Franz Osterroth

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Franz Osterroth (born March 8, 1900 in Eisenberg (Palatinate) ; † August 1, 1986 in Lübeck ) was a social democratic resistance fighter , politician and author . He lived and wrote in exile under the pseudonym Jörg Willenbacher .

Youth and early years

Franz Osterroth - son of the miner , party and trade union functionary Nikolaus Osterroth - joined the Socialist Workers 'Youth and the German Metalworkers' Association at the age of fourteen . At seventeen he became a member of the SPD .

In 1918 Franz Osterroth was drafted into the First World War as a soldier . From 1919 to 1924 he worked in Bochum as a youth secretary and editor of the youth newspaper of the miners' association . Osterroth was one of the founders of the Hofgeismar circle . Until 1926 he edited their political newsletters. After attending the Academy of Labor , Osterroth became a career advisor at the employment office in Hamburg.

Activities for the SPD in Magdeburg

In 1928 he was appointed by Karl Höltermann to the editorial team of the newspaper Das Reichsbanner in Magdeburg . Until 1933 he was active there in the SPD and in youth work. Among other things, he directed the cabaret Rote Spielschar and founded the technology group Rote Pioneers for election campaign agitation . At the same time Osterroth was a member of the SPD executive committee in Magdeburg and federal youth leader of the Reichsbanner (1931/32). In 1933 he gathered an illegal Young Socialist group around him, wrote and distributed the illegal magazine Junge Sozialismus .

Exile in Czechoslovakia

Osterroth anticipated imminent arrest and fled to Czechoslovakia with his family in 1934 . First in the border town of Röhrsdorf ( Svor ), then in Prague he worked for the exile board of Sopade . From Prague he stayed in touch with illegal groups in Germany. During this time he lived and published under the pseudonym Jörg Willenbacher. In Röhrsdorf, Osterroth and his family lived for some time in a house with the Keller family. Together with Robert Keller , Franz Osterroth was also involved in the international work of the (new) Red Shock Troop. Osterroth and Keller had known each other for many years from their joint political work. They temporarily maintained a contact point in Röhrsdorf for cross-border commuters and refugees from the German Reich. This enabled information and material to be exchanged over a period of several months. Keller and Osterroth also sent chain letters they wrote themselves to what was then Saxony and Anhalt. In 1934 Franz Osterroth visited representatives of the Red Strike Troop in Berlin on an illegal trip to Germany. The name Jack Osterroth , who is said to have been a brother of Franz Osterroth, appears repeatedly in documents . It is quite possible that this is another pseudonym of Franz Osterroth.

Work in Sweden

In August 1938, Franz Osterroth and his family fled to Sweden . After a language and skilled worker course, he worked as a gear milling cutter in Stockholm . At the same time he was active in political and cultural groups, so he gave lectures in workers' and adult education. He also wrote for Swedish newspapers. From 1943 he was working on a white paper for the German opposition to the Hitler dictatorship . It was published in 1946 by the SPD's executive committee in exile in London.

Return to Germany

Osterroth returned to Germany in the summer of 1948. Until 1963 he worked as party secretary of the SPD in Kiel and worked in numerous cultural offices until his death.

estate

His estate is in the archives of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Bonn, in the Fritz-Hüser-Institute for literature and culture of the working world in Dortmund and in the city ​​archive in Kiel .

Fonts (selection)

  • The German worker and the Ruhre incursion , Berlin 1923
  • Spring in the forest , Berlin 1924
  • People of Tomorrow , Berlin 1925
  • Under day , Berlin 1927
  • On the Sioux stake or a girl robbery in the wild west , Berlin 1927
  • When we march ... , Berlin 1930
  • German whisper jokes - The Third Reich under the magnifying glass. Carlsbad 1935
  • Singing people , Karlsbad 1938
  • The Legacy of Worker Poetry , 1952
  • Singing is a fight. Guide to the History of the Socialist Song , 1953
  • Biographical Lexicon of Socialism / Vol. 1. Deceased personalities , Hanover 1960
  • Chronicle of the German Social Democracy , Bonn 1963 (together with Dieter Schuster)
  • 100 years of social democracy in Schleswig-Holstein , Kiel 1963
  • The Hofgeismarkreis of the Young Socialists , in: Archive for Social History, Vol. 4, 1964
  • Chronicle of Lübeck Social Democracy, 1866-1972 , Lübeck 1973
  • Chronicle of the German Social Democracy I. Until the end of the First World War , Berlin 1975 (together with Dieter Schuster)
  • Chronicle of the German Social Democracy Volume II. From the beginning of the Weimar Republic to the end of the Second World War , Berlin 1975 (together with Dieter Schuster)
  • Chronicle of the German Social Democracy III. After the Second World War , Berlin 1975 (together with Dieter Schuster)
  • The time as youth secretary of the miners' association in Bochum 1919-1924 , Bochum 1983

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Dennis Egginger-Gonzalez: The Red Assault Troop. An early left-wing socialist resistance group against National Socialism. Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3867322744 , p. 475f.
  2. ^ Osterroth, Franz (1900-1986). In: Nachlassdatenbank.de .
  3. ↑ https://www.worldcat.org/title/deutsche-flusterwitze-das-dritte-reich-unterm-brennglas/oclc/654258 - accessed on November 18, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Osterroth, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Willenbacher, Jörg (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighter, politician (SPD) and author
DATE OF BIRTH March 8, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Eisenberg (Palatinate)
DATE OF DEATH August 1, 1986
Place of death Lübeck