a member of the Lower Saxony state parliament, there in 1950/51 chairman of the KPD parliamentary group and until 1960 on the board of the VVN, made Baumgarte responsible for wrong personal decisions, post wrangling and politically counterproductive power struggles in the functionaries' wars and identified him as a co-author of one derogatory dossiers about himself (“The Red Hand”), which ended up in the hands of the political opponent.

Because of his imprisonment during National Socialism , Baumgarte was awarded compensation of DM 21,750 in 1950. From 1949 he also received a "victim's pension" as a 40% disabled person due to persecution. After the Federal Compensation Act of 1953 came into force , Baumgarte filed an application for compensation. The compensation authority at the Hanover district government excluded him from compensation on October 30, 1956 because he was a leading member of the KPD , which had been banned two months earlier . In addition, the reparations paid so far were reclaimed. Baumgarte sued his rejection notice and was partially right in 1959 because the withdrawal period for a pension and compensation had already expired. He withdrew his claim for compensation after he had been sentenced to two years and two months in prison in 1958 for his work for the KPD.

In 1962 he caused a sensation when he confronted the chairman of the 1st Senate of the Federal Administrative Court , Fritz Werner , with his Nazi past during the oral hearing on the ban on the VVN requested by the federal government.

From 1970 Baumgarte tried to get a "second decision" for his compensation claims. Although his case was nationwide attention and the SPD - parliamentary group of his adopted in 1973, it was rejected on the grounds that he had been involved even after the ban on the Communist Party. His lawsuit was dismissed on November 20, 1973.

Baumgarte was the "Committee of the Moorsoldaten", an association of former prisoners of the Emsland camps.

After the city of Hanover refused to name a street after him because of similar names, the district council of his last place of residence, Linden-Limmer , unanimously decided on February 27, 2013 to name a footpath and cycle path after August Baumgarte. The extension of the Justus-Garten-Bridge will in future be called "August-Baumgarte-Gang".

His brother Kurt Baumgarte was also a resistance fighter.

Publications

  • The real face of the Waffen SS . Self-published, Hanover 1963.

literature

  • Hans Hesse (with the assistance of Jens Wagner): The early Moringen concentration camp (April-November 1933). "... an interesting psychological experiment in itself ..." . ed. from the camp community and memorial KZ Moringen eV, Moringen 2003. pp. 163–166.
  • Gerda Zorn : Resistance in Hanover. Against reaction and fascism 1920–1946 . Röderberg, Frankfurt am Main 1977.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ FX Fackler (Ed.): The red hand in the persecuted and veterans' associations in Europe. Munich: Siebenstern-Verl. 1961
  2. ↑ Christian Heppner (ed.): As a socialist and communist under four regimes. The memoirs of Lower Saxony's first social minister, Karl Abel (1897–1971). Bielefeld: Verl. Für Regionalgeschichte 2008, pp. 31, 283–286, 353–363
  3. ↑ Hannoversche Allgemeine, March 23, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Baumgarte, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German communist
DATE OF BIRTH November 1, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanover
DATE OF DEATH April 17, 1980
Place of death Hanover