Georg Feller

Georg Feller

Georg Feller (born January 30, 1906 in Darmstadt , † December 12, 1993 in Wiesbaden ) was a German trade unionist, resistance fighter and local politician.

Life

Feller lived in Wiesbaden from early childhood, where he attended elementary school and did a commercial apprenticeship. Since 1925 it was organized in the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold and one year later became a member of the SPD . After clashes with local NSDAP supporters, he was sentenced to a suspended sentence for "passive breach of the peace". During the Nazi regime, he participated in a resistance network consisting of SPD and Reichsbanner activists.

In the autumn of 1935 Georg Feller was taken into custody in the Gestapo for this reason. In the subsequent process he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for “preparing a treasonable company”, which he had to serve in Butzbach. Despite torture , he and his co-convicted friend of the Reichsbanner, Albert Markloff, had not disclosed the names of the sympathizers . After serving his sentence, Feller was imprisoned in the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1938 as prisoner 2996 . The Gestapo called this “ protective custody ”. He owed his surprise release in 1940 to his mother. When the Nazis were awarded the " Mother Cross ", she was asked if she had any wish. Your answer: Yes, for my son to come home. Back in Wiesbaden, Georg Feller was banned from working by the Gestapo with daily reporting and duty as an unskilled worker. At the beginning of 1943 he was drafted into the notorious 999 Penalty Battalion , although the Nazis classified him as “unworthy of defense” . The Nazis now needed every man for their criminal campaigns. Feller worked as a radio operator on Rhodes until the end of the war. Here, too, he took part in resistance activities.

In 1945 he was taken into British captivity at the Great Bitter Lake in Egypt until 1947 . Shortly after his return he was employed by the Wiesbaden city administration. At the same time he headed the local prisoner-of-war and returnees care center of the SPD until 1951. He was the works council chairman, union secretary, managing director and finally first chairman of the Wiesbaden district administration of the ÖTV union. From 1952 to 1956 he was a city councilor, from 1956 to 1960 honorary city councilor and from then until 1971 full-time city councilor for youth, social affairs and health. In 1984 he was awarded the highest award in the State of Hesse, the Wilhelm Leuschner Medal . Two years later he was honored by his hometown Wiesbaden with the title "City Elder". Georg Feller died on December 12, 1993 at home in Wiesbaden.

literature

• Lothar Bembenek, Axel Ulrich: Resistance and persecution in Wiesbaden 1933-1945. A documentation. Ed .: Magistrate of the State Capital Wiesbaden - City Archives. Giessen 1990, pp. 56-69, p. 293 and p. 365-373.
• http://www.wiesbadener-tagblatt.de/lokales/wiesbaden/nachrichten-wiesbaden/serie-150-jahre-spd-der-wiesbadener-georg-buch_12799704.htm
• Georg Feller: From the resistance work of the Wiesbaden Reich Banner, in: Axel Ulrich: Freedom! The Reichsbanner Schwarz Rot Gold and the struggle of the social democrats in Hesse against National Socialism 1924-1938. Ed .: SPD district Hessen-Süd u. Union printing and publishing house. Frankfurt / M. 1988, pp. 143-155.
• Wolfgang Röll: Social Democrats in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp 1937-1945

Web links

• Axel Ulrich: Feller, Georg. on wiesbaden.de