Eugene Grimminger

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Franz) Eugen Grimminger (born July 29, 1892 in Crailsheim , † April 10, 1986 in Schanbach near Stuttgart ) was a member of the White Rose resistance movement .

Life

Eugen Grimminger, son of a locomotive driver, took part in the First World War as a volunteer and then worked at the Crailsheim Oberamt. He was a bearer of the Iron Cross 2nd class and - after his war experiences - a pacifist. On March 29, 1922, he married Jenny Stern in Stuttgart . The marriage to a Jewish woman met with rejection from friends and relatives. The young couple settled in Stuttgart, where Grimminger was employed as an auditor at the Association of Agricultural Cooperatives at Johannesstrasse 68. In 1925 he was appointed dairy inspector for all dairies in the association and in 1930 chief auditor and head of the entire auditing department. In 1926 the Grimminger couple moved to Esslinger Strasse 39 in Untertürkheim . On May 1, 1935, Grimminger lost his job because of “Jewish infiltration”. The childless couple Grimminger now moved to Altenbergstrasse 42 and in 1937 Eugen Grimminger started his own business as a publicly sworn accountant at Tübinger Strasse 1. There he was also active subversively, e.g. B. helped politically persecuted people to flee to Switzerland, which required forged papers, for example. In 1941 his sister-in-law Senta Meyer and her four children were deported; Eugen Grimminger and his wife Jenny did not learn at the time that these family members were shot near Riga in 1942 . In 1942 Eugen Grimminger took over the Ulm trustee office of his friend Robert Scholl , whom he already knew from his time in Crailsheim. Scholl was once mayor of Ingersheim near Crailsheim. He left the management of the office to Grimminger after he had been denounced for "subversive statements" and had to serve a prison sentence. This office was located in the Scholl family home. As a result, Grimminger also got to know Inge , Hans and Sophie Scholl and came into contact with the “White Rose” resistance group.

Grimminger supported this resistance group from Stuttgart with donations in kind and large sums of money, some of which he had collected from his customers. He was supported by his colleague Tilly Hahn, nee. Waechtler. On February 18, 1943, however, the transfer of a duplicating machine failed; the Gestapo had already arrived at Hans Scholl's apartment beforehand and had arrested him for distributing leaflets. In the course of the interrogation that followed, the name of Griminer was also mentioned.

He was arrested on March 2, 1943 and sentenced to ten years in prison on April 19, 1943 in the second trial against members of the White Rose for supporting high treason ; the public prosecutor's office had demanded the death penalty for him too , but ultimately could only prove that the money had been handed over to him, but not what he actually knew about the purpose. His Jewish wife, until then protected from persecution, was arrested on April 10, 1943, after which she was deported and murdered in Auschwitz . Eugen Grimminger was imprisoned in Ludwigsburg prison until April 1945 . After learning of his wife's death in January 1944, he attempted suicide.

After the end of the war he became president of the regional association of agricultural cooperatives in Stuttgart. In 1947 he married Tilly Hahn. In 1958 he retired. He was involved in animal welfare and was chairman of the Stuttgart Animal Welfare Association for many years. He also founded the Grimminger Foundation for anthropozoonosis research to research and combat animal diseases that can be transmitted to humans. The foundation was later renamed the Grimminger Foundation for Zoonoses Research.

After the Second World War, Eugen Grimminger ensured that a gravestone or memorial stone was erected in the Jewish section of the Prague cemetery near St. Martin's Church for his mother-in-law Sidonie Stern and their daughters Mina, Julie, Jenny and Senta. Jenny Griminer's sisters Mina and Julie had emigrated to England in 1939 and the USA in 1947, but their urns were buried in the Prague cemetery.

literature

  • Franz Eugen Grimminger: Rosel Steinbronners love . Bruno Volger, Leipzig publishing house, 1921
  • Inge Scholl: The White Rose. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-596-11802-6 .
  • Armin Ziegler: Eugen Grimminger: Resist and cooperative pioneer . Robert Baier Verlag, Crailsheim 2000, ISBN 3-929233-21-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Franz Schönleber, Jenny Grimminger - a forgotten dead person during the resistance of the White Rose , 2006 on www.stolpersteine-stuttgart.de
  2. ^ Jud Newborn; Annette Dumbach (March 1, 2006). Sophie Scholl and the White Rose (appendix 6). Oneworld Publications. pp. 209-. ISBN 978-1-78074-050-8
personal data
SURNAME Grimminger, Eugene
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighter, member of the White Rose resistance movement
DATE OF BIRTH July 29, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Crailsheim
DATE OF DEATH April 10, 1986
Place of death Schanbach near Stuttgart