Fritz Köhler (resistance fighter)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fritz Köhler (born December 21, 1895 in Suhl, † October 17, 1944 in Ichtershausen ) was a German communist resistance fighter against the Nazi regime .

Life

He was born in a working-class family in Suhl. After attending primary school, he learned the welding trade. In 1920 he joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). A defining event for him was when he to March 15 of the same year his brother Kurt Ottilie rock saw climb that from there with his Simson - machine gun of the invading troops in Suhl coup-General Kapp took under fire. In the following years, too, he and his comrades had to register with anger how the Hitler supporters marched on the streets of the Thuringian Forest to bring their fascist ideology to the masses. This strengthened their will to work against Nazi propaganda. In 1928, his party made him head of the Suhl sub-district . At that time he belonged to the respected and hostile works council at the Haenel weapons factory. Already in March 1933 Köhler was abducted to the Sonnenburg penitentiary far away from the Oder . When he returned to Suhl in September 1933 and found work in an armaments factory in Suhl, he was immediately harassed by the brown company officials and finally dismissed. Regardless of this, he continued his anti-fascist resistance work, together with his comrades Adolf Anschütz , Adolf Werner , Emil and Minna Recknagel , Richard and Fanny Becher , Richard Haumann , Paul Meyer , Oskar Kleinlein and others. Contacts were established with Hitler's opponents in Zella-Mehlis , Benshausen - Viernau , Schwarza , Albrechts , Goldlauter and Schmiedefeld . Influential Social Democrats were also among the anti-fascist allies. He received printed material and leaflets from various resistance groups , which he distributed to hikers and guests of the open-air theater and the “Schuppen” restaurant. The communists ensured the spread of the "work slowly" movement in the factories that were important to the war effort. In June 1944, 150 anti-fascists from Suhl and the surrounding area were arrested, initially taken to the gendarmerie school . Here they were mistreated several times and then taken to the Ichtershausen state prison, where Fritz Köhler had to live in a solitary cell . His brothers Kurt and Willi were in the same prison. The Gestapo officers Steuding tortured him to madness. Steel handcuffs cut into his wrists, and his cries of pain were heard by the other prisoners. On October 17, Köhler succumbed to physical injuries as a result of the mistreatment.

memory

  • During the GDR era, the 4th Suhl Polytechnic School was named after him. After 1990 the school lost its name.

literature

  • Gerd Kaiser (Ed.), Upright and strong , in it Gerhard Kummer with a memory of Fritz Köhler, p. 83ff.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Memorials for the Victims of National Socialism II, p. 886
personal data
SURNAME Koehler, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighters against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH December 21, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Suhl
DATE OF DEATH October 17, 1944
Place of death Ichtershausen