Heinz Gützlaff

Heinz Gützlaff (born August 18, 1905 in Berlin , † May 25, 1961 in East Berlin ) was a German communist union official and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime . In 2018 he was honored as " Righteous Among the Nations ".

Life

Gützlaff was the son of a painter and an accountant. He grew up in the Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg . From 1911 to 1915 he attended elementary school, from 1915 to 1917 he was a pupil of the upper secondary school and from 1917 he attended a boarding school in Rheinsberg . Since the parents hardly had any money after the end of the war in 1919, Gützlaff left school in Obertertia. From 1920 he trained as a machine fitter at " Fritz Werner AG " in Berlin-Marienfelde . After completing his apprenticeship, he joined the German Metalworkers' Association (DMV) in 1924 . In the mid-1920s, Gützlaff worked as a packer and as a helper in a building plumbing shop. From 1927 to 1933 he was again employed in his apprenticeship as a machine fitter in the "Fritz Werner AG".

In 1929 Gützlaff joined the KPD . At the same time he organized himself in the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition (RGO) and regularly attended communist party training courses. From 1930 Gützlaff took over the position of political director of the KPD factory cell in the "Fritz Werner AG". Because of his commitment to the RGO, he was expelled from the DMV. At the beginning of November 1930 Gützlaff was a founding member of the Union of Metal Workers in Berlin (EVMB), the first independent "red association" of the RGO. 1932/33 Gützlaff was works council of the radical RGO association EVMB in the "Fritz Werner AG".

After the National Socialists came to power , SA men took Gützlaff into custody on April 4, 1933. Only a few days later, on April 8, 1933, Gützlaff was released again. He should be intimidated. Gützlaff nevertheless participated in the illegal rebuilding of the EVMB from mid-1933. He became district manager of the illegal association for the south-western part of Berlin (EVMB district: Schöneberg-Steglitz-Lichterfelde-Friedenau-Schmargendorf-Wilmersdorf). In his communist resistance work for the EVMB, Gützlaff worked closely with Wilhelm Lentzsch and Oskar Walz . A Gestapo informant was smuggled into the group . The Nazi persecutors arrested him on December 15, 1933.

After an interrogation in the Gestapo's “house prison” at Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse 8 in Berlin, Gützlaff was from December 16, 1933 until June 5/6. Imprisoned in Columbia Concentration Camp on January 1st, 1934 . From 5./6. From January 1st to January 19th, 1934 he was a prisoner in the Oranienburg concentration camp . From January 19 to January 22, 1934, Nazi persecutors imprisoned him in the Alexanderplatz police prison . From January 22 to June 19, 1934 he was in custody in the prison in Berlin-Moabit . In the summer of 1934, Gützlaff was sentenced to 15 months in prison by the Berlin Higher Regional Court for “preparation for high treason” . He spent his imprisonment until March 19, 1935 in the Berlin-Plötzensee prison .

After his release from prison, Gützlaff continued to be under police surveillance. First he worked as a metal drill in the "Peiner Walzwerke" in Berlin-Marienfelde. He later worked for various metal companies in Berlin and Potsdam . According to his own statements at the end of the 1940s, the communist no longer actively participated in the resistance. Presumably Gützlaff meant the non-activity in the context of communist groups. Only recently it was possible to reconstruct that Gützlaff helped persecuted Jews at the risk of taking high risks. Among other things, he gave the Jewish orthopedic surgeon Kurt Hirschfeldt his ID card, in which his photo was inserted. Gützlaff's help for persecuted Jews in the early 1940s went undetected.

After the end of National Socialism , Gützlaff co-founded a KPD local group in Brodowin in 1945 . He took over the leadership of the local party group. From 1946 Gützlaff was a member of the SED . He was also active in the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB), in which he also took on several functions. At times Gützlaff was mayor in a village near Angermünde . He also qualified as a lawyer. From the early 1950s Gützlaff worked as a public prosecutor in East Berlin, where he also died.

Honors

At the beginning of November 2018, Gützlaff was honored by the Israeli memorial site Yad Vashem and the Israeli embassy in Berlin as “ Righteous Among the Nations ”. At a festive event it was recognized as a particularly outstanding achievement of the communist that Gützlaft risked his life during the Nazi era to save Jews. In the early 1940s, Gützlaff gave the Jewish orthopedic surgeon Kurt Hirschfeldt his ID card to protect him from persecution. A photo of Hirschfeld was added to Gützlaff's document.

literature

Stefan Heinz , Siegfried Mielke (ed.): Functionaries of the unified association of metal workers in Berlin in the Nazi state. Resistance and persecution (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - resistance - emigration. Volume 2). Metropol, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86331-062-2 , pp. 32, 151–154 (short biography), 284.
Stefan Heinz: Moscow's mercenaries? "The Union of Metal Workers in Berlin": Development and failure of a communist union. VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89965-406-6 , pp. 312, 324, 368, 429, 453, 523.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Gützlaff, Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German communist resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH	August 18, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH	Berlin
DATE OF DEATH	May 25, 1961
Place of death	East Berlin