Ewald Naujoks
Ewald Naujoks (born June 8, 1903 in Scheppetschen , East Prussia ; died January 4, 1985 in Bayreuth ) was a German museum guide, administrative employee , socialist and resistance fighter in the Third Reich .
Life
Having grown up with the educational principles of Maria Montessori , the gifted student completed all classes of the humanistic grammar school in Insterburg (East Prussia) up to the Abitur as a Primus Omnium . From then on he promoted Montessori's ideas wherever and whenever he could.
In 1927 Naujoks resigned from the Evangelical Church , because, in his opinion, it had campaigned for the war of revenge from 1920 and became a Buddhist . After studying law and economics in Königsberg, Berlin and Vienna, he read Rosa Luxemburg's writings at the age of 25 and then joined the Red Fighters in Berlin in 1928 . In Alfred Adler , whom he had heard himself in Vienna in 1928, he saw his second master. His theory of individual psychology had a lasting influence on Naujoks' thinking and attitude towards life. He also valued and admired Rosa Luxemburg, whose motto "Freedom is always the freedom of those who think differently" shaped him to the end of his life.
Resistance and imprisonment in the Third Reich
After the leadership of the Red Fighters was arrested in 1936, Naujoks rebuilt the group up to a number of 60 members. During the Second World War - he was drafted in 1940 as an interpreter and statistician - he worked in silence, together with members of the Catholic Action . He was denounced in 1943 and arrested on December 15, 1943. On January 29, 1945, the main hearing at the People's Court began before the senate of the feared chairman Roland Freisler .
The People's Court in Bayreuth
The suspension of the proceedings for ten days saved Ewald Naujok's life. In the meantime, on February 3, 1945, the People's Court building had been bombed and Freisler was killed. Three days later, Naujoks was transferred with other prisoners to the St. Georgen-Bayreuth prison.
Since autumn 1944, the People's Court had already met several times in the Palace of Justice in Bayreuth, the then "Gau capital" of the Gau Bayerische Ostmark . After the building in Berlin was destroyed, it was decided to outsource the People's Court to Potsdam and to move the senates responsible for high treason and treason to Bayreuth. On February 6, the removal of a total of around 270 prisoners began, and they arrived in Bayreuth on February 17.
Last minute survival and first tasks in Bayreuth
The shooting of all political prisoners imprisoned in Bayreuth, scheduled for April 14, 1945, because of the approaching front , did not take place. On the morning of April 14, shortly before the city was taken by the American troops, Naujoks and his fellow prisoners were released from custody by Karl Ruth .
Because of his language skills, he was called in to negotiate the surrender of the city without a fight. On September 8, 1945, he was elected by the former political prisoners as one of their stewards in a committee recognized by the Americans.
The Americans could use him well in the restructuring of the city administration. Initially employed at the Treuhandstelle, he moved to the district office on January 17, 1946. At the same time, until 1947, Naujoks played a key role in the reconstruction of the Bayreuth schools, especially the municipal business school.
At the end of May 1946 he traveled as a delegate to the first extraordinary Bavarian trade union congress in Munich. On July 14, 1946, he was elected chairman of the works council at the Bayreuth District Office, but was dismissed there on August 27, 1946. On September 28, 1946 he was a founding member of the Association of Victims of Fascism , which merged into the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime (VVN). Until the end of the 1940s he worked in VVN Bayreuth and in the Bavarian State Board.
Working in the young Federal Republic
As an active anti-Nazi opponent, he took on many people in the Federal Republic of Germany in the post-war years . The staunch atheist in the Bund für Geistesrechte (Federation for Spiritual Freedom) was permanently at war with local church leaders. The mutual hostility in the local press is legend. He also tried to organize political youth work in Bayreuth again. The Young Socialists , the Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ), Die Falken and others can look back on his initial work.
The pacifist Naujoks led early 1957, the German Peace Society (DFG) in the International War Resisters (IDK), which he left in 1963, and consulted during the years of "soul-searching" for Conscientious competently the military unwilling teenagers. In addition, he was a patient and attentive listener to anyone who came to him for help. The children in particular deserved his attention. To them he was an unequivocal advocate with parents and a tenacious lawyer and ombudsman with teachers and authorities.
Ewald Naujoks stayed in Bayreuth until his death. With his wife Friedel Naujoks, née Volkmann, he had a daughter born in 1942. Two other daughters (with Gerda Eichendorff, whom he had known since 1941) were born in 1943 and 1948. At first he lived at Tannhäuserstraße 17. The last decades of his life he lived alone in a tiny basement apartment on the southern outskirts of the city on Ludwig-Thoma-Straße, where books and magazines were piled up to the ceiling.
The memorial service for Ewald Naujoks took place on January 10, 1985 in the Bayreuth city cemetery .
Others
Bernd Mayer , historian and Bayreuth honorary citizen, paid tribute to Bayreuth - The Last 50 Years of Ewald Naujok in 1983 as follows: After all, Bayreuth now has a few presentable citizen horrors. After the Second World War, the left-wing "one-man business" of the bearded Ewald Naujok had to fight the fight against capitalism almost alone. In his old age he is now given some relief.
Web links
- Who is who in Bayreuth? at barnick.de
literature
- Norbert Aas : From illegality in Berlin to the opposition in Bayreuth. The life of the independent socialist Ewald Naujoks . Publishing house by H.-J. Hagen's Antiquariatsbuchhandlung, Bayreuth 1988, ISBN 978-3-926392-03-9 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Norbert Aas: From illegality in Berlin to the opposition in Bayreuth , p. 81.
- ↑ a b c d Rainer Trübsbach: History of the City of Bayreuth 1194–1994 . Druckhaus Bayreuth, Bayreuth 1993, ISBN 3-922808-35-2 , p. 350 .
- ↑ a b Unadjusted throughout life. New research on Ewald Naujoks at antifa.vvn-bda.de, accessed on January 6, 2020
- ↑ Bernd Mayer : Bayreuth - The last 50 years . 2nd Edition. Ellwanger, Bayreuth 1988, p. 131 f .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Naujoks, Ewald |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German administrative officer, socialist and resistance fighter in the Third Reich |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 8, 1903 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Scheppetschen , East Prussia |
| DATE OF DEATH | 4th January 1985 |
| Place of death | Bayreuth |