Hans Lachmund

Hans Lachmund (born August 10, 1892 in Schwerin , † September 4, 1972 in Cologne ) was a German lawyer, politician and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Hans Lachmund, son of Schwerin school professor August Lachmund, studied at the universities of Marburg , Paris and Halle law . In France he came into contact with pacifists and Freemasons. Before completing his studies, he had passed his first legal examination in 1914, and was called up for military service at the beginning of the First World War . Seriously wounded during his first missions at the front, he was dismissed after a year as unfit for duty. Then he continued his studies. His legal clerkship took him to Magdeburg , Marburg , Kassel and Schwerin between 1916 and 1920 before taking the second legal exam. In 1920 he was involved as an organizational employee in the defense of the Kapp Putsch . After he was admitted to the bar and notary, he opened his own law firm in Schwerin. In 1921 he married the teacher Margarethe Grobbecker .

In 1919 Lachmund joined the German Democratic Party (DDP), of which he was chairman in Schwerin from 1925 to 1929. At the same time he was a member of the state executive committee of the DDP since 1925 and of the German State Party (DStP) for Mecklenburg-Schwerin since 1930 . In 1931 he left the DStP and joined the SPD. He joined the German Peace Society (DFG) in 1921 and was its chairman from 1927 to 1931.

Hans Lachmund was appointed civil servant for life in 1929. He was appointed to the Justice Department headed by Richard Moeller as a judicial advisor. In April 1933 he was dismissed from the judicial service and accused of embezzling funds from the DFG. He was reinstated by appealing his unlawful dismissal, but was transferred to the Warin District Court. In 1934 he was transferred to the district court of Anklam and in 1940 to Greifswald.

Together with his wife, he joined the newly founded liberal Robinsohn-Strassmann group in 1934 . Hans Lachmund, who became a leading figure in the group in Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania, used his diverse personal connections to expand the resistance network in northern Germany. The Lachmunds were friends with Greta and Adam Kuckhoff , who belonged to the Red Orchestra. After Hans Robinsohn emigrated to Denmark at the end of 1938 and Ernst Strassmann was arrested in 1942, Hans and Margarethe Lachmund sought contact with various other resistance groups, including the Anton Saefkow group .

In 1944 he joined the Greifswald resistance group formed on the initiative of the communist Hugo Pfeiffer and Pastor Gottfried Holtz , which was provided with educational material from the National Committee for Free Germany (NKFD) by the instructor of the Anton Saefkow group, Richard Fähling . The group called itself “NKFD Greifswald” in autumn 1944 and saw it as their task to prevent further damage to the city and residents. Together with other personalities of the city they succeeded in persuading the city commandant Rudolf Petershagen to hand over the city to the Red Army without a fight . Hans Lachmund played a key role in ensuring that Greifswald's intellectual circles prepared for the surrender.

On May 8, 1945, Hans Lachmund became an alderman for the city of Greifswald with the consent of the Soviet local commander. On the night of May 27-28, 1945, he was arrested by the Soviet secret service without giving any reason. In interrogations, his membership of the Freemasons was repeatedly discussed. From 1945 to 1948 he was interned in NKVD camp No. 9 Fünfeichen near Neubrandenburg and then in special camp No. 2 Buchenwald . After the dissolution of the Soviet internment camps in 1950, he was handed over to the GDR authorities, who took him to the Waldheim correctional facility . Although numerous opponents of Hitler confirmed his integrity and his participation in the anti-fascist resistance, he was sentenced by the Chemnitz Regional Court on May 9, 1950 to 25 years in prison. Allegedly he should have spied on French Freemasons for the Gestapo while traveling . His sentence was reduced to 10 years in 1952. In 1954 he was pardoned by Wilhelm Pieck , the President of the GDR .

After his release, he followed his family to West Berlin , where he again worked as a lawyer. There he was politically active in the SPD and also devoted himself intensively to Freemasonry .

literature

• Achim von Borries: The Lachmund couple. In: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung , Landesbüro Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Hrsg.): Resistance against the Nazi regime in the regions of Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania. (= Contributions to history. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. No. 12), Schwerin 2007, ISBN 3-89892-399-1 , pp. 82–89 ( digitized version , PDF ).
• Berit Olschewski: "Friends" in enemy territory. Red Army and German post-war society in the former Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz 1945-1953. Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-8305-1690-3 , p. 509 ( Google books ).
• Klaus Schwabe: H. Lachmund. A biography in the resistance. In: horizons. Magazine for social democratic politics in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Issue 4, Adebor-Verlag, Schwerin 2003.
• Gottfried Hamacher, Andre Lohmar, Harald Wittstock: Germans in the Resistance, in the armed forces of the anti-Hitler coalition and the "Free Germany" movement. A biographical lexicon. Working material, Berlin 2003, p. 87 ( digitized version , PDF )
• Jeanette Michelmann: Activists from the very beginning. The Antifa in the Soviet zone of occupation. Böhlau, Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-412-04602-7 , pp. 330–341 ( Google Books ).

Web links

• Literature about Hans Lachmund in the state bibliography MV
• Jantje Hannover: Destruction and rescue at the last minute. The end of the war in the neighboring cities of Anklam and Greifswald. In: Country report. Deutschlandradio Kultur, April 29, 2005, accessed on May 26, 2012 .