Christian Beham

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Christian "Christel" Beham (born March 6, 1906 in Oberdorf, Bavaria; † April 4, 1945 in Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp ) was a KPD functionary in Dresden and a resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Beham was born as one of two children to the forest worker Rugert Beham in Oberdorf, Bavaria. The father died as a soldier in the First World War , so that Beham had to contribute to the family's livelihood from an early age. He made money as a shepherd boy. When his mother died shortly after the end of the First World War, Beham left his village and worked as a farm and construction worker. He came to Dresden in 1928 , settled in Friedrichstadt and began to work as a casual worker. He lost his job in the wake of the Great Depression in 1929.

Under the influence of Otto Kipp , Arno Winkler and others, Beham became a member of the KPD and a member of the KPD district leadership of Dresden-Friedrichstadt in 1929 . He was considered "one of the most active functionaries in the Dresden-Friedrichstadt district management". Among other things, he was involved in the production and distribution of the newspaper Der Brille (KPD company newspaper at Seidel & Naumann ) and the street newspaper Der Rote Stern . Shortly before the seizure of power of the Nazis Beham was among the people of Dresden who painted several meters high in January 1933 slogans of the Communist Party on the walls of buildings, illegally pasted posters and distributed leaflets. After the seizure of power, Beham was arrested in 1933 and taken to the Hohnstein concentration camp. After his release in 1934, Beham was assigned to the construction of the motorway, but was still active in the resistance, so he was in contact with the resistance group around Lea and Hans Grundig .

Beham was arrested again in 1937 and, after numerous interrogations and mistreatment by the Gestapo, was sentenced to four years in prison in 1939, which he spent in Waldheim prison; In 1942 he was deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp , where he was appointed camp elder II by the SS and actively participated in the resistance . From there he came to the Dora branch camp with Albert Kuntz , Heinz Schneider and Arno Winkler, among others , worked in the underground V-weapons factory and was part of the “management of illegal work to disrupt war production”. According to eyewitness reports from a camp inmate, Beham and other inmates were shot by the SS on April 4, 1945 in the Dora camp. Another source says that he died hanging because he refused an order from the SS to hang Soviet fellow sufferers.

Commemoration

The Hohenthalplatz in Dresden, from 1946 to 1993 Christian-Beham-Platz

From 1946 to 1993 the Hohenthalplatz in Dresden was called Christian-Beham-Platz. The 17 Polytechnic High School in Dresden Friedrichstadt bore the honorary title "Christian Beham"; after the reunification it became the 17th middle school.

Auguste Lazar , who had been known with Beham since the 1930s, reports Arabesques in her autobiography . Records from eventful times also from Beham's time in the Waldheim prison, such as a meeting between Beham and Martin Mutschmann .

The panel painting by Hans Grundig “The victims of fascism” (2nd version, 1946/48; in the collection of the Dresden Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister) contains an inscription with three names, including Christel Beham.

literature

  • Beham, Christian . In: Museum für Stadtgeschichte, Alfred Werner (arr.): They fought and died for the coming law. Brief biographies of Dresden workers' functionaries and resistance fighters II . Meißner Druckhaus, Dresden 1963, pp. 14-18.
  • Beham, Christian . In: Museum for the History of the City of Dresden: Biographical notes on Dresdner Strasse and squares that recall personalities from the labor movement, the anti-fascist resistance struggle and the socialist rebuilding . Dresden 1976, pp. 10-11.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Beham, Christian . In: Museum für Stadtgeschichte, Alfred Werner (arr.): They fought and died for the coming law. Brief biographies of Dresden workers' functionaries and resistance fighters II . Meißner Druckhaus, Dresden 1963, p. 14.
  2. ↑ a b Beham, Christian . In: Museum for the History of the City of Dresden: Biographical notes on Dresdner Strasse and squares that recall personalities from the labor movement, the anti-fascist resistance struggle and the socialist rebuilding . Dresden 1976, p. 11.
  3. ^ Beham, Christian . In: Museum für Stadtgeschichte, Alfred Werner (arr.): They fought and died for the coming law. Brief biographies of Dresden workers' functionaries and resistance fighters II . Meißner Druckhaus, Dresden 1963, p. 15.
  4. ↑ Erhard Pachaly, Kurt Pelny: Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp . Dietz, Berlin 1990, p. 127.
  5. ^ Andre Sellier: A History of the Dora Camp . Ivan R. Dee, 2003, p. 297.
  6. ↑ Heinz Schumann and Gerda Werner: Fight the human right. Life pictures and last letters from anti-fascist resistance fighters . Ed .: Institute for Marxism-Leninism at the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. Dietz Verlag, 1958, p. 648 .
  7. ↑ See Beham, Christian . In: Museum für Stadtgeschichte, Alfred Werner (arr.): They fought and died for the coming law. Brief biographies of Dresden workers' functionaries and resistance fighters II . Meißner Druckhaus, Dresden 1963, p. 16.
  8. ^ Image index of art & architecture Lothar Lang: Painting and graphics in the GDR. Publishing house Philipp Reclam jun. Leipzig, 1983; P. 23/24
personal data
SURNAME Beham, Christian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Beham, Christel (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German KPD functionary and resistance fighter against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH March 6, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Oberdorf, Bavaria
DATE OF DEATH April 4, 1945
Place of death Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp