Fritz von Hacht

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Fritz von Hacht (born January 3, 1898 in Hamburg ; † January 1, 1988 there ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism , a local politician and a trade unionist .

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Fritz von Hacht was the son of a coal merchant. His father and grandfather came from Veddel , where Fritz von Hacht was born. His mother worked as a maid. After his father died in 1900, his mother married a ship carpenter as a second marriage. Fritz von Hacht spent his childhood in Rothenburgsort . His stepfather's income was barely enough to support the family. Because he was a union member, he was also often locked out and fired. Fritz von Hacht therefore took on auxiliary activities as a child and delivered newspapers.

At school, von Hacht was considered a talented draftsman. So he would have liked to learn the profession of painter and had the prospect of a corresponding scholarship . However, his stepfather saw this as a "breadless art" and recommended that his stepson complete vocational training in order to be able to contribute to the family's livelihood. Fritz von Hacht followed his stepfather's wishes and began training as a coppersmith . His employer and his wife employed von Hacht in their household and gave him tasks that had nothing to do with vocational training. They also beat him several times. Fritz von Hacht therefore broke off his training and subsequently worked as a messenger, house servant and unskilled worker on construction sites.

During the First World War , von Hacht had to do military service. He received a brief training and then fought on the Western Front , where he was wounded in Flanders in autumn 1917 . No further combat missions followed after recovery. Shortly after the end of the First World War, von Hacht took a job in the turning shop of the Nadge & Neffen company in Rothenburgsort. There he met the crane operator Erna Behrens, whom he married in 1919. In 1920 the couple had their daughter Melanie and three years later their son Fritz. From 1921 to 1927 von Hacht worked for the Hugo Stoltzenberg company, followed by a position as warehouse manager at the large-scale purchasing company of German consumer associations .

In Fritz von Hacht's family, membership in the SPD and union involvement were taken for granted. His grandfather Peter von Hacht co-founded the local SPD group on the Veddel. As a child, Fritz von Hacht and his siblings distributed party leaflets. At the age of six he joined the free gymnastics club in Hammerbrook-Rothenburgsort. The club belonged to the workers' sports movement . Since 1912 he was a member of the Socialist Workers' Youth and the German Transport Workers Association . Von Hacht has been politically active since the end of the First World War. In 1918, he and other citizens founded a defense to protect the November Revolution . In 1920 he took part in strikes against the Kapp Putsch . Since 1919 he headed the district group of the SPD in Rothenburgsort and was involved in the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold since 1924 . Due to his membership in the SPD, his employer fired him in 1933.

Fritz von Geesthacht already participated shortly after the seizure of power by the Nazis in illegal resistance movements. In Rothenburgsort he attended secret SPD meetings. Prohibited publications and leaflets created and distributed by Hacht. He also offered the activists their own apartment as a meeting place. Walter Schmedemann coordinated the actions that were carried out in several Hamburg SPD districts. On February 5, the Gestapo arrested Fritz von Hacht and put him in solitary confinement in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp . The Gestapo tried to obtain statements from Hachts through severe abuse. In August 1935 the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court sentenced von Hacht to one and a half years in prison for his resistance activities .

Although it was forbidden, Fritz von Hacht and his wife had raised the children in the traditions of the labor movement. Melanie von Hacht had taken part in a banned youth consecration course in 1934 , which was led by the dismissed former MP Max Zelck. In March 1935 the graduation ceremony took place in the Schiller Opera. The von Hacht family announced this in a letter. The Gestapo found the letter, replaced the word “youth consecration” with “confirmation” and also mistreated Fritz von Hacht because of the letter during his imprisonment.

After his release from prison on August 7, 1936, Fritz von Hacht was considered a convicted high treason and thus “unworthy of defense”. He found a job at the Norddeutsche Affinerie . The family survived Operation Gomorrah extremely happily , while Rothenburgsort was largely destroyed. After the end of the Second World War , Fritz von Hacht moved to Bergedorf . Here he worked in the housing department of the district office. He was involved in local politics in the SPD and the public services, transport and traffic union . He assumed various functions and offices and in the 1950s he chaired the union's staff council.

Fritz von Hacht died on New Year's Day in 1988 in his hometown. The Von-Hacht-Weg in Neuallermöhe has been a reminder of the former resistance fighter since 1995 .

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personal data
SURNAME Hacht, Fritz von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighters against National Socialism, local politicians and trade unionists
DATE OF BIRTH January 3, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH January 1, 1988
Place of death Hamburg