Heinrich Witt (politician)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Heinrich Witt (born June 8, 1876 in Stewken , Thorn district ; † January 28, 1954 in West Berlin ) was a German trade unionist , politician ( SPD ) and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime.

Life

The son of a railway official attended elementary school and then completed an apprenticeship as a locksmith and lathe operator. After his apprenticeship he went on a hike , did military service with the 47th Infantry Regiment in Posen from 1898 to 1900 and then worked as a lathe operator in Brandenburg an der Havel until 1914 . From August 1914 to October 1918 he took part in the First World War as a soldier .

Witt joined the SPD in 1900 and in the same year became a member of the German Metalworkers' Association (DMV), for whose interests he later campaigned. In June 1914 he was elected full-time managing director of the local DMV in Brandenburg an der Havel, in 1918 he also took over the chairmanship of the local committee of the General German Trade Union Federation (ADGB).

From October 16, 1919 until the beginning of 1933, Witt was an unpaid city councilor in the Magistrate of Brandenburg an der Havel. From 1927 he acted as chairman of the supervisory board of the Bauhütte and as managing director of the Volkshausgesellschaft in Brandenburg. In the Reichstag election in June 1920 , he ran for the Reichstag , but missed entry into parliament. In April 1932 he was elected as a member of the Prussian state parliament, to which he belonged until the end of the fourth legislative period in 1933. In the state parliament he represented constituency 4 (Potsdam I).

After the National Socialists came to power , Witt was arrested on February 15, 1933 because he had described the National Socialist Company Cell Organization (NSBO) in a leaflet as an "employer-friendly" organization. He was released from custody on March 25, 1933, but lost his functions in the DMV on May 2, 1933 in connection with the break-up of the free trade unions and became unemployed. On June 1, 1933, he was arrested again and taken to Oranienburg concentration camp . Before that, he had sharply criticized the coordination of the democratic free trade unions at a public event . On September 7, 1933, the Gestapo transferred Witt from the Oranienburg concentration camp to the Sonnenburg concentration camp . After his release from prison on January 25, 1934, he was placed under police supervision.

Witt continued to be active in the resistance and maintained contact with former leading trade unionists, including Max Urich and Otto Eichler . He moved to Berlin , where he had to work as an unskilled metal worker in an armaments factory. In 1942 Witt was drafted into the Wehrmacht . He was arrested on August 23, 1944 in the course of the “ Aktion Gewitter ”. Witt was imprisoned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp , from which he was released on September 15, 1944. Most recently he lived in Berlin-Tempelhof .

Heinrich Witt married Minna, born in 1902. Becker, with whom he had three sons. The couple separated in 1932. He also had an illegitimate son who was born before the marriage.

literature

  • Stefan Heinz , Siegfried Mielke : Heinrich Witt (1876-1954) , In: Siegfried Mielke, Stefan Heinz (Hrsg.) With the collaboration of Marion Goers: Functionaries of the German Metalworkers' Association in the Nazi state. Resistance and persecution (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - resistance - emigration. Volume 1). Metropol, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86331-059-2 , pp. 584-592.
  • Ernst Kienast (Ed.): Handbook for the Prussian Landtag. Edition for the 4th electoral term. R. v. Decker's Verlag (G. Schenck), Berlin 1932, p. 502.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Witt, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German trade unionists and politicians (SPD), MdL
DATE OF BIRTH June 8, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Stewken , Thorn County
DATE OF DEATH January 28, 1954
Place of death West Berlin