Ernst Grossmann

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Ernst Grossmann (1953)

Ernst Grossmann (* 11. August 1911 in Moor ; † 21st February 1997 in Bad Langensalza ) was a German farmer , the first LPG - Chairman and SED -Funktionär. Since 1954 a member of the Central Committee of the SED , he was expelled from the Central Committee in 1959 because of his concealed NSDAP and SS past .

Life

Until 1945

Ernst Grossmann was the son of the farmer Johann Grossmann in the Austria-Hungarian Empire belonging Bohemia born, which from 1918 to the Czechoslovak Republic was one. After attending the elementary and community school, she trained as a dairy assistant. From 1928 he worked in the Rokytnice dairy cooperative , interrupted from October 1931 to January 1933 by his military service in the Czechoslovak army.

In 1938 Großmann joined the paramilitary Sudeten German Freikorps . From there he was on 1 October 1938 after the incorporation of the Sudetenland into the German Reich transferred to the SS. On November 1, 1938, he became a member of the NSDAP (No. 6855320). From 1940 Großmann was a member of the SS-Totenkopfverband , the "domestic political bone-breaking guard" ( Eugen Kogon ) of the Third Reich. As a member of the SS-Totenkopf-Standarte V "Dietrich Eckhart" he belonged to the security team of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and was there "directly involved in the terror against the opponents of the National Socialist regime imprisoned in this camp". For years, Großmann only held team ranks in the SS. On April 20, 1940, Adolf Hitler's birthday, he became SS Rottenführer , and in April 1944 SS Unterscharführer . He experienced the end of the war in a hospital and in Soviet captivity.

Until 1959

Ernst Großmann welcomes Walter Ulbricht (1953)

After his release from Soviet captivity, Großmann came to Merxleben in Thuringia in search of his family, who had been expelled from Bohemia , where the trained milker received five hectares of land and a small livestock as a new farmer as part of the land reform . Grossmann joined the SPD in 1945 , after which it was forced to merge with the KPD in 1946, when he became a member of the SED . From 1947 he held various functions in the Association of Mutual Farmers Aid (VdgB). At the end of 1950, Großmann took part in the formation of a peasant delivery community, which was dissolved in May 1951 as a "premature" LPG foundation under pressure from the SED state management.

On June 8, 1952, farmers from Merxleben founded the GDR's first agricultural production cooperative, and the "moderate - but self-centered" man was elected its first chairman. Grossmann and his co-founders obtained the approval of the Central Committee beforehand. The LPG was given the name "Walter Ulbricht". Großmann's steep SED career began with the establishment of the LPG. At the Second Party Conference of the SED in July 1952, Großmann gave a speech as a delegate, which Walter Ulbricht praised. The founding of the LPG was celebrated in newsreels and a documentary film and Großmann was highlighted in propaganda. In 1952 he became a candidate and in April 1954 a member of the Central Committee of the SED. In 1952 he was also a member of the SED delegation to the XIX. Party congress of the CPSU . Großmann, who had already received the master builder award in 1950 , became a hero of work in 1953 . From 1958 he was a member of the Erfurt district assembly and the SED's top candidate in the Erfurt district . From 1956 to 1958, Großmann also completed a two-year course of study at the LPG University of Meissen , from which he graduated as an agronomist .

Party proceedings in 1959

As early as the spring of 1958 there were rumors in Merxleben about Großmann's Nazi past. Corresponding leaflets had also appeared. The Merxleben SED party leadership decided that the matter was of no public concern and passed the case on to the Central Committee without further investigation. After Großmann's election to the Erfurt district council, another leaflet was illegally distributed under the heading “Pankow's brown servants” showing a photo of Großmann in SS uniform and describing his SS career. The leaflet came from the West Berlin Investigation Committee of Freedom Lawyers (UFJ). In April 1959, the UFJ again published this information in the brochure Former National Socialists in Pankow's Services , which resulted in numerous West German newspaper publications. The SED finally responded. On April 15, 1959, at the suggestion of the Central Party Control Commission , party proceedings were initiated against Großmann. On May 12, 1959, the Politburo finally dealt with the case and spoke out against expulsion from the party, since Großmann “was one of the first comrades to demand and help implement socialist development in agriculture”. Instead, according to the decision of the 5th Central Committee meeting on May 23, 1959, Grossmann received a “severe reprimand” as a party punishment for “false statements about his past” and was expelled from the Central Committee. A public discussion in Merxleben was prevented by threats.

After 1959

Even after his Nazi past became known, Ernst Großmann remained a member of the SED and also retained his other functions. Until 1963 he was a member of the Erfurt district assembly, until 1965 he remained chairman of the LPG "Walter Ulbricht" in Merxleben. From 1965 to 1982 he was an employee of the Bad Langensalza rural trading cooperative . When Ernst Großmann died, his widow thanked the Sudeten German Landsmannschaft and expressly “the representatives of the PDS ” for the “respect and appreciation” shown to her husband.

literature

  • Detlef Joseph: Nazis in the GDR. The German civil servants after 1945 - where did they come from? Berlin 2002 ISBN 3-360-01031-0
  • Barbara Schier: Everyday life in the “socialist” village. Merxleben and his LPG in the field of tension of the SED agricultural policy (1945–1990). Münster u. a. 2001 (Munich contributions to folklore. 30) ISBN 3-8309-1099-1

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Barbara Schier: Everyday life in the "socialist" village. Merxleben and its LPG in the field of tension of the SED agricultural policy (1945-1990). Münster u. a. 2001, p. 97f.
  2. ↑ a b c Leading men in the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany. Luxembourg 1960, p. 9f.
  3. ^ A b c Siegfried Kuntsche:  Großmann, Ernst . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  4. ↑ a b Information from the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv Berlin on the documentary Harvest in Merxleben. Director: Erich Barthel, DEFA 1953.
  5. ^ Eugen Kogon: The SS State: The System of the German Concentration Camps . 17th edition, Munich 1988, p. 54.
  6. ↑ Olaf Kappelt : Denazification in the Soviet Zone and the role and influence of former National Socialists in the GDR as a sociological phenomenon. Hamburg 1997, p. 95.
  7. ↑ a b Olaf Kappelt: Brown Book GDR. Nazis in the GDR Berlin 1981, p. 212f.
  8. ↑ Barbara Schier: Everyday life in the "socialist" village. Merxleben and its LPG in the field of tension of the SED agricultural policy (1945-1990). Münster u. a. 2001, p. 273.
  9. ↑ Barbara Schier: Everyday life in the "socialist" village. Merxleben and its LPG in the field of tension of the SED agricultural policy (1945-1990). Münster u. a. 2001, p. 119f.
  10. ^ Walter Ulbricht: The current situation and the new tasks of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. Presentation and closing words at the Second Party Conference of the SED, Berlin, July 9-12, 1952. Berlin 1952, pp. 160f.
  11. ↑ a b Barbara Schier: Everyday life in the "socialist" village. Merxleben and its LPG in the field of tension of the SED agricultural policy (1945-1990). Münster u. a. 2001, pp. 122-132.
  12. ↑ Barbara Schier: Everyday life in the "socialist" village. Merxleben and its LPG in the field of tension of the SED agricultural policy (1945-1990). Münster u. a. 2001, p. 142.
  13. ↑ a b Barbara Schier: Everyday life in the "socialist" village. Merxleben and its LPG in the field of tension of the SED agricultural policy (1945-1990). Münster u. a. 2001, pp. 145-148.
  14. ↑ Illegal pamphlet The Green Heart of Germany. Independent newspaper for the state of Thuringia. No. 4 (19) 1958; Facsimile in Barbara Schier: Everyday life in the “socialist” village. Merxleben and its LPG in the field of tension of the SED agricultural policy (1945-1990). Münster u. a. 2001, p. 147.
  15. ↑ Heinz Mohnhaupt (ed.): Norm enforcement in Eastern European post-war societies (1944-1989). Introduction to legal development with source documentation. Vol. 5: German Democratic Republic (1958-1989). Half vol. 1: Karl A. Mollnau: Law and lawyers in the mirror of the resolutions of the Politburo and Secretariat of the Central Committee of the SED. (Studies on European legal history; 159). Frankfurt a. M. 2003, pp. 90, 95 (quotation).
  16. ^ Olaf Kappelt: Brown Book GDR. Nazis in the GDR Berlin 2009, p. 247; Sven Felix Kellerhoff / Uwe Müller: Two Nazi hunters with different perspectives. In: Die Welt v. March 14, 2012 (accessed January 19, 2013).
personal data
SURNAME Grossmann, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German LPG chairman and SED functionary
DATE OF BIRTH August 11, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Carrots
DATE OF DEATH February 21, 1997
Place of death Bad Langensalza