Hans Freund (resistance fighter)

Hans Freund (born December 26, 1901 ; † May 29, 1959 ) was a German communist resistance fighter against National Socialism , President of the Berlin Court of Justice in the Eastern Sector, deputy chairman of the Berlin VVN and member of the board of the Jewish community of Greater Berlin .

Life

When it was founded, he joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD). After the transfer of power to the NSDAP , Freund was persecuted as a Jew, but was able to continue his anti-fascist work. In 1943 he became a penitentiary convicted and in prison Tegel interned.

When the Nazi rule was eliminated, he joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1945 . In 1946 he became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and worked in the emerging judicial system of the Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ). In 1948 he was director of the district court center . After the seat of the chamber court was relocated to the western sectors in February 1949 and with it the split of the Berlin judiciary, he was appointed president of the newly created chamber court of Berlin (only responsible for East Berlin) .

At the same time he was involved in the commemorative work of those persecuted by the Nazi regime and from 1949 to 1951 he was deputy chairman of the main board of the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime (VVN) in Berlin. At the same time he was a board member of the Jewish community of Greater Berlin.

Freund was the victim of an anti-Semitic campaign in January 1953 in connection with the show trial of Rudolf Slansky in Prague , which ended on December 3, 1952 with his execution. Excluded from the VVN , Freund, like Julius Meyer , fled to West Berlin .

literature

Elke Reuter, Detlef Hansel: The short life of the VVN from 1947 to 1953: The history of those persecuted by the Nazi regime in the Soviet Zone and GDR. Edition Ost, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-929161-97-4 , p. 567.
Ernst Reuß : Millionaires don't ride bicycles, everyday judicial life in post-war Berlin. Past Publishing, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86408-092-0 , p. 152 ff.

Individual evidence

^ Friedrich Scholz: Berlin and its justice: the history of the chamber court district 1945 to 1980. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-11-008679-4 , p. 123.
↑ Freund himself spoke of tactical anti-Semitism in this context , see Andreas Weigelt: Between Staying and Walking: Jews in East Germany 1945 to 1956; ten biographies. Text.Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-938414-48-4 , p. 120.
↑ Ernst Reuß : Millionaires don't ride bicycles: Everyday justice in post-war Berlin. Past Publishing, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86408-092-0 , p. 158 ff.

personal data
SURNAME	Friend, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German-Jewish resistance fighter, lawyer and politician (SED), MdV
DATE OF BIRTH	December 26, 1901
DATE OF DEATH	May 29, 1959

[1] Friedrich Scholz: Berlin and its justice: the history of the chamber court district 1945 to 1980. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-11-008679-4 , p. 123.

[2] Freund himself spoke of tactical anti-Semitism in this context , see Andreas Weigelt: Between Staying and Walking: Jews in East Germany 1945 to 1956; ten biographies. Text.Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-938414-48-4 , p. 120.

[3] Ernst Reuß : Millionaires don't ride bicycles: Everyday justice in post-war Berlin. Past Publishing, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86408-092-0 , p. 158 ff.