Bernhard Lorenz

Bernhard Lorenz (born April 7, 1889 in Ottersweier , † January 13, 1969 in Bühl ) was a German local politician and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Bernhard Lorenz was born as the 13th and youngest child of a farmer. After attending elementary school, he fell ill with polio in 1903 , a disease that handicapped him throughout his life. His right side of the body was physically and motor- restrictedly mobile, so that as a right-hander he had to learn to write on the left. He then attended a two-year advanced training school and then began to work for the Ottersweier municipal administration. In 1906 he became a businessman and worked as a legal assistant in Bühl. In 1915 he returned to Ottersweier, where he worked in administration for another five years. 1920 he was appointed as a non-party to the mayor elected by Ottersweier. In 1929 he was re-elected. His tenure , which was actually set for nine years , came to an abrupt end during the Nazi era . On July 7, 1933, he was a victim of the Restoration of the Civil Service Act and was dismissed from service. His successor was NSDAP member Johann Scheer.

Lorenz, who has since been considered an opponent of the National Socialists , was unemployed for many years . His family kept afloat by renting their house and doing a few sideline jobs until Lorenz found a new job at Muffenrohr in 1941. The rest of the family also suffered under National Socialist rule. One of his brothers, who had returned mentally disabled from the First World War , fell victim to Operation T4 . Bernhard Lorenz's wife Maria was interrogated several times by the Gestapo .

In the last days of the Third Reich, Bernhard Lorenz and his wife protested against the anti- tank barriers and successfully prevented the so-called “ Volkssturm ” in Ottersweier. After the occupation by the French troops, Lorenz was appointed acting mayor in Ottersweier until 1946. In the mayoral election on December 5, 1948, he did not run. After his dismissal, he joined the CDU and was elected to the local council, to which he belonged for a legislative period.

He was later recognized as a political victim of the Nazi dictatorship. On January 13, 1969, he was hit by a car while providing first aid in a traffic accident and died as a result.

literature

• Adalbert Metzinger : People in Resistance - Central Baden 1933–1943 (=  special publication of the Rastatt district archive, volume 13 ). regional culture publishing house, Rastatt 2017, ISBN 978-3-89735-978-9 , p. 69-72 .
• In memory of Bernhard Lorenz: Former Mayor and Nazi opponent . In: home letter . Ottersweier 2013, p. 85-87 .