Heinrich Focken

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Heinrich Focken (born July 16, 1898 in Berlin ; † April 27, 1992 in Bühl ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism and a local politician.

Life

Heinrich Focken learned the trade of brass fitter and took part in the First World War. In Garmisch he met his future wife; the couple moved to Ottenau in 1927 , where Focken made their home. He worked at the Benz factory in Gaggenau located there . In 1927 he joined the SPD and was involved in the citizens' committee . After the NSDAP became more and more popular, he resigned from the SPD. Together with five other members, he founded a local group of the KPD in Ottenau . The local group published the village newspaper as a party newspaper. Focken was active against the NSDAP and agitated against it at meetings organized by them. So he was picked up relatively early after the seizure of power and taken into protective custody. He was initially housed in the Heuberg concentration camp until it was closed in December 1933 and then had to stay in the Kislau concentration camp until March 1934 .

In 1936, Focken was denounced while working at the Benz works and charged under the treachery law before the Mannheim special court. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison. After serving his sentence in the Raststatter prison, where he was in solitary confinement , he found a job at the Schöller & Hoesch paper mill in Gernsbach . He also served as a soldier and helped fortify the western wall . In 1941 he found another job as a cylindrical grinder at the Daimler-Benz works in Gaggenau .

After the failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944 , he was again taken into protective custody as part of the grating action and imprisoned in the Stutthof concentration camp . He then came to the Dachau concentration camp and was later transferred to Mauthausen , where he was completely unexpectedly released on November 21, 1944. He returned home completely exhausted and sick, but was able to pull himself up again. Until the end of the Second World War he was considered an enemy of the state and was monitored by the Gestapo.

After the French troops marched in on April 11, 1945, he was appointed mayor of Ottenau and, on May 7, 1945, of all of Gaggenau. He took on the difficult task of rebuilding the 75% destroyed city as well as denazification . He was also responsible for preventing the Daimler-Benz works from being dismantled. In February 1946 he was deposed as mayor, presumably due to intrigues. In the same year he resigned from the KPD, which he justified with his disapproval of the Hitler-Stalin pact . Instead, he was an artist. He also founded the Ottenau workers' chess club and co-founded the twinning with the French city of Annemasse . Professionally, he remained connected to the Daimler-Benz works, where he worked in the spare parts warehouse until he was retired in 1963.

Focken died on April 27, 1992 at the age of 96.

memory

In 1983 the documentary I can take anything but no injustice about him and his wife was shown on Südwestfunk .

literature

  • Adalbert Metzinger : People in Resistance - Central Baden 1933–1943 (=  special publication of the Rastatt district archive, volume 13 ). regional culture publishing house, Rastatt 2017, ISBN 978-3-89735-978-9 , p. 51-58 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Focken, Heinrich. In: LEO-BW. Baden-Württemberg State Archives, accessed on January 24, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Adalbert Metzinger : People in Resistance - Mittelbaden 1933–1943 (=  special publication of the Rastatt district archive, volume 13 ). regional culture publishing house, Rastatt 2017, ISBN 978-3-89735-978-9 , p. 51-58 .
personal data
SURNAME Focken, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighters against National Socialism and local politicians
DATE OF BIRTH July 16, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH April 27, 1992
Place of death Buhl