Free Hamburg group
The Freie Hamburg group , also known as the indulgence group , belonged to the left-wing liberal resistance at the time of National Socialism, alongside the Robinsohn-Strassmann group . Initially, the Hamburg group was called Group Q under its founder Friedrich Ablass . The Free Hamburg Group was formed on May 5, 1945, and the Free Hamburg Association later became the Hamburg Regional Association of the FDP .
development
After the National Socialists came to power in Hamburg in the spring of 1933 and the party was banned, Friedrich Ablass and former party friends of the German State Party (DStP) founded a discussion group critical of the regime. For camouflage, this discussion group initially operated as Department Q (also Group Q ), which at the time had been founded as a hiking group of the DStP. Among the initially up to 15 members of this group, in addition to Ablass, were Alfred Johann Levy , Paul Heile , Harald Abatz , Max Dibbern , Walter Jacobsen , Richard Archilles , Martin Plat , Carl Stephan , Bruno Schmachtel and Eduard Sussmann . Disguised as a men's group, this group met regularly in Cafe Nobeling on Eppendorfer Landstrasse. The meetings served the exchange of information, the maintenance of liberal ideas and advice on how to help persecuted friends. In order to better protect themselves, the group changed their meeting place in autumn 1933 and met a. in a former youth home of the Liberals in Langenrehm as well as bowling or hiking. At the end of 1933 the group founded the Verein der Hafenfreunde , which was joined by other former party friends of the DStP such as Caesar Oehing , Willy Max Rademacher , Julius Buschmann , Wilhelm H. Lindemann and Walter Brosius for camouflage purposes . In the period that followed, the indulgence group also networked with other liberal opponents of the regime or groups that were in opposition to the Nazi regime. There was contact between the Robisohn-Strassmann group and the Ablass group through Jacobsen and Ablass .
Free Hamburg during the Second World War
During the Second World War the group called itself Ablass Free Hamburg . After Ernst Strassmann's arrest from the Robinsohn-Strassmann group on August 19, 1942, the Free Hamburg group briefly interrupted its activities. Due to the well-organized and conspiratorial structures, the activities of the Freie Hamburg group were not discovered. The meetings of the Freie Hamburg group then took place in Ablass's apartment in Hamburg-Uhlenhorst and with the writer Rudolf Beissel in Hamburg-Harvestehude . BBC updates were also discussed during the meetings . Another meeting point for opponents of the Nazi regime from the liberal spectrum was the Bronzekeller cabaret in Hamburg-Neustadt , which has existed since 1933 and is run by members of the Free Hamburg group . Through the artists performing there, also opponents of the Nazi regime, it was possible to organize conspiratorial meetings at regular intervals and to maintain ties to liberals from other cities. The bronze cellar had to close in 1943; the Gestapo suspected it was a meeting place for opponents of the regime. After the air raids on Hamburg , Ablass left his bombed apartment in July 1943 and moved to live with relatives in Hirschberg in Silesia . From this point on, the group was headed by Eduard Wilkening , who probably joined the group in the mid-1930s, Harald Abatz and Walter Jacobsen. Ablass returned to Hamburg at the beginning of 1945 and moved into an attic apartment in the connecting tram, which became the last conspiratorial meeting point for the Freie Hamburg group . Discussions about the time after the end of the war were held there and considerations were made for a new start in liberal politics.
Renaming to Bund Free Hamburg and post-war period
After the British Army marched into Hamburg on May 3, 1945, Ablass and other members of the Free Hamburg group founded the non-partisan Bund Free Hamburg (BFH) on May 5, 1945 . Wilkening took over the chairmanship of the BFH approved by the British military government , Ablass became its deputy and Abatz secretary. A liberal 8-point program was worked out, a. the democratic and material reconstruction of Germany and the rule of law. The Free Democrats Party emerged from the BFH on September 20, 1945 in Hamburg .
literature
- Christoph Brauers: The FDP in Hamburg 1945–1953. Start as a bourgeois left party ; Dissertation at the Helmut Schmidt University of the Federal Armed Forces in Hamburg 2004, Martin Meidenbauer Verlagbuchhandlung, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-89975-569-5 .
- Lothar Albertin , Hans FW Gringmuth: Political Liberalism in the British Zone of Occupation 1946–1948. Management bodies and politics of the FDP. Droste-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1995, ISBN 978-3770051847 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Christoph Brauers: The FDP in Hamburg 1945–1953. Start as a bourgeois left party , Munich 2007, p. 103.
- ^ Christoph Brauers: The FDP in Hamburg 1945–1953. Start as a bourgeois left party , Munich 2007, p. 105.
- ^ Christoph Brauers: The FDP in Hamburg 1945–1953. Start as a bourgeois left party , Munich 2007, p. 109.
- ^ Christoph Brauers: The FDP in Hamburg 1945–1953. Start as a bourgeois left party , Munich 2007, p. 115.
- ^ Christoph Brauers: The FDP in Hamburg 1945–1953. Start as a bourgeois left party , Munich 2007, p. 118 f.
- ^ Christoph Brauers: The FDP in Hamburg 1945–1953. Start as a bourgeois left party , Munich 2007, p. 129 f.