Christian Fries (resistance fighter)

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Christian Fries (born August 18, 1895 in Landsweiler-Reden ; † after 1948) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism . The detective belonged to the Leuschner network.

Life

Christian Fries was a member of the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council of Saarbrücken. During the November Revolution in 1918, together with Valentin Schäfer , he tried to occupy the editorial office of the Saarbrücker Zeitung in order to force the medium to announce statements by the council. In addition, the revolutionaries demanded company participation and the appointment of their own editors. However, Richard Hofer , the owner of the paper, managed to avert the latter two claims. The newspaper appeared for a few days with the subtitle Official Publication Gazette of the Saarbrücken Workers 'and Soldiers' Council . Subsequently, from November 22nd, French troops occupied the Saarland and control of all media passed to the French military administration. For the time being, Fries stayed with the revolution and traveled for five months through the territories of the German Empire in order to contribute to the emergence of the later Weimar Republic . He got involved in Thale in the Harz Mountains , in Berlin-Weißensee , in Zerbst and in Dessau .

After the years of his adolescence, with the help of the SPD functionary Adolf Weidmann , he managed to get a job as a detective with the criminal police in Frankfurt am Main . There he was assigned to the political police after his training . At the same time he joined the Iron Front . He arrested the SA man Walter Hoffmann , who detonated a hand grenade in front of the assembled SA standard during a screening of the then controversial film In the West Nothing New in Frankfurt's Roxy cinema in 1931 - an action that would later cause him problems .

After the seizure of power , he was allowed to remain a detective, but kept having problems and was interrogated several times. He also resisted being assigned to the GeStaPo in 1937. From 1937 Fries took part in conspiratorial meetings and became an important part of the Leuschner network in Frankfurt. He was one of the leading wire-pullers in the Rhine-Main area. In addition to preparing for a possible time after Hitler's reign of terror, the network used its influence in the police and Gestapo to save Jews and to warn persecuted political friends that the Gestapo were not being attacked. The network had contacts to other networks around Leuschner and to Holland. In addition to Fries, the former SPD MP Jakob Steffan also belonged to the network.

In 1940 Fries was forced to go to Thionville , where he was supposed to take over police duties in occupied France. In addition he received an equalization rank of the SS and was appointed Untersturmführer . He was later demoted to Hauptscharführer. After a year he called in sick and was able to return to Frankfurt. His rank was withdrawn again. When he returned, he started working for the resistance again. In Frankfurt he took official action against betting fraudsters. In the resistance he was involved in civilian preparations for the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944 . In the event of a successful military coup, it would have been his job to occupy the local radio station, Radio Frankfurt .

On January 29, 1944, the conspiratorial apartment in a hotel in Frankfurt's Bahnhofsviertel was hit by an aerial bomb during a meeting. Seven resistance fighters died, Fries survived seriously injured and was out of service until May 1944. After the failed assassination attempt, he managed to cover his tracks; it remained undiscovered until the day of liberation . He was even promoted to the criminal inspector. The US occupation then appointed him chief of the criminal investigation department. In August 1945 Fries was arrested, interrogated by the US Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) and interned in the Ludwigsburg camp. The reason was his activity in Thionville, which made him appear suspicious to the US military authorities. Shortly afterwards, a newspaper report appeared in the Frankfurter Rundschau , which had recently been founded , in which Fries (with the approval of Emil Carlebach ) was referred to as a “war criminal” and “SS chief”. The KPD state leadership "Greater Hesse" then interfered in his denazification process , as Fries was involved in the confiscation of a truck load from the Rote Arbeiter-Zeitung in 1933. They cited the Lahm couple, neighbors of Fries and actually self-confessed National Socialists, as witnesses to the crime. Ultimately, Fries emerged unscathed from the proceedings. The proceedings were dropped on February 23, 1948. The arrest and internment was described in the judgment as a "regrettable error" and Fries was certified to be an "actual anti-fascist".

He was then rehabilitated and reinstated as a criminal director in Frankfurt.

literature

  • Ludger Fittkau, Marie-Christine Werner: The conspirators. The civil resistance behind July 20, 1944 . Darmstadt: wbg Theiss 2019. ISBN 978-3-8062-3893-8

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e Ludger Fittkau, Marie-Christine Werner: Die Konspirateure. The civil resistance behind July 20, 1944 . Darmstadt: wbg Theiss 2019. ISBN 978-3-8062-3893-8 . Pp. 26-33
  2. ^ A b c d Ludger Fittkau, Marie-Christine Werner: Die Konspirateure. The civil resistance behind July 20, 1944 . Pp. 56-61
  3. ^ The resistance movement Wilhelm Leuschner. In: Frankfurter Rundschau . July 21, 2019, accessed January 8, 2020 .
  4. ^ Ludger Fittkau, Marie-Christine Werner: Die Konspirateure. The civil resistance behind July 20, 1944 . Pp. 104-109
  5. ↑ July 20, 1944 - Search for new information on the assassination attempt on Hitler. Retrieved January 8, 2020 (German).
  6. ^ Ludger Fittkau, Marie-Christine Werner: Die Konspirateure. The civil resistance behind July 20, 1944 . Pp. 95-104
personal data
SURNAME Fries, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighters against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH August 18, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Landsweiler speeches
DATE OF DEATH after 1948