Hans Weber (resistance fighter)

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Hans Weber (born October 8, 1912 in Regensburg ; † December 9, 2003 ibid) was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) , " Moorsoldat " and mayor of Regensburg. The Regensburg SPD has been awarding the Hans Weber Prize, named after him, for more tolerance and democracy since 2006 .

Life

youth

Hans Weber came from a Regensburg family of railway workers. In 1926, at the age of 14, he began an apprenticeship as an electrician and joined both the free trade unions and the SPD. In addition, he acquired his secondary school leaving certificate at a commercial school. In addition, he was active with the young workers and the hawks . On May 1, 1933, he was to become the full-time youth secretary of the SPD. However, due to the occupation and confiscation of the offices and organization rooms and the ban imposed by the SPD on July 14, 1933, he was unable to take up the position.

Nazi era

After Hitler came to power and the SPD was banned, he continued the fight against National Socialism , which he had fought earlier. In particular, he did so as a member of a network of social democrats who, with the help of Hans Dill , the former member of the Reichstag who acted as border secretary in Mieß, maintained contact with one another. Weber smuggled social democratic material, including the party newspapers Neuer Vorwärts and Sozialistische Aktion , printed by Sopade in exile in Prague , across the Bavarian-Czech border at great risk and distributed it to Nuremberg and Munich. For this purpose he traveled all over Bavaria by bike, motorcycle or on foot.

As early as the spring of 1934, the Gestapo managed to break into the resistance circle. More than 150 people were arrested across Bavaria, including Hans Weber on May 12. His future wife Martha, née Bayerer, and her mother Lina Bayerer were also held in custody for almost ten months with him. In February 1935, Hans Weber and his future father-in-law, Alfons Bayerer , a former party secretary and member of the state parliament, were convicted of high treason. Alfons Bayerer was so tortured in custody that he died as a result of the imprisonment. The verdict for Hans Weber was 4 years in prison and 5 years loss of honor . He was serving the sentence in the penitentiaries Straubing and Amberg , then as "mud soldier" in Emslandlager Aschendorfermoor , one of the infamous Emslandlager counting concentration camp . He was then taken into protective custody and spent another three months in prison in Lingen (Ems) . He was released in May 1939, but remained under police supervision.

Initially declared unworthy of defense, he was drafted into Penal Division 999 (officially called the probation unit) in 1942 and taken to North Africa. The division, referred to in the jargon of the soldiers of the Africa Corps as the “criminal group”, was often used for the most dangerous jobs such as mine clearance and lost posts.

At no point did Hans Weber shoot people there. With the surrender of the Africa Corps in May 1943, Weber fell into French captivity. While still in captivity, he resumed political work. He and others forced into the Wehrmacht were allowed to organize daily news broadcasts over the camp wire radio and to publish a camp newspaper. Nevertheless, Hans Weber was only released from captivity due to illness in January 1947.

Political engagement in the Federal Republic

After returning from captivity, he immediately became politically active again. He became the personal secretary of Karl Esser , the leading head of the East Bavarian SPD and later editor of the "Mittelbayerische Zeitung" . In 1952 he was elected full-time secretary at the trade union ÖTV (district administration Regensburg) and for the first time also into the Regensburg city council. He belonged to this without interruption for 38 years until 1990. Under the SPD mayor Rudolf Schlichtinger , Hans Weber was mayor of the city from 1961 to 1972. After retiring from day-to-day political events, he remained active in various associations, took care of the elderly and, as one of the few who were still alive, represented the working group of formerly persecuted social democrats .

For many years, Hans Weber was a contemporary witness of the social democratic resistance against National Socialism, and he was invited nationwide . Hans Weber always combined such reports with a warning for the present not to underestimate the current danger from the law.

Honors

Hans Weber's successful work in many areas of public life is also reflected in the awards he has received:

In 2001 he was honored by his SPD local association Innerer West for 75 years of membership in the SPD.

Hans Weber Prize for Tolerance and Democracy

The SPD -Unterbezirk lends since 2006, the third anniversary of the death Hans Weber, every two years in memory of Hans Weber to Hans Weber Prize for tolerance and democracy . The prize is endowed with a total of 2,500 euros and is awarded by a jury consisting of SPD mandate holders, the Jewish community, the city and district youth council and the Weber family. The prize was first awarded on December 9, 2006. The laudator in the Runtingersaal in Regensburg was the former Lord Mayor of Munich and SPD chairman Hans-Jochen Vogel . The award was given to the action alliance against right from Dietfurt , the student co-administration of the Von-Müller-Gymnasium and four students of the BOS pre-class, now BOS (vocational high school).

Controversy

At the suggestion of the SPD and CSU Regensburg, the newly built primary schoolprüfunging should be named "Hans Weber". A majority of the parents' council and teaching staff spoke out against this name. They want to name the school after the theologian Sebastian Killermann , because "it is too difficult to explain to the children what Weber is all about". Killermann is one of 900 scientists who signed the “Professors' Commitment to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist State” on November 11, 1933.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nazi victims as sponsors: School says no in Mittelbayerische Zeitung from April 15, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Weber, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German social democrat, moor soldier and mayor of Regensburg
DATE OF BIRTH October 8, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH regensburg
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 2003
Place of death regensburg