Heinz Rosenmüller

Heinz Martin Rosenmüller (born September 15, 1903 in Dresden ; † November 4, 1950 in Waldheim ) was a German lawyer who was sentenced to death in the Waldheim trials .

Rosenmüller studied law and then did a doctorate . He entered in 1933 into the NSDAP and was 1933 to 1939 in Bautzen as a prosecutor working, then to 1942 the Attorney General in Dresden. From 1942 to 1945 he was employed at the Dresden Special Court , where he was involved in proceedings for listening to enemy broadcasters , forbidden dealings with “ foreign workers ”, “ blood shame ” or violations of the treachery law. In 15 of these proceedings, he requested death sentences, which were also imposed and carried out. He also worked as a journalist.

Because of his involvement in death sentences, he was interned in a special Soviet camp and handed over to the East German authorities in the spring of 1950. In the Waldheim trials he was sentenced to death by the Chemnitz Regional Court on May 24, 1950, the Dresden Higher Regional Court upheld the verdict on July 5, 1950. There were no defense counsel or evidence before the Regional Court, exonerating witnesses were not heard, the public excluded, only a protocol from the Soviet authorities served as the basis. The execution took place on the night of November 4th to 5th. A total of 32 death sentences were passed, of which at least 22 were carried out on the same day. The executions were kept secret, and "cardiovascular insufficiency" was noted as the cause of death on all death certificates. According to the files, lethal injections were used.

During the conduct of the trial, the instruction of the investigator dated April 19, 1950 applied: “In doing so, no consideration must be given to what material is available, but the person to be convicted must be looked at. Judgments under the age of 10 may not be passed, although today it is unimportant whether these sentences are actually served. Formal aspects must not play a role. It is important that, due to the upcoming elections, the deadline of six weeks is strictly adhered to. In order to carry out this work, there must be no separation between the judiciary and the police. "

An associate judge in the 1950 trial, Otto Juergens (1906–1997) from Halle, was tried in Leipzig in 1992/93 for murder and perversion of the law, as no legal process had been conducted. He was sentenced on September 1, 1993 to two years probation and a fine for the victims of Stalinism . The presiding judge Jürgen Fuchs (1916–1992) had previously committed suicide with his wife Martha (Jewish and former concentration camp inmate) by jumping from the 7th floor. In a letter he left behind, he saw no wrong judgment in the case of 1950. The associate judge at the appeal court Irmgard Jendretzky, b. Eisermann (1918–2010), the widow of SED politician Hans Jendretzky , was sentenced to four years imprisonment in Leipzig in 1997, also because of this case. The publicist Daniela Dahn took this conviction as an opportunity to attack West German attacks.

literature

• Dieter Skiba , Reiner Stenzel: In the name of the people: Investigation and court proceedings in the GDR against Nazi and war criminals , Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 2016 ISBN 978-3360018502 .
• Friedemann Schreiter: Waldheim Prison: Stories, People and Trials from Three Centuries , Links, Berlin 2014, p. 168 ISBN 978-3-861537762 .

Web links

• A death sentence in court , taz dated December 11, 1992
• GRH Information 2017 (PDF)
• Bernd Withöft, The death sentences of the Waldheim trials, Diss. Vienna 2008 revised. 2014

Single receipts

1. ↑ Withöft 2008, p. 100f.
2. ↑ Withöft 2008, p. 5
3. ↑ Daniela Dahn: Expulsion into Paradise . Hamburg 1998, p. 192 ff . The TAZ reported online on November 29, 1997 with satisfaction .