Claus Bastian

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Claus Bastian (born March 23, 1909 in Biebrich am Rhein ; † June 26, 1995 in Munich ) was a German painter , sculptor , doctor of law and the first prisoner in the Dachau concentration camp (prisoner no. 1).

Life

Bastian, who came from a middle-class background, grew up with his five siblings in Utting am Ammersee . His father Richard Bastian was a well-known engineer who played a leading role in the port expansion of major European cities and became known as the designer of the rail profile. Bastian interrupted his school education for two years, during which he worked as a shepherd, blacksmith and farmer. After finishing his schooling, he studied at the University of Munich Law . From 1929 Bastian studied for a year at the Sorbonne , also worked as a tap dancer at the Folies Bergère and socialized in artistic circles. After returning to Germany, he became a member of the KPD for a short time , founded the Marxist student union and was a university champion in boxing in the early 1930s . At the University of Munich he stood up for the legal scholar Hans Nawiasky , who was threatened with beatings by SA members.

time of the nationalsocialism

On March 9, 1933, Bastian was arrested and, after being in prison in Landsberg am Lech, on March 22, 1933, he and other inmates were taken to the no longer operated powder and ammunition factory near Dachau . He was registered as the first prisoner in the Dachau concentration camp and, after a long period of imprisonment, was released from the concentration camp in September 1933 without explanation. After his release from prison, Bastian was able to do his doctorate and complete his legal traineeship at the Munich Chamber of Commerce. From 1936 to 1938 he lived with his family in a house on the artists' colony in Dachau and then ran an agricultural estate in Tyrol . Bastian was drafted as a soldier for the war against the Soviet Union , but later stated that he had not fired a shot. Before the end of the war, Bastian was brought to court martial for "insulting the Führer" and "self-mutilation" and escaped a death sentence .

After the end of the war

After the end of the war, Bastian worked as a resident lawyer and mainly represented those persecuted by the Nazi regime, for whom he carried out over 2,000 reparation proceedings. In 1951, Bastian also represented Karl Friedrich Wicklmayr , who was known to him before the Munich jury court , who shot the communist Sepp Götz as an SS man in the Dachau concentration camp . Wicklmayr was sentenced to six years in prison by the Munich II district court in 1951 . He also represented Albert Schweitzer as a lawyer and was legal advisor to members of the Adalbertine line of the Wittelsbach family .

From the beginning of the 1950s, Bastian was also active as an artist. His four ways of the cross , in which the suffering of Jesus Christ is depicted, are known. The most famous way of the cross is in the church "Zur Götlichen Providence" in Königsbrunn . There are two more ways of the cross in Munich churches. Bastian also designed two fountains in Munich, the “Three Water Spouts” and the “Flat Bowl”. Bastian, who cannot be assigned to any art direction, also painted numerous oil paintings. His artistic focus was on depicting women and human suffering. In honor of Bastian, a street was named after him on the former Dyckerhoff site in Utting. Bastian died in Munich at the end of June 1995.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Anna Andlauer: Claus Bastian
  2. ↑ a b As inmate number 1 in the Dachau concentration camp ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: Landsberger Tagblatt, June 10, 2006. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.spd-utting.de
  3. ↑ a b Anna Andlauer: Claus Bastian - The prisoner with the number 1 , p. 27 f.
  4. ↑ Edith Raim: West German investigations and trials on the Dachau concentration camp and its satellite camps , in: Ludwig Eiber , Robert Sigl (ed.): Dachauer Trials - NS crimes before American military courts in Dachau 1945–1948 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8353-0167-2 , p. 218
  5. ↑ How Claus Bastian's Way of the Cross came to the church "To Divine Providence"
  6. ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: topic "Dyckerhoffgelände" )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.spd-utting.de

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bastian, Claus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer, artist, concentration camp prisoner
DATE OF BIRTH March 23, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Biebrich on the Rhine
DATE OF DEATH June 26, 1995
Place of death Munich