Felix Fechenbach

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Felix Fechenbach (born January 28, 1894 in Mergentheim , † August 7, 1933 in Scherfede ) was a German journalist , politician ( SPD , USPD ), writer and poet . His pseudonyms were Rudolf Franke and Nazi Jüsken . He was murdered by the National Socialists .

Life

1973 erected memorial stone for Fechenbach in the Kleinenberger Wald
Grave in Rimbeck

Felix Fechenbach was born in 1894 as the second of five children of Mergentheimer baker Noe Fechenbach (* 1859 - † November 1935) and his wife, the butcher's daughter Rosalie, née Weikersheimer, from Gaukönigshofen († April 1935 in Würzburg). In 1894 the Fechenbach family moved to Würzburg, where Noe Fechenbach bought a house at Ursulinergasse 2 and opened a bakery there. Fechenbach attended the Jewish elementary school in Domerschulstrasse for four years and then the weekday school in Heidingsfeld . He left this in 1907 and then completed a commercial apprenticeship in a footwear wholesaler in Würzburg, which he completed in 1910 and after which he worked as a clerk (or “clerk”). In 1910, his father had to file for bankruptcy with the bakery, sold the house and the family moved into an apartment at Semmelstrasse 21. During this time, on the advice of his older brother Siegbert (* 1892, † 1969 in Berlin), he became a member of the Central Association of "Handlers und -gehilfinnen Deutschlands " , a social democratic employee organization.

In 1911 Fechenbach began working as a clerk in a shoe wholesaler in Frankfurt am Main, but lost his job again in the same year after taking part in an internal collective bargaining dispute - it was about an unpaid extension of working hours. After that, he lived from short-term gainful employment and devoted himself mainly - again under the influence of his brother - to work in the social democratic youth organization, the trade union and the social democratic party itself.

Between 1912 and 1914 he worked in the Munich workers' secretariat and in 1914 founded the “youth section” of the “Social Democratic Association Munich”, one of the forerunners of the later young socialists in the SPD . In the autumn of 1914 he was drafted for military service in the First World War. For his independent action as a patrol leader, Fechenbach received the Iron Cross 2nd class . After being wounded on February 9, 1915 in the Vosges Mountains, Fechenbach first worked as a typist and then in the Munich Traindepot. There he came into contact with Kurt Eisner and became a pacifist .

During a vacation in Würzburg in 1917, Fechenbach met Martha Czernichowski, who was studying medicine in Heidelberg, and became engaged to her.

At the end of the war he resumed his political activity. In 1917 Fechenbach was involved in founding the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD). In 1918 he took part in the November Revolution in Bavaria and worked on November 7, 1918 with Kurt Eisner in Munich in the deposition of King Ludwig III. With. He was a member of the Munich Workers 'and Soldiers' Council and the provisional National Council. When Kurt Eisner was elected Prime Minister of Bavaria by the Munich Workers 'and Soldiers' Council in the course of the revolution on November 8, 1918 after the overthrow of the Wittelsbach monarchy and the proclamation of the Free State of the Bavarian Republic , he brought Fechenbach to the State Chancellery as his secretary . Until Eisner's murder in February 1919 by Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley , Fechenbach was a member of the workers 'and soldiers' council and the provisional national council in Bavaria. Fechenbach wrote for newspapers at home and abroad.

On April 25, 1919, Fechenbach left Munich to marry, but was arrested the next day and only released on June 11. The wedding with Martha took place on August 12th. In February 1922, the marriage with Martha Czernichowski, who had meanwhile had a doctorate and who had hoped for a civil career for her husband, was then divorced.

In 1922 Fechenbach was the victim of a campaign known as the "Fechenbach Affair" for alleged treason and arrested on August 10, 1922. At the time, the anti-Fechenbach campaign was headed by the nationalist and anti-Semitic Catholic journalist of Jewish origin Paul Nikolaus Cossmann , who was close to the Pan-Germans . Fechenbach was sentenced by the Munich People's Court to eleven years in prison and ten years of loss of honor . Articles on Germany's war guilt were also the subject of the trial. However, due to public pressure against the verdict, Fechenbach only had to stay in prison until his pardon in 1924. After his release on December 20, 1924, his lawyer Philipp Löwenfeld resumed the trial. This ended on December 15, 1926 after several proceedings with a partial annulment of the judgment by the Reichsgericht. But the Reichsgericht let the charge of treason against Fechenbach persist even after this judgment. As early as 1925, Fechenbach had joined the Zionist social democratic movement Poale Zion . In 1926 he went on a trip to Palestine and reported enthusiastically about the small country in several articles in social democratic newspapers.

Fechenbach worked in Berlin for the Dietz publishing house until 1929, where he researched reports for the social-democratic daily Vorwärts (1925–1929). He also supported the " Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft der Kinderfreunde ", among other things as an author and puppeteer of puppet theater pieces containing political and autobiographical elements ("Roter Kasper", "Kasperl als Lehrbub").

Felix Fechenbach was friends with Bertolt Brecht , Albert Einstein and Kurt Tucholsky , among others .

From 1929 to 1933 Fechenbach worked in Detmold as an editor at the SPD organ Volksblatt (banned from March 3, 1933) and was active in the resistance against the National Socialists . Since he had informants in the Lippe NSDAP, he was able to publish internal information about the party's intentions and scandals. These glosses, written under the pseudonym "Nazi-Jüsken", led to strong hostility. After the Lippe state election on January 15, 1933 , he was banned from speaking by the Nazis ; on March 11, 1933, he was arrested and transferred to “ protective custody ”.

On August 7, Fechenbach was murdered on the way from Detmold to the Dachau concentration camp in the Kleinenberger Wald between Paderborn and Warburg . The leader of the transport command, SA Obertruppführer Friedrich Grüttemeyer, got out of the car with Fechenbach and tried unsuccessfully to get names from informants. When Grüttemeyer stepped aside, SS man Paul Wiese and SA member Walter Focke fired several pistol shots at Fechenbach, who was critically injured and brought unconscious to a Scherfeld hospital, where he died on the evening of the same day, unconscious to have regained. The widow was informed by telegram on August 8th that her husband had been wounded in an "attempt to escape" and later died. In a letter dated August 9, Reinhard Heydrich claimed in his function as "The Bavarian Political Police Commander" that Fechenbach had "been shot by officers of the Lippe state government while trying to escape". Hans-Joachim Riecke , who had been appointed head of government in Lippe by the National Socialists and who had personally followed Fechenbach, gave the order for the transport . Four SA and SS men from Detmold were suspected of the act: Friedrich Grüttemeyer, sentenced in 1969 to a prison term of four years for aiding and abetting murder , Paul Wiese, sentenced in 1948 to five years in prison for "intentional manslaughter ", Karl Segler, no involvement could be proven and Josef Focke, who was never caught. The role of Rieckes could never be fully clarified. The order to murder could not be proven, and criminal proceedings against him were discontinued in 1970. The fact was, however, that Riecke had hired the murderer Paul Wiese as his personal driver a few months later.

Fechenbach's grave is in the Jewish cemetery in Rimbeck .

Fechenbach was married to the nurse and welfare worker Irma Epstein (1895–1973) for the second time since 1926. She and the three children, Kurt (1927-2017, named after Kurt Eisner), Lotti (1928-2017) and Hanni (born 1931) survived unscathed - unlike brothers Felix Fechenbach and their families - the era of National Socialism by fleeing first to Switzerland and from there in 1946 with the help of Albert Einstein to the United States of America , where Irma worked as a nurse near Philadelphia. In 1965 Irma Fechenbach returned to Switzerland, where she died in 1973.

Commemoration

The sub-district Lippe of the SPD has set up a private Felix Fechenbach Foundation based in Detmold. The aim is to promote democratic and social engagement, which is also reflected in Felix Fechenbach's work. This purpose is fulfilled in particular through the biennial awarding of the Felix Fechenbach Prize to people or groups who are particularly committed to democracy, social coexistence or writing. The Felix Fechenbach Foundation also organizes events. Every year around the anniversary of Fechenbach's death, she organizes a memorial event at the Felix Fechenbach memorial stone near Scherfede in the Kleinenberg Forest. The idea for the memorial at the place of death of Fechenbach in the Kleinenberger Wald came from Robert Kempner , a friend of the Fechenbach family , in 1973 . The Bundestag member and SPD politician August Berlin , who was also friends with Felix Fechenbach and his widow, took up the idea. On August 25, 1973, the monument was opened with a ceremony in the Kleinenberger Wald in the presence of Prime Minister Heinz Kühn , Robert MW Kempner and Irma Fechenbach. Schools were named after him in Detmold ( Felix-Fechenbach-Berufskolleg ) and Leopoldshöhe ; streets in Detmold, Munich and Oerlinghausen bear his name; the city of Würzburg has renamed its event center in the Grombühl district to "Felix-Fechenbach-Haus".

Works

  • In the house of the joyless - pictures from the prison . JHW Dietz Nachf., Berlin 1925.
New edition: Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1993, ISBN 3-88479-851-0 .
New edition: With a contribution by Robert W. Kempner and an afterword by Peter Steinbach. Andreas Haller, Passau 1987, ISBN 3-88849-017-0 .
  • The Felix Fechenbach book. Published in his memory and with an introduction by Walther Victor . Afterword by Oskar Maria Graf , Eichenverlag, Arbon 1936.
    • from this: the community. Fairy tale, animal fable. In: "Once upon a time ..." Social fairy tales of the 20s. Edited by Bernd Dolle (-Weinkauff) et al., Weismann, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-921040-29-9 , pp. 16-17 (biography in the appendix).
  • The puppeteer. A novel . E. & K. Scheuch, Zurich 1937 (created in 1933 in Detmold prison).
New edition under the title The Puppeteer. A novel from old Würzburg . Edited by Roland Flade and Barbara Rott. Contains Roland Flade: Life and Death of Fechenbach , as well as Barbara Rott: Felix Fechenbach and the puppet show , Königshausen & Neumann , Würzburg 1988, ISBN 3-88479-376-4 .

literature

Scientific secondary literature:

  • Paul Dreyfus; Paul Mayer: Law and politics in the Fechenbach case. Ernst Rowohlt, Berlin 1925. Review of this book by Carl von Ossietzky .
  • Hermann Schueler: Shot while trying to escape. Felix Fechenbach 1894-1933. A biography. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1981 (also philosophical dissertation Bonn 1980, by Hermann Kurt Schueler, under the title: Felix Fechenbach 1894–1933. The development of a republican journalist. ), ISBN 3-462-01487-0 . New edition in Warburger Schriften (Volume 8.1). Hermes, Warburg 1995, ISBN 3-922032-08-7 .
  • Peter Steinbach (Ed.): “Fate has determined that I will stay here”. In memory of Felix Fechenbach (1894–1933). With the compilation of the articles from "Nazi-Jüsken". Scientific authors publishing house, Berlin 1983, 157 pp., ISBN 3-88840-209-3 . (Contains works by and about Felix Fechenbach.)
  • Roland Flade: Life and Death of Felix Fechenbach. In: Roland Flade, Barbara Ott (Ed.): Felix Fechenbach, The Puppeteer. A novel from old Würzburg. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1988, ISBN 978-3-88479-376-3 , pp. 7-30.
  • Sabine Klocke-Daffa (arrangement): Felix Fechenbach, 1894–1933, journalist, writer, pacifist. 100th birthday symposium. January 28 and 29, 1994 in Detmold. Landesverband Lippe - Institute for Lippe Regional Studies - and Lippe District, Detmold 1994, 162 pages, ISBN 3-9802787-4-3 . (With a foreword by Lotti Fechenbach and a contribution by Imanuel Geiss.)
  • Social Democratic Party of Germany (ed.): Committed to freedom. Memorial book of the German social democracy in the 20th century. Schüren, Marburg 2000, ISBN 3-89472-173-1 , p. 93.
  • Fechenbach, Felix. In: Lexicon of German-Jewish Authors . Volume 6: Dore – Fein. Edited by the Bibliographia Judaica archive. Saur, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-598-22686-1 , pp. 501-505.
  • Ingrid Schäfer: Irma Fechenbach-Fey - Jewish, socialist, emigrant 1895–1973. Institute for Lippe Regional Studies, Lemgo 2003, ISBN 3-936225-12-5 .
  • Jürgen Hartmann: The memory of Felix Fechenbach in German exile newspapers 1933-1945. In: Rosenland. Journal of Lippe History. 2/2005, pp. 38–45, full text (PDF; 1.9 MB).
  • Jürgen Hartmann: Felix Fechenbach - a socialist Zionist? In: Rosenland. Journal of Lippe History. 6/2008, pp. 25–28, full text (PDF; 1.1 MB)
  • Frank Meier (Ed.): Felix Fechenbach Reading Book. Afterword by Frank Meier (Nylands Kleine Westfälische Bibliothek 20), Bielefeld 2009, ISBN 978-3-89528-751-0 (in addition to several shorter works by the author, there are also texts about Felix Fechenbach by Kurt Tucholsky , Carl von Ossietzky and Oskar Maria Graf included, also the NSDAP leaflet against Fechenbach).
  • Rose country. Journal of Lippe History. No. 15/2013 on Felix Fechenbach . With contributions by Andreas Ruppert, Jürgen Hartmann, Frank Meier u. a.
  • Philipp T. Haase: From someone who "thought things like that were impossible": Hans-Joachim Riecke and the murder of Felix Fechenbach , online: Officials of the National Socialist Reich Ministries , March 19, 2018.

Literature of the 1920s and 1930s:

Fiction:

Web links

Commons : Felix Fechenbach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Felix Fechenbach  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ House of Bavarian History: Felix Fechenbach (pseudonym: Rudolf Franke) .
  2. ↑ Siegbert (* 1892) and Felix (* 1894) were born in Mergentheim, Max (* 1896), Moritz (* 1898; † 1944 in an extermination camp) and Jakob (* 1899; † 1940, according to Roland Flade the deaf and mute Jakob became probably murdered as part of a "Euthanasia") in Würzburg.
  3. ^ Roland Flade: Life and Death of Felix Fechenbach. In: Roland Flade, Barbara Ott (Ed.): Felix Fechenbach, The Puppeteer. A novel from old Würzburg. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1988, pp. 7-30; here: pp. 7–9.
  4. ↑ Hermann Schueler: Shot on the run. Felix Fechenbach 1894-1933. A biography. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1981, ISBN 3-462-01487-0 , pp. 16-20.
  5. ↑ Thilo Scholle, Jan Schwarz: "Whose world is the world?" History of the Jusos . 2nd Edition. JHW Dietz Nachf. , Bonn 2019, ISBN 978-3-8012-0564-5 , p. 39 .
  6. ^ Roland Flade (1988), p. 11.
  7. ^ Roland Flade (1988), p. 13.
  8. ^ Leonhard Scherg : The Jewish communities. In: Peter Kolb, Ernst-Günter Krenig (Hrsg.): Lower Franconian history. Volume 5/2, Echter-Verlag, Würzburg 2002, pp. 149–158 and 173–188; here: p. 157 f.
  9. ^ Roland Flade: The Würzburg Jews from 1919 to the present. In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes, Theiss, Stuttgart 2001–2007, Volume III / 1–2: From the transition to Bavaria to the 21st century. 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1478-9 , pp. 529-545 and 1308, here: pp. 530 f.
  10. ↑ Thilo Scholle, Jan Schwarz: "Whose world is the world?" History of the Jusos . 2nd Edition. JHW Dietz Nachf. , Bonn 2019, ISBN 978-3-8012-0564-5 , p. 39 .
  11. ↑ Roland Flade (1988), pp. 17-20.
  12. ↑ Hermann Schueler: Shot on the run. Felix Fechenbach 1894-1933. A biography. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1981, ISBN 3-462-01487-0 , pp. 215-218.
  13. ↑ See obituary in the Jüdische Arbeiter, Vienna.
  14. ^ Roland Flade (1988), p. 10.
  15. ^ Roland Flade (1988), p. 24.
  16. ↑ Hermann Schueler: Shot on the run. Felix Fechenbach 1894-1933. A biography. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1981, pp. 245–248.
  17. ↑ a b From someone who "thought things like that were impossible": Hans-Joachim Riecke and the murder of Felix Fechenbach - officials of the National Socialist Reich Ministries . In: Officials of National Socialist Reich Ministries . March 19, 2018 ( ns-reichsministerien.de [accessed March 30, 2018]).
  18. ^ Landesarchiv NRW, OWL department, D 21 C No. 2717–2728
  19. ↑ Landesarchiv NRW, Department OWL, D 21 C No. 4337–4339
  20. ↑ Ulrich Pfaff: One person has disappeared . Proceedings against Felix Fechenbach's last murderer dropped. In: Lippische Landeszeitung . April 1, 2007 ( fechenbach.de [accessed July 24, 2016]).
  21. ^ Landesarchiv NRW, Department OWL, D 21 C No. 2108–2110
  22. ^ Wigbert Benz : Hans-Joachim Riecke, NS State Secretary. From the hunger planner before to the “world feeder” after 1945 . wvb, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-86573-793-9 , pp. 24-27 and 115f.
  23. ^ Roland Flade (1988), p. 12.
  24. ↑ Roland Flade (1988), pp. 28-30.
  25. ^ Robert MW Kempner, "Felix Fechenbach - a martyr of the history of justice", in: Felix Fechenbach, My heart beats on. New edition Passau 1987, pp. 61-68 (65).
  26. ^ Roland Flade (1988), p. 28.
  27. ^ Speech by historian Ingrid Schäfer at the 2011 commemoration ceremony, printed on the Foundation's homepage.
  28. ^ Glossary Das Fechenbachmuseum , magazine Das Tage-Buch , January 2, 1926, p. 34ff. Printed in Carl von Ossietzky: All writings. 8 volumes. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1994, ISBN 3-498-05019-2 , Schriften 1925 + 1926, pp.?. Online at the Gutenberg.de project, accessed May 9, 2020.
  29. ↑ online
personal data
SURNAME Fechenbach, Felix
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Franke, Rudolf (pseudonym); Jüsken, Nazi (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German political journalist and poet
DATE OF BIRTH January 28, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Bad Mergentheim
DATE OF DEATH August 7, 1933
Place of death Scherfede