Gerhard Wartenberg

Stumbling block at Alt-Tempelhof 9, in Berlin-Tempelhof

Gerhard Wartenberg (pseudonym: "HW Gerhard"; * February 1, 1904 in Tannroda , Thuringia ; † December 22, 1942 in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp ) was a German author , organizer in the Free Workers' Union of Germany (FAUD) and anarcho-syndicalist .

Life

After graduating from secondary school in Leipzig in 1922, he studied chemistry at the University of Leipzig , which he completed with a doctorate in 1928. phil. completed. He married in 1930, their daughter Ilse was born on July 29, 1931. The family lived together in Berlin-Steglitz until the Nazis seized power .

He worked as an author for the Syndicalist-Anarchist Youth in Germany (SAJD), which he joined at the age of 18 after graduating from school. He became a member of FAUD in 1927. He gave lectures for the Guild of Freedom Book Friends , which was close to FAUD, and later took over the management of the guild. Among other things, he was editor of the magazine Der Syndikalist , together with Augustin Souchy , Max Winkler, Helmut Rüdiger and Fritz Köster . Wartenberg also published Fanal in Erich Mühsam's magazine . In 1933 he was editor of the magazine Die Internationale (2nd episode). He was also the editor of various brochures. With his publications he advocated an autonomous labor movement that was to be organized economically and politically in a strong union apart from the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In Syndicalist No. 11 (March 16, 1929) Wartenberg wrote that such a workers' union “is not a shop-talking, self-sufficient union, as some syndicalists demand, but a revolutionary, vibrant, comprehensive union such as the anarcho-syndicalism demands “Is necessary.

In Leipzig he was the editor of Der Bakunist. Journal of Scientific and Practical Anarchism (1926). After two failed jobs in different professions, he devoted himself more intensively to writing and political work, through which he met Rudolf Rocker . In the mid-1932s he was a member of the FAUD business commission and had editorial responsibility for the magazine Der Syndikalist , from 1933 for Arbeiterecho and for the FAUD magazine Die Internationale .

On May 20, 1933, he was sentenced to two months in prison by the Mitte district court for violating the press law and inciting disobedience . Because of this, he went illegally to the Netherlands in April 1933 , where Albert de Jong helped him to escape persecution by the National Socialists . Afterwards he went to Berlin for a short time and then went into hiding with his parents in Leipzig. He was arrested on January 31, 1935 and released on February 23, 1935. Two years later, more than 200 FAUD members were arrested; FAUD had to work illegally at that time. On April 7, 1938, Wartenberg was sentenced to five years in prison for preparation for high treason . His civil rights and his doctorate from the University of Leipzig were revoked. On October 21, 1941, the responsible office rejected a pardon that Wartenberg's wife had submitted on the grounds that the anarcho-syndicalists were one of the most radical groups and an anti-state party.

Gerhard Wartenberg died at the age of 38 in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp , where he was deported in 1942 after completing his sentence. The Gestapo informed his wife that he had died of bilateral pneumonia.

Gerhard Wartenberg wrote under the pseudonyms HW Gerhard; Aegis and G. Berg . Works by Wartenberg have been preserved in the State Library of Prussian Cultural Heritage in Berlin.

literature

• Siegfried Mielke (Ed.): Trade unionists in the concentration camps Oranienburg and Sachsenhausen. Biographical manual. Volume 1. Pages 293-296. Edition Hentrich, Berlin 2002.
• Hartmut Rübner: Freedom and Bread. The Free Workers' Union of Germany. A Study of the History of Anarcho-Syndicalism . About G. Wartenberg page: 85, 142, 144, 148 f., 150, 151, 153 f., 156, 165, 180, 183, 205 f., 213, 251, 267, 281, 287. Libertad Verlag, Potsdam 1994, ISBN 3-922226-21-3 .

Honors

• The initiative stumbling blocks to the B96 laid 2009 stumbling block before the illegal accommodation of Wartenberg in Alt-Tempelhof 9-11, Berlin-Tempelhof .

Web links

• The Underground FAUD in the Rineland

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Der Anarchosyndikalismus in Deutschland , by Gerhard Wartenberg, 1932. Retrieved October 28, 2009
2. ↑ Author: Hansi Oostinga; November 6, 2008. About Gerhard Wartenberg's political activities . Retrieved May 5, 2009
3. ↑ biography . The Gestapo announced that Wartenberg died of bilateral pneumonia.
4. ↑ Stumbling blocks on the B 96 (PDF).