Erwin Koehler

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Erwin Köhler (born September 9, 1901 in Potsdam ; † February 21, 1951 in Butyrka prison ) was a German CDU politician and a victim of Stalinism .

Life

Memorial plaque on Köhlerplatz, in Potsdam

The graduate engineer Erwin Köhler had already openly advocated democracy during the Nazi dictatorship . After the war, he and his wife Charlotte Köhler (1907–1951) were founding members of the Eastern CDU in Potsdam in 1945 . He himself became a member of the city council and deputy mayor for the CDU. The Köhlers had four children together.

Since 1945 CDU members who did not submit to the SED had been arrested again and again in Brandenburg . After a meeting of the extended SED party executive committee, there was increased violence with the aim of ending the independence of the CDU. On February 9, 1949, the CDU district delegates criticized the anti-democratic attitude of the SED and the Eastern CDU. In the following wave of persecution and arrests, one of the first victims was the CDU district chairman from Eberswalde , on July 1, 1949, there was an open dispute between Köhler and politicians close to the SED within the Eastern CDU around Otto Nuschke . In the summer of 1949, the Soviet military administration in Brandenburg pushed through the removal of Erwin Köhler as district chairman. As a result, she also prevented Ludwig Baues from running to enforce her candidate Hermann Gerigk .

In January 1950, the SED wanted to end the majority of non-communist politicians in the Potsdam city council. On the 23rd of the month, 500 communist demonstrators rioted, ostensibly to denigrate Heinrich Richard as a “criminal” and “reactionary”. Politicians who supported Richard were also attacked as a result. Dozens of CDU politicians were arrested in order to vacate seats in the parliaments of the newly founded, system-related parties DBD and NDPD . At the beginning of March 1949, Wilhelm Zaisser called for the party leadership to be “cleaned up”. One of the first victims was Koehler. After the SED refused to work with him any further, the new party executive, which had been brought into line, decided to follow the recommendation of Gerigk, who had proposed himself as the new mayor.

Probably at Gerigk's instigation, Erwin and Charlotte Köhler and Ludwig Baues were arrested on March 28th. By mistake, Köhler's 17-year-old daughter was first arrested with him. After his wife was arrested, she was released while a son was held in school that day. The Koehler family members were no longer allowed to enter their house and fled to the west. Frank Schleusener , who had already been persecuted by the National Socialists and was in close contact with Köhler, was arrested on the same day and later died in prison as a result of torture.

During the investigation, Erwin and Charlotte Köhler had pleaded guilty.

At the trial, which took place before a Soviet military tribunal from December 1 to 3, 1950, both testified independently that they had been forced to confess under torture, including sleep deprivation for six days. They were sentenced to death for "anti-Soviet agitation" and alleged espionage and transferred to Butyrka . Erwin Köhler was shot there on February 21, 1951 and Charlotte Köhler on April 10, 1951.

Afterlife and rehabilitation

Her children did not find out about their parents' fate until 1959 through confidential communication. A short time later, they received an official declaration of death from the Red Cross and the Red Crescent of the USSR.

On February 5, 1992, the judgment was overturned. In 1993, the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, Valery Wolin, announced that Erwin Köhler had been accused of having traveled through West Berlin on the S-Bahn. Charlotte Köhler's offense was to have obtained medication for her sick daughter in West Berlin, which was not available in the East.

A memorial plaque was inaugurated on May 20, 1992 in the foyer of the Potsdam City Hall.

On December 10, 2009, the Zimmerplatz in Potsdam was renamed Köhlerplatz in memory of the couple, in order, as Mayor Jann Jakobs said, "... to give these courageous democrats the place in the city's history that they deserve."

Web links

Commons : Erwin Köhler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Michael Richter : Erwin and Charlotte Köhler in Karl Wilhelm Fricke (ed.): Opposition and resistance in the GDR. CH Beck, Munich 2002, pp. 71-75, ISBN 9783406476198
  2. ↑ Arseniĭ Borisovich Roginskiĭ : "Shot in Moscow ...": the German victims of Stalinism in the Moscow Donskoye cemetery 1950–1953. Metropol, Berlin 2008, p. 230, ISBN 9783938690147
  3. ^ Annette Kaminsky: Places of Remembrance: Memorial signs, memorials and museums on the dictatorship in the Soviet occupation zone and GDR. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2007, p. 202, ISBN 9783861534433
  4. ↑ Berliner Zeitung : Potsdam honors executed mayor . December 10, 2009, accessed March 10, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Kohler, Erwin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (CDU) and victim of Stalinism
DATE OF BIRTH September 9, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Potsdam
DATE OF DEATH February 21, 1951
Place of death at Butyrka