Gerhard Kaun

Gerhard Kaun (born July 11, 1911 in Weimar , † December 4, 1944 in Brandenburg-Görden ) was a German communist and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

The worker's son Kaun worked as a commercial clerk. In the final phase of the Weimar Republic , Kaun joined the KPD in 1932 , previously he was a member of the KJVD . In 1933 he was arrested for distributing communist leaflets and sentenced to two months in prison. After he was released, he again worked illegally. In May 1941 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht . From 1943 he was assigned to Army Clothing Office 1 in Berlin as a corporal. In 1942 he came into contact with the Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein organization . Kaun procured the equipment required by the organization from the stocks of the Army Clothing Office, but also weapons. He sent illegal pamphlets to field post addresses. After Caesar Horn and Helmut Wagner informed him about the goals of the NKFD , Gerhard Kaun and several soldiers formed a Wehrmacht group of the "Free Germany" movement .

Gerhard Kann was arrested on July 26, 1944. The First Senate of the “ People's Court ” sentenced him and Helmuth Wagner to death in October 1944. Both were murdered in the Brandenburg-Görden prison.

Kaun lived at Fehrbelliner Strasse 28 in Berlin-Mitte , where a plaque commemorates his work today.

literature

• Walter A. Schmidt: So that Germany might live. A source work on the German anti-fascist resistance struggle 1933–1945 . Congress, Berlin 1959, p. 631.
• Luise Kraushaar : German resistance fighters 1933-1945. Biographies and letters . Volume 2. Dietz, Berlin 1970, p. 504.
• Ursel Hochmuth : Illegal KPD and movement “Free Germany” in Berlin and Brandenburg 1942–1945 . Hentrich and Hentrich, Teetz 1998, p. 171.
• Hans-Joachim Fieber: Resistance in Berlin against the Nazi regime 1933 to 1945. A biographical lexicon . Volume 4.Trafo, Berlin 2002, p. 43.

Web links

• Short biography (Berliner Bezirkslexikon, Edition Luisenstadt)
• Plaque