Fritz Eichenwald

Fritz Eichenwald , actually Joseph Schmitz (born May 29, 1901 in Illva, Austria-Hungary ; † September 11, 1941 in Orjol , Soviet Union ) was a German politician and agent of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and resistance fighter against National Socialism . At the time of the Great Terror in 1937, he was a victim of Stalinist purges in exile in the Soviet Union and shot in 1941.

Life

After graduating from high school and studying, Schmitz became an engineer . In 1920 he joined the Communist Youth Association of Germany (KJVD) and in 1924 the KPD and became party secretary in Recklinghausen . Schmitz worked undercover for the KPD's illegal intelligence service, the so-called Antimilitary Apparat (AM apparatus), which existed until 1937 , worked directly with its director Hans Kippenberger and took on various important functions there.

After the takeover of the Nazis and the ban on Communist activities in Germany in March 1933 Schmitz went under the name Fritz oak forest , which he henceforth resulted in the emigration into Switzerland . Here he worked for the Rundschau news agency (RUNA).

On June 22, 1934, oak forest was expelled from Switzerland and reached Moscow in March 1935 . On April 27, 1937 he was arrested by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs of the USSR (NKVD) in the course of the Stalinist purges among the German communist emigrants and sentenced on August 2, 1937 to ten years imprisonment, which he was to serve in the central prison of Oryol.

On September 11, 1941, on Stalin's orders, 157 prisoners, among them Eichenwald, were shot by NKVD special forces in a forest before the Red Army withdrew from Oryol .

literature

Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German communists. Biographical Handbook 1918 to 1945 . 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 ( online ).

Individual evidence

↑ Andreas Hilger : "Tod Den Spionen!": Death sentences of Soviet courts in the Soviet Zone / GDR and in the Soviet Union until 1953 , Edition 51 of Reports and Studies, Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarian Research eV at the TU Dresden, 2006, ISBN 3899712862 , Pp. 58–59, ( online ).

personal data
SURNAME	Eichenwald, Fritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Schmitz, Joseph (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German politician (KPD), victim of Stalinism
DATE OF BIRTH	May 29, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH	Illva, Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH	September 11, 1941
Place of death	Oryol , Soviet Union

[1] Andreas Hilger : "Tod Den Spionen!": Death sentences of Soviet courts in the Soviet Zone / GDR and in the Soviet Union until 1953 , Edition 51 of Reports and Studies, Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarian Research eV at the TU Dresden, 2006, ISBN 3899712862 , Pp. 58–59, ( online ).