Gottlieb Branz

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Gottlieb Branz (born September 13, 1896 in Munich ; † September 26, 1972 ibid) was a German librarian, local politician ( SPD ), resistance fighter against the Nazi regime and prisoner in Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps .

Life

Branz was an export merchant by profession and became a member of the SPD in 1912. After the First World War he worked as a librarian. During the Weimar Republic , Branz worked in the Munich trade union library. He was also the SPD section leader in Munich-Obergiesing 1. He was married to Lotte , who also worked for the SPD.

After the National Socialists came to power , on March 8 and 9, 1933, he defended the trade union building in Munich against attacks by the National Socialists. Branz was imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp from June to October 1933 soon afterwards. After that he was temporarily unemployed and later made his way as a representative for cigarettes and participated in the illegal resistance against the Nazi regime. From 1934 on, he and his wife worked as a courier for the Sopade's comrades in exile in Czechoslovakia and traveled there several times to meet. From 1935 the couple cooperated with the Bavarian border secretariat of Sopade, which was headed by Waldemar von Knoeringen . Forbidden literature in Germany was exchanged and the couple also helped several Jews to flee to Czechoslovakia. In Munich, Branz headed a resistance group that also had connections to other resistance groups - u. a. to the resistors of new beginnings .

On January 3, 1939, Branz was arrested by the Gestapo and sentenced to several months' imprisonment for “illegally crossing the border”. On October 16, 1939, Branz was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp for preparation for high treason, where he was held until the liberation on April 11, 1945. First he had the prisoner number 7853 and later 3740 and was classified as a political recidivist . In Buchenwald, Branz worked as a prisoner librarian in the commandant's library. Branz was involved in the revision of the Buchenwald Manifesto in April 1945 and was one of the signatories. Lotte Branz gave up her resistance activities while her husband was imprisoned.

After the liberation from National Socialism , Branz returned to Munich, where he was a member of the city ​​council from 1945 to 1948 and chaired the SPD faction in the city parliament from 1948 to 1956. From 1950 to 1962 he was director of the Munich city libraries . On January 10, 1946, Branz became Vice President of the Bavarian Red Cross under Josef Stürmann and Karl Scharnagl .

Honors

literature

  • Sabine Asgodom (Ed.): "Shut up - otherwise you come to Dachau!" Women and men from the labor movement report on resistance and persecution under National Socialism. Bund-Verlag, Cologne 1983, ISBN 3-7663-0593-X .
  • Wolfgang Röll: Social Democrats in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp 1937–1945. Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2000, ISBN 3-89244-417-X .

Web links

Commons : Gottlieb Branz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Wolfgang Röll: Social Democrats in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp 1937–1945. Wallstein, Göttingen 2000, ISBN 3-89244-417-X , pp. 275-276.
  2. ↑ a b Lotte and Gottlieb Branz
  3. ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: resistance )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.vollmar-akademie.de
  4. ↑ Social Democratic and Socialist Resistance at www. Resistance.musin.de ( Memento from August 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Jörg Wollenberg: Goethe in Dachau - The concentration camp as a place of learning for self-assertion in borderline situations (PDF; 1.3 MB), Linz 2007, p. 18 at www.stiftung-sozialgeschichte.de
  6. ↑ BRK-Munich: Chronicle ( Memento of the original from February 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 95 kB) at www.brk-muenchen.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.brk-muenchen.de
  7. ↑ Golden Citizen Medal of the City of Munich - owner at www.muenchen.de
personal data
SURNAME Branz, Gottlieb
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German librarian, local politician (SPD) and resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH September 13, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH September 26, 1972
Place of death Munich