Gerolzhofen women's revolt
The woman uprising of Gerolzhofen means a demonstration of 800 to 1000 women and children and some men on April 6, 1945, at the local Nazi leadership. The protesters demanded the hoisting of a white flag as a symbol of the surrender or surrender of the city without a fight to the American army, which was about to destroy the city if resistance should be offered. A demonstration with so many participants against the National Socialist regime was rare and life-threatening. In a hastily executed stand trial, the ringleaders were sentenced to death in their absence , which could no longer be carried out.
background
On April 6, 1945 the capture of Würzburg by the 7th US Army ended after heavy fighting. American units advanced from the north and south in the direction of Schweinfurt and Steigerwald and had already reached Volkach . There was no clear front line to the east. American artillery fire could be heard in Gerolzhofen. The troops were expected to arrive every hour. In this critical situation, the news of the return of the already fled believed widespread NSDAP -Ortsgruppenleiters Ludwig Zrenner, who ordered with other members of the district leadership to defend the city "to the last stone," the battalion headquarters and tank traps was occupied and the Volkssturm activated. Thus a decision had become inevitable to follow the National Socialist perseverance terror with the consequence of the destruction of the city and bloody fighting or to demand the surrender without a fight at the risk of being shot.
procedure
On the afternoon of April 6th, the Gerolzhöfer teacher Josephine Schmitt (1890–1967) was ordered to the school to clear her classroom for Wehrmacht units that flooded back . She learned of the order to defend the city and decided to act immediately. Through her students and some women, many of whom were in town for weekend shopping on Friday afternoon, she spread the call that as many women and older children as possible should come to the market square around 6 p.m. to demand the surrender without a fight.
The oral communication of information in the relatively small town worked very effectively. Shortly before 6 p.m., the square was filled with 800 to 1000 women, children and numerous, especially older men. The white flag was loudly demanded. Josephine Schmitt went to the town hall to address her request to the mayor Hans Gress. The latter pledged his support, but stressed that the decision-making authority in this matter rests with the party. Then he joined the demonstration. The demonstration then set off towards the house of the local group leader, the district office and the district administration. There were dramatic and tumultuous scenes. Several times, members of the district leadership, who did not signal any concession, were arrested at various locations in the city, physically assaulted, beaten and chased through the city. In the meantime, orders were repeatedly given to Wehrmacht units that were flooding back and who drove into the turmoil on the market square on trucks to shoot at the crowd of demonstrators. The Wehrmacht refused the order to shoot or demonstratively shot in the air. An SS unit stationed in the city also received an order to shoot. The demonstration threatened to end in bloodbath.
The white flag was hoisted during the demonstration. Three men who lumber producer Felix Raab, the theater owner George Hear, and living under regular readjustment of the party Social Democrat Karl Eich, penetrated with a white flag in the town hall one after them before the open antifascist set Catholic parish priest Dr. Josef Hersam had refused access to the church tower (for fear of the discovery of the Würzburg church treasure, which had been hidden there in a secret operation). In the confusion and after some physical arguments, the white flag was hoisted out of a window in the town hall attic. From there it was visible to Frankenwinheim , where the approaching Americans were supposed to be. The main requirement of the demonstration was thus fulfilled. The arguments in the marketplace had gone on without bloodshed. When the district administrator gave an air raid at around 7 p.m. at the latest , the crowd dispersed.
Reaction of the party
While the demonstrators began to look for the local party leaders in their apartments and in the district leadership, the local group leader Ludwig Zrenner and the deputy district leader Albert Lukas had entered the town hall unnoticed by the crowd. The flag hoists ran straight into their hands. Felix Raab and Karl Eich (Georg Höret had previously left to fetch tools) were locked up in the mayor's room with the help of the police present. With reference to Heinrich Himmler's order to immediately shoot all flag-hoists, they were ordered to be shot within half an hour. Felix Raab managed to escape through the window of the town hall. In the confusion, Karl Eich was also able to escape through the entrance to the town hall. It can be assumed that the local police tried to thwart the execution order and supported the flag-hoists' escape by actively looking the other way.
At around 8 p.m., a party meeting took place in the local branch office of the NSDAP, to which the heads of the authorities had also been appointed. Countermeasures were decided upon. The ringleaders were to be identified and arrested, with the district administrator being instructed to send the police under his control to make the arrests. Josephine Schmitt was denounced during the meeting. A death sentence was pronounced against her. The death sentences already passed against the Fahnenhisser Raab and Eich have been confirmed. The two city officials Andreas and Xaver Schieber, who had long been considered "unreliable" by the party, were also to be arrested. They had encouraged the flag-hoists to flee and took active action against the NSDAP giants on the market square. Some of the women who verbally attacked the party leaders with beatings and stones were also to be arrested.
Wave of arrests and death sentences
The session of the NSDAP had been overheard by a police officer. In a roundabout way, he was able to ensure that most of those threatened with arrest could be warned in good time. For the next few days, Josephine Schmitt hid with friends in nearby Dingolshausen , where she narrowly escaped discovery several times. Felix Raab was hidden in a barn by Hans Mattmann just one street away. Karl Eich fled to the Redeemer Sisters in Lülsfeld . Xaver Schieber managed to get to Nordheim and made contact with the American troops in Volkach. Contrary to the assumption of the Gerolzhöfer, American troops had not already been standing in front of the city. In fact, they had not even seen the white flag and only now found out about the events in Gerolzhofen.
During the night and the following day, Mayor Hans Gress and District Administrator Oeder were arrested, who were accused of support or at least passivity, the city official Andreas Schieber, the cinema owner Georg Höret, two women who had particularly distinguished themselves on the market square, as well as in guilt by the wives of Xaver slide, Felix Raab and Karl calibration. Those arrested that night were transferred the next morning by an armed squad, accompanied by Zrenner and Lucas, to a court martial in the Schweinfurt tank barracks, and those arrested the next day were transported to Hassfurt . Despite severe interrogation and inhumane conditions, those arrested did not divulge any information or incriminate anyone. The Schweinfurt stand trial finally only confirmed the death sentences that had already been passed against the ringleaders who had already fled, while those immediately before him were allowed to run. They made their way to Gerolzhofen on foot. Those detained in Haßfurt managed to escape with the help of a police officer who happened to be known to them and who was assigned to guard them.
Thus, despite active attempts by the local group and the deputy district leader to obtain a stronger sentence, the wave of arrests remained without new and, above all, without directly enforceable death sentences. The persecuted and arrested had got off lightly, benefiting from many happy circumstances, with the exception of Luise Raab, who died a few days later of the exertions. The decisive factor for the overall mild outcome, however, was that American artillery shells struck the barracks during the night and during the trial, and the court martial itself and the other National Socialist power structures were in the process of disintegration.
Capture of the city by US troops
On April 13, 1945 at 10:00 a.m., the city was occupied by the Americans from the north without bloodshed. They had previously summoned Mayor Gress as parliamentary representative through a German intermediary, informed him of the imminent invasion and given him instructions to prepare for a course without incident.
swell
The Gerolzhofen city archive has a small collection of reports from those involved, including several handwritten reports by Josephine Schmitt, Andreas Schieber, the police officer Michael Keilholz or Josephine Schmitt's colleague Beck. They come from z. Partly from the clear retrospective at a distance of several years. The sources from the state archives in Würzburg and Munich that were recently evaluated (as of 2015) are much more extensive. Extensive testimony about the events of April 6th and the days after can be found in the court proceedings of those involved. Although they are consistently problematic, they allow a thoroughly correct reconstruction of the women's uprising when viewed and compared, as well as taking into account apparently false, bought, weakening or exaggerated statements. There are no official documents from the NSDAP, the Gestapo or the stand courts. It was either destroyed together with other party records or, due to the chaos, it was not created in the first place. The sources were scientifically examined on the occasion of the commemorative year 2015 and partially edited.
rating
The women's uprising was not directed against the National Socialist rule as such. After all, many of those directly involved had supported National Socialism for many years. Mayor Hans Gress as well as the city officials Xaver and Andreas Schieber had been party members qua office since 1933, although they were considered "unreliable" and z. Sometimes even an anti-fascist sentiment was attested. The initiator, Josephine Schmitt, had also been a party member since 1933 and was active in the Nazi women's community as a teacher. In 1933, she had also given a lecture that glorified the ideas of the leader and racial ideology . Many saw her as a staunch National Socialist, although she did not appear as an activist. Whether and at what point in time the deeply religious Catholic distanced herself from the party cannot be determined. Other participants, such as Felix Raab, were even considered active anti-Semites . The women's uprising can therefore not be regarded as an act of resistance against National Socialism , even if many of those involved tried to stage themselves in front of the ruling chambers with reference to the women's uprising in order to obtain a favorable verdict. The uprising was directed against the consequences of perseverance, which threatened to deprive the population of their livelihoods with the ordered destruction.
However, the women's uprising can be classified as a late act of liberation. In the context of the measures to end the war, he is one of the exceptional phenomena, since a significant proportion of the population only rarely participated in the demand for a surrender without a fight. It is thanks to Josephine Schmitt and everyone involved in the demonstration that the city actually remained undamaged and was handed over to the Americans without a fight a week after the women's demonstration.
Aftermath
A street in Gerolzhofen was named after the initiator of the demonstration. A monument erected on the city wall today was dedicated to the women's uprising and it was also immortalized on the scenic depictions of striking events in the city's history on the market fountain.
In the official historiography of the city it has so far only played a subordinate role. A brief brochure from the historic Gerolzhofen Association from 1985 was limited to a z. Partly uncritical glorification of Josephine Schmitt, without including her role during National Socialism. Articles about the past few decades have appeared in the local press. A scientific review only took place in 2015.
Dramaturgical processing
An attempt to come to terms with the women's uprising for film, radio or television by the Munich director and later journalist Ernst A. Bernhardt failed in 1962/1963 because of an apparently unsuccessful script . In 1979, a one-hour radio feature entitled Der Frauenaufstand from the pen of Walter Lobenstein was broadcast on November 18, 1979 in the 2nd radio program of Bavarian Radio , Studio Nuremberg, Welle Mainfranken.
The women's uprising underwent a dramaturgical reappraisal in 2015 with a historical staging on the market square that was created with great sympathy from the population , which attracted over 4,000 spectators in six performances. The play entitled Miss Schmitt and the uprising of women. A drama with grotesque features was written by the Gerolzhofen-born writer Roman Rausch . Silvia Kirchhof and the Small City Theater Gerolzhofen took over the production. The world premiere took place on September 3, 2015 in Gerolzhofen.
literature
- Hans Freitag: The women's uprising in Gerolzhofen. Edited by the historical association in Gerolzhofen, Gerolzhofen 1985. (11 pages)
- Rainer Leng: April 6, 1945. Women's uprising in Gerolzhofen. Edited by the historical association in Gerolzhofen. History for All , Gerolzhofen 2015, ISBN 978-3-9817087-0-7 . (322 p.)
Movie
- Rainer Leng: April 6, 1945. The Gerolzhofen women's uprising. Contemporary witnesses report. DVD, produced by Studiora, Würzburg 2015.
Web links
- Norbert Vollmann: Gerolzhofen saves his skin. In: mainpost.de . April 14, 2015 .
- Norbert Vollmann: The example of courageous and courageous women from April 6, 1945. In: mainpost.de . April 14, 2015 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Norbert Vollmann: Gerolzhofen surrenders without a fight. In: mainpost.de . April 18, 2010, accessed January 14, 2019 .