Günter Nobel
Günter Michael Nobel (born March 9, 1913 in Filehne , Province of Posen , † August 31, 2007 in Berlin ) was a German resistance fighter and GDR functionary.
Life
Günter Nobel came from an old Hungarian rabbi family and grew up as the youngest of three sons in Schneidemühl , where his father Israel Nobel (1879–1962) was transferred in 1914 as a rabbi. In 1924 he and his family moved to Berlin-Moabit and in 1930 to the Oranienburger Vorstadt due to another transfer of their father . Günter Nobel obtained his university entrance qualification at the Friedrich-Werderscher Gymnasium in the spring of 1931 and then began studying law and economics at the Friedrich-Wilhelm University . After the NSDAP came to power , Günter Nobel broke off his studies because of repeated abuse by anti-Semitic fellow students who “recognized him as a Jew”.
Together with his future wife Genia Nobel (née Schmerling, 1912–1999), whom he had met in autumn 1931 through the almost everyday confrontations with National Socialist students at Berlin University, he first joined SAP and then the KPD . Both took part in the anti-fascist resistance in the KPD sub-district of Charlottenburg .
As of May 1933, Günter Nobel completed an apprenticeship as a car locksmith through the mediation of the Jewish community in the Berlin taxi company Tempo , which he continued after its closure at Felix Hohl's locksmith company . In December 1935 Felix Hohl was arrested as a resistance fighter against fascism and Günter Nobel was again unable to complete his training.
On July 28, 1936, Genia and Günter Nobel were arrested by the Gestapo in their apartment in Berlin-Wilmersdorf . On December 1, 1937, both were sentenced to three years' imprisonment for “preparation for high treason ”, most of which Günter Nobel spent in the Brandenburg prison. Immediately after their release from prison, both managed to escape to Shanghai , where they survived in the Shanghai ghetto . There they rejoined a KPD group and became Tass correspondents. For his living, Günter Nobel hired himself as a welder at a US Army facility in Shanghai.
In 1947 he returned to Berlin on the initiative of Bruno Baum , his cell mate in the Brandenburg prison. From 1949 to 1952 he was active in the SED party apparatus and a member of the Central Committee until his work for the US armed forces became known during the years of emigration. From 1952 to 1956 he was cultural director at Funkwerk Berlin , followed by activities in the Institute for Market Research and in the State Planning Commission . From 1969 to 1971 he worked as a legation counselor and head of the GDR trade agency in Stockholm. Subsequently, he was a sector manager and research assistant in the Foreign Ministry of the GDR.
He spent the last years of his life in Berlin-Johannisthal . He was active in the League for Friendship between Nations of the GDR, was a member of the central management of the committee of anti-fascist resistance fighters of the GDR and for many years a member of the board of the Jewish Cultural Association in Berlin .
Günter Nobel died during the reopening of the rebuilt Rykestrasse Synagogue in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg . He was buried in the Baumschulenweg cemetery in the grove of honor for those persecuted by the Nazi regime .
Awards
- 1978 Patriotic Order of Merit in silver
- 1983 Order of the Star of Friendship of Nations in silver and 1985 in gold
Fonts
- Genia and Günter Nobel: As political emigrants in Shanghai . In: Contributions to the history of the labor movement . Vol. 21, 6/1979
literature
- Ursula Krechel: Shanghai far from where. Publishing house Jung und Jung: Salzburg 2008
Web links
- Genia and Günter Nobel: Sticky Letters
- Irene Runge: Günter Nobel - communist, Brandenburg prisoner, Shanghai emigrant
- Obituary ( memento of December 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) in the Jüdische Zeitung
- Fifty years ago, 295 Jewish emigrants returned to Berlin from their exile in Shanghai . In: Berliner Zeitung , 23 August 1997
- Jewish correspondence , April 2006: Photo by Günter Nobel on page 4 (PDF; 412 kB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Quotation from Nobel in Hans-Rainer Sandvoss : Resistance in Mitte and Tiergarten , German Resistance Memorial Center, Berlin 1999² (= Resistance in Berlin 1933–1945; Volume 8), p. 296.
- ↑ A person was missing . In: Friday , February 19, 2009
- ^ Congratulations from the Central Committee of the SED on the 75th birthday in Neues Deutschland on March 9, 1988
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Nobel, Günter |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Nobel, Günter Michael |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German resistance fighter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 9, 1913 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Filehne |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 31, 2007 |
| Place of death | Berlin |