Heinrich Melzer

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Heinrich Melzer (born September 25, 1890 in Mülheim an der Ruhr ; † March 1, 1967 there ) was a German trade unionist and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Melzer grew up as one of nine children in a working-class family. After attending elementary school , he trained as a boiler maker . At the age of 17 he became a member of the factory workers' association in the General German Trade Union Federation (ADGB).

During the First World War he served as a marine. In the November Revolution he took part in the defensive struggles of the Hamburg workers. In 1918 he was elected to the Thyssen workers' council. Melzer took part in the defensive battles against the Kapp Putsch in the Ruhr area . After the occupation of Mülheim by Reichswehr associations, he had to flee and he lived “illegally” for a while in order to avoid the politically motivated persecution of the judicial and police apparatus.

From 1922 to 1933 Melzer was managing director of the Free German Workers Union .

With the beginning of the Nazi dictatorship in 1933 he was arrested and taken into " protective custody " for a while in the Börgermoor concentration camp . After his release he belonged to the resistance against the Nazi regime in Mülheim. In 1934 he was therefore arrested again and by the Nazi justice to five years in prison convicted. During the Second World War he was drafted into the Todt Organization . In order to avoid being arrested again, he lived in the "underground" again from 1943.

After the liberation of Mülheim on April 11, 1945, Melzer organized an Antifa alliance, which on August 12, 1945 became a local branch of the Free German Trade Union Federation for the Mülheim city area, which later joined the German Trade Union Federation (DGB) in the British zone of occupation . Melzer was elected district chairman of the DGB and remained so until 1954.

As a representative of the KPD he belonged to the appointed citizens' committee of the city of Mülheim from August 3 to December 21, 1945 and from May 9, 1946 to the incumbent city council.

After his retirement in 1954, he withdrew from political life “out of disappointment with the political and social development of the Federal Republic ”.

Honors

  • On March 14, 1972, a street near the town hall in Mülheim was named after him.

literature

  • Peter Grafe, Bodo Hombach u. a. (Ed.): Mülheim an der Ruhr - an idiosyncratic city . Klartext Verlag, Essen 1990. pp. 104–111.

Other sources

  • City archive Mülheim an der Ruhr, holdings 1550 (Mülheim personalities)
  • City archive Mülheim an der Ruhr, inventory 2001 (reparation files)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://redaktion-muelheim.blogspot.com/2010/08/bruder-zur-sonne-zur-freiheit-vor-65.html
  2. ↑ Hans-Dieter Strunck on the website of the VHS Mülheim an der Ruhr ( Memento of the original from April 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / vhs.muelheim-ruhr.de
  3. ↑ VHS Mülheim an der Ruhr on the street name ( Memento of the original from April 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / vhs.muelheim-ruhr.de
personal data
SURNAME Melzer, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German trade unionists and resistance fighters
DATE OF BIRTH September 25, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Mülheim an der Ruhr
DATE OF DEATH March 1, 1967
Place of death Mülheim an der Ruhr