Erich Schilling (union official)

Erich Friedrich August Schilling (born August 16, 1882 in Leipzig , † March 1, 1962 in West Berlin ) was a German trade union functionary, resistance fighter against the Nazi regime and prisoner in Buchenwald concentration camp .

Life

Erich Friedrich August Schilling was the first child of Friedrich August and Minna, geb. Sour, Schilling. After attending elementary and elementary school, he continued his training at the commercial college and completed a two-year training course as a building fitter. Years of wandering all over Germany followed.

Schilling became a member of the SPD in 1906 . As an active trade unionist, he was managing director of the German Metalworkers' Association in Leipzig from 1913 to 1919 . After participating in World War I , he was a member of the Great Soldiers' Council in Kiev . At the time of the Weimar Republic , he took over the chairmanship of the Leipzig trade union cartel from 1919 to 1933 and prevented the union split. Schilling represented the Leipzig trade union cartel at the ADGB district committee in Saxony and also worked as an editor for the Saxon trade union newspaper. His wife Martha , nee Nebel, was an SPD politician and was killed in a traffic accident in December 1928.

time of the nationalsocialism

At the time of National Socialism , Schilling was active as a representative and took part in the illegal resistance against the Nazi regime. On March 9, 1933, Schilling witnessed the attack by the SA on the Volkshaus . He rejected the advice of union colleagues who tried to smuggle him into Denmark for his safety . Schilling was arrested in 1933 and temporarily went into hiding in Germany. In the presence of the Gestapo , he spoke on September 10, 1935 at Leipzig's southern cemetery in memory of his friend, the leading Leipzig Social Democrat Hermann Liebmann , who had died of abuse in the Hohnstein concentration camp .

On September 1, 1939, he was arrested by the Gestapo together with his SPD comrades Stanislaw Trabalski , August Kroneberg and Heinrich Fleißner as part of the A-card action. They were charged with high treason and treason . On September 26th, Schilling and Kroneberg were brought to Buchenwald concentration camp, where he was imprisoned until liberation in April 1945. Initially he had the prisoner number 5569 and later 1455 and was assigned to the carpentry detachment. Schilling was involved in the revision of the Buchenwald Manifesto in April 1945 and was one of the signatories.

post war period

After the liberation from National Socialism , he got involved in the re-establishment of the SPD in his hometown, where he was the first freely elected union chairman from August 19, 1945 to November 15, 1945, until he was dismissed by order of the Soviet Military Administration (SMAD). At the founding ceremony of the German Unity Union on Sunday, August 19, 1945 in the Capitol, he called for the union's political independence:

“It was the ugliness of the German trade union movement that all trade unions came into being in the shadow of political parties. Today the old insight is to become reality that a trade union must be politically neutral. The union will therefore not be apolitical. The trade unions have too much interest in presenting their demands to the state administration. Large social structures also have their own political weight. But party politics must never wear down the unity of the trade unions. Neutrality also applies to religion and to one's attitude towards the race question. Here, too, the union must be free of ties and adhere to the principles of the world trade union confederation. "

- Excerpt from Erich Schilling's speech of August 19, 1945 on the establishment of the trade unions in Leipzig

On May 18, 1945, he stands unbroken with friends from before 1933 in the Volkshausgarten, still in prisoner clothing with a prisoner number, surrounded by rubble. “We're building again! In spite of all!"

Schilling rejected the compulsory unification of the SPD and KPD to form the SED in 1946 and stood up for free and democratic trade unions. Nevertheless, he joined the SED and in November 1945 took over the office of managing director of a trust company for the confiscation of Nazi assets for the union. In July 1946, he was also given responsibility for rebuilding the Leipzig trade union building. His long-cherished project to honor Heinrich Heine on his 150th birthday, he implemented with his own financial means on December 13, 1947 through the Heinrich-Heine-Denkstein, which he donated . He passed the information about the honor to West Berlin newspapers. On November 6, 1948, Schilling was arrested and during interrogation he was accused of organizing a group of former Social Democrats. Schilling suffered reprisals until his release at the end of December 1948 and was then expelled from the VVN and the SED. Schilling fled to West Berlin in 1953 . Afterwards his son was arrested in Leipzig and imprisoned in Torgau . Even his grandson was told "what a" criminal "his grandfather was when he was drafted into the NVA ".

After his escape, Schilling worked from September 1953 to May 1961 as secretary of the Berlin office of the ICFTU . Until his death, the elderly man worked in the trade union movement and published articles on Leipzig's history. When Schilling died, his body was transferred to Ludwigshafen am Rhein , where he was buried in his son's grave. The gravestone is marked with the words: Erich Schilling, born in LEIPZIG .

After German reunification , the Leipziger Volkshaus was acquired by the DGB in 1994 and is now part of the ver.di union . The Erich Schilling Hall has existed in the Volkshaus since 2007, commemorating the establishment of the free trade unions in Leipzig.

literature

• Wolfgang Röll: Social Democrats in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp 1937–1945. Wallstein, Göttingen 2000, ISBN 3-89244-417-X .
• Thomas Adam: Erich Schilling (1882–1962). In: Michael Rudloff, Mike Schmeitzner (eds.): “Such pests also exist in Leipzig”. Social Democrats and the SED. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-631-47385-0 , pp. 186-201.

Web links

• Erich Schilling at the archive of social democracy .
• Fumigate the nests of the Schumacher agents. (PDF; 483 kB) In: Leipziger Volkszeitung. November 15, 1950.
• Do you believe the class enemy? In: Der Spiegel. March 5, 1949.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Thomas Adam: Such pests also exist in Leipzig. 1997, p. 186.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Erich Schilling. at the archive of social democracy .
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Monika Kirst: Always a Leipzig at heart - Erich Schilling was born 125 years ago - Leipzig owes him the Heinrich Heine monument and the two-time reconstruction of the Leipziger Volkshaus. on: leipzig-nordsachsen.dgb.de , August 16, 2010.
4. ↑ Wolfgang Röll: Social Democrats in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp 1937–1945. Wallstein-Verlag, 2000, p. 136.
5. ↑ Wolfgang Röll: Social Democrats in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp 1937–1945. Wallstein-Verlag, 2000, p. 245.
6. ↑ Quoted from: Monika Kirst: Founding of the “Deutsche Einheitsgewerkschaft” in August 1945. 65 years ago - hope for a short time : leipzig-nordsachsen.dgb.de , August 16, 2010.
7. ^ ^{A b} Wolfgang Röll: Social Democrats in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp 1937–1945. Wallstein, Göttingen 2000, ISBN 3-89244-417-X , p. 137.
8. ↑ ^{a b} Monika Kirst: Founding of the "German Unity Union" in August 1945. 65 years ago - hope for a short time. on: leipzig-nordsachsen.dgb.de , August 16, 2010.