Fritz Wörtge

Fritz Wörtge (born March 2, 1902 in Ueberau , † June 8, 1949 in Griesheim ) was a German communist trade unionist and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime.

Life

After elementary school, Wörtge learned the lathe trade. He organized himself in the German Metal Workers' Association (DMV), for which he took on several functions at a young age. In 1920 he joined the KPD . Whether he was previously a member of the USPD cannot be historically clarified. Wörtge became a functionary of the KPD district executive in Darmstadt and a member of the KPD sub-district leadership in Hesse. Wörtge also belonged to the Red Aid of Germany (RHD). From the end of the 1920s, Wörtge was a functionary of the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition (RGO). At the end of the Weimar period, under the conditions of the Great Depression, he was unemployed for political reasons. In the RGO, Wörtge was particularly committed to organizing the unemployed.

In March 1933, Wörtge, who was based in Ueberau , ran for the Hessian KPD in the Reichstag elections. However, the communist trade unionist was not elected in the elections that had already been compromised by the National Socialists. Instead, he was persecuted right at the beginning of National Socialism . From February 1933 he was demonstrably affected by surveillance measures, house searches and multiple arrests.

In April 1933 the police took Wörtge into “ protective custody ”. The communist trade unionist was abducted to the "early" concentration camp Osthofen , where he stayed until May 1, 1933 and was intended to be intimidated. He was then under police surveillance. Despite numerous reprisals and surveillance measures against him and his wife, Wörtge became involved in the communist resistance. He distributed illegal pamphlets and tried to keep a smaller group of communists together. From 1936 he belonged to the resistance group around the former Darmstadt communist functionary Georg Fröba . A series of illegal communist activities against the Nazi regime of Wörtge in Ueberau , Darmstadt and the surrounding area can be proven from 1936 onwards . The Nazi persecutors investigated several times against Wörtge because of the "suspicion of preparation for high treason". He was interrogated several times, but escaped charge and re-imprisonment.

After the end of the war, Wörtge was initially still based in Ueberau and in 1945 chairman of the newly founded KPD in the Darmstadt district. From July 1946 he was chairman of the local KPD in Offenbach am Main . He was also a functionary in the KPD state executive committee of Hesse. Wörtge later lived again in Ueberau, where a number of relatives and friends of his lived. At times Wörtge worked in Darmstadt and sold ovens and stoves there.

Wörtge died in a traffic accident. His motorcycle collided with a US military vehicle in Griesheim.

Honors

In Reinheim-Ueberau there is a memorial stone for Fritz Wörtge (street corner Alter Weg / Obere Straße).

literature

• Stefan Heinz : Fritz Wörtge (1902–1949) , In: Angelika Arenz-Morch, Stefan Heinz (ed.): Trade unionists in the Osthofen concentration camp 1933/34. Biographical manual (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - Resistance - Emigration , Vol. 8). Metropol, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-86331-439-2 , pp. 565-573.