Heinrich Grunow

Heinrich Grunow , also Heinrich Grunov , actually Friedrich Beer (born August 15, 1900 in Schweinfurt , † March 27, 1945 in Sachsenhausen concentration camp ) was a German editor and political functionary ( Black Front ). He should not be confused with the journalist Fritz Beer (1911–2005).

Life and activity

Grunow was born as Friedrich Beer. He was the son of master plumber Johann Georg Beer and his wife Julie, née Strasser.

Beer initially worked as a commercial clerk in Munich. In February 1931 he joined the NSDAP . After coming into contact with Otto Strasser , the leader of the Black Front , who had left the party in 1930 as an opponent of Hitler's political line , Beer began to work against the NSDAP. In October 1931 he was therefore excluded from this for "party betrayal".

In November 1931, Beer became head of the Munich Combat Group of the Revolutionary National Socialists' Combat Group and editor of the magazine Der deutsche Brille .

A few months after the National Socialists came to power in spring 1933, Beer was taken into protective custody in June 1933. After his release, he emigrated to Prague in September 1933 , where he became the closest collaborator of Otto Strasser, who had also fled there: he took over the post of managing director of the Reich leadership of the Black Front, at the latest now under the name Heinrich Grunow became head of the Grunov publishing house [sic!] in Prague, which published in particular the magazines Die Deutsche Revolution and The Third Front .

As Strasser's confidante, Grunow made numerous trips as his courier to France, Switzerland, Holland, Denmark and Spain.

In 1936, an SS agent attempted to kidnap Grunow into Reich territory at a meeting in the Zinnwald near the German border. Grunow was knocked unconscious, but the kidnapping attempt failed due to passers-by.

In 1937 Grunow became chairman of the refugee committee of the German Front against the Hitler regime. In the same year, Strasser separated from Grunow, allegedly because of his contacts with the Czech intelligence service: he instead moved to Paris with the task of operating the short-wave transmitter in France that had been left to the People's Socialist Movement to the Black Front.

In Paris, Grunow worked with the Catholic publicist Edgar Alexander and with the Social Democrat Helmut Klotz , as well as with Erich Wollenberg and Karl Otto Paetel . Furthermore, he maintained connections to Max Gruschwitz , Peter Bultmann , Hermann Meynen and a news office in Celje.

From autumn 1939 Grunow was in contact with the French intelligence service , with whom he a. a. Discussed plans to assassinate Adolf Hitler . In January 1940 he was arrested by the French police at the instigation of the Deuxiéme Bureau .

Meanwhile, Beer / Grunow was classified as an enemy of the state by the police forces of the Nazi dictatorship: he was expatriated soon after his emigration. In the spring of 1940 he was placed on the special wanted list by the Reich Main Security Office , a directory of persons who, in the event of a successful invasion and occupation of the British Isles by the Wehrmacht, were to be located and arrested by the occupying forces following special SS commandos .

After the German occupation of France in the summer of 1940, Grunow fell into the hands of the Secret State Police .

He died in March 1945 as a prisoner in Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

literature

• Werner Röder / Herbert A. Strauss : Politics, Economy, Public Life , 1980, p. 251.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Vernon McKenzie: Through Turbulent Years , 1938, p. 243.
2. ↑ Michael Hepp / Hans Georg Lehmann: The expatriation of German citizens 1933-45 according to the lists published in the Reichsanzeiger , 1985, p. 20.