Friedrich Schössler

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Friedrich Schössler (also Schößler or Schessler; * 1902 in Walter , Saratov Oblast , † 1980 in Abakan , Khakassia ) was a representative of the Volga German minority in the Soviet Union . After the de-Stalinization , he played a leading role in efforts to enable the Volga Germans to return from exile and to re-establish the Volga German Republic .

Life

Friedrich Schössler was born in the Walter settlement with an almost entirely German population at the time of his birth. Walter is about 200 kilometers southwest of Saratov . As a teenager he completed educational courses and then did his military service as a Red Army soldier in Central Asia. Later he was employed in the cantonal administration. In 1929 he became a member of the communist party and from 1932 he lived in Engels , where he held a subordinate position in the government administration of the Volga German Republic.

Like almost all Russian Germans, he was deported in 1941 . Schössler was exiled to the Krasnoyarsk region and from there in 1942 he was conscripted for forced labor in the Trud Army . In 1945 he was arrested and sentenced to twelve years in prison under Article 58 of the RSFSR Criminal Code for “anti-Soviet propaganda”. After ten years of hard labor under inhumane conditions in the Vorkuta labor camp , he was pardoned in 1955. He had lost a leg and was severely disabled.

Then he began with numerous letters, petitions, petitions and appeals to the state and party organs, to the central press organs and to public figures in the USSR to demand equality between the Volga Germans and other Soviet peoples. He was in close contact with other human rights activists, who, although many of them were early party members, also had conflicts with the state and party leadership.

He was a member of the first Volga German delegation in Moscow , planned for July 1964 and then postponed to January 1965 because of the fall of Khrushchev . Schössler and Johannes Warkentin played a key role in agreeing to send another delegation due to the dissatisfaction with the results. The party and state leadership had withdrawn on excuses from lower-ranking officials. The second delegation was received by Anastas Mikoyan in July 1965 after a four-week waiting period in Moscow, during which some members had to return for financial reasons . Schössler drew his attention to the fact that even fifteen years after the Germans were expelled from the Volga region, large parts of it were still not repopulated. So a return would be possible. All participants idealized former life in the Volga Republic. In his summary of the meeting, the political professional Mikoyan managed to explain to the participants in a friendly manner that their concerns were not a priority for the state.

Friedrich Schössler longed for his home on the Volga in distant Siberia and continued to write petitions and petitions. He even planned a third delegation on the occasion of the XXIII. CPSU party congress in March 1966. As a result, he was expelled from the party. He traveled to Moscow alone and sent letters of protest to the authorities against the arrest of Andrei Donatowitsch Sinjawski and Juli Markowitsch Daniel . This was the first time the Volga Germans had contact with other dissidents in the Soviet Union. He also tried to get support from Germans from the then two German states, and sent contact requests. His obscene language caused the secret service, which was closely monitoring him, to cover up many of his expressions with ellipses. He also made public statements that it was time for the Volga Germans to return without authorization. Schössler himself hid his archive and was actually just waiting for his arrest. The authorities were unsure how to deal with the angry headstrong old man on crutches. He was summoned to the public prosecutor's office in Abakan, which ordered him to cease his "publicly dangerous activities". He promised - and carried on anyway. But slowly it grew quieter around him.

Friedrich Schössler was married. He died in a home for the disabled in Abakan in 1980 and was buried in the local cemetery.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Friedrich Schössler on the website of the Federal Agency for Civic Education , accessed on April 7, 2019
  2. ^ György Dalos : History of the Russian Germans. From Catherine the Great to the present. Translated by Elsbeth Zylla. CH Beck, Munich 2014. ISBN 978-3-406-67017-6 ; P. 238.
  3. ^ György Dalos: History of the Russian Germans. From Catherine the Great to the present. ISBN 978-3-406-67017-6 ; P. 238.
  4. ^ György Dalos: History of the Russian Germans. From Catherine the Great to the present. ISBN 978-3-406-67017-6 ; P. 231.
  5. ^ György Dalos: History of the Russian Germans. From Catherine the Great to the present. ISBN 978-3-406-67017-6 ; P. 237.
  6. ^ György Dalos: History of the Russian Germans. From Catherine the Great to the present. ISBN 978-3-406-67017-6 ; P. 240.
  7. ^ György Dalos: History of the Russian Germans. From Catherine the Great to the present. ISBN 978-3-406-67017-6 ; P. 242.
  8. ^ A b György Dalos: History of the Russian Germans. From Catherine the Great to the present. ISBN 978-3-406-67017-6 ; P. 246.
personal data
SURNAME Schössler, Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schößler, Friedrich; Schessler, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Volga German dissident in the Soviet Union
DATE OF BIRTH 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Walter , Saratov Oblast
DATE OF DEATH 1980
Place of death Abakan , Khakassia