Helmut Kirschey

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Helmut Kirschey (born January 22, 1913 in Elberfeld (now part of Wuppertal ), † August 23, 2003 in Gothenburg ) was a German anarchist and resistance fighter .

Life

When Helmut Kirschey was four years old, his father, who was a member of the SPD , died as a soldier in the First World War . His mother was left with six children, four boys and two girls. She became a member of the USPD , at the end of 1920 of the KPD and advisor to the International Federation of Victims of War and Labor , which looked after the pension and pension claims of war victims and widows. In May 1924 she was elected city councilor of the KPD in Elberfeld. On August 23, 1924, she died of an appendix operation at the age of 40.

All sons followed their mother's political commitment and joined communist organizations. However, Helmut Kirschey left the Communist Youth Association of Germany (KJVD) in 1931 and became a member of the Syndicalist-Anarchist Youth of Germany (SAJD) and the Free Workers' Union of Germany (FAUD), because of the anti-authoritarian style there in contrast to the authoritarian spirit in the communist movement more promised. In response to the Nazi movement, which was particularly violent in Wuppertal, the anarcho-syndicalists founded their own combat group, the Black Crowd . The group bought some weapons; After the police found one of the weapons in a raid near Kirschey, he was sentenced to several months in prison in 1932.

In March 1933, after the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , Kirschey was imprisoned again for several months and then emigrated to the Netherlands in November 1933 . In August 1936 he went to Spain and initially worked in the police service of the German anarcho-syndicalists in Barcelona , which had been given control of all German-speaking foreigners. In February 1937 he joined the International Company of the " Columna Durruti ". Together with other German anarcho-syndicalists, he was arrested after armed clashes between Stalinists and anarchists in June 1937 and imprisoned in communist secret prisons in Barcelona and Valencia, and in a prison in Segorbe until April 1938 . He then stayed in France and the Netherlands until he managed to enter Sweden at the beginning of 1939 , where he did not, however, receive a residence permit and in the first few years no work permit. Nevertheless, he continued the fight against National Socialism in cooperation with the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF). In 1940 he met his future wife in Gothenburg.

In the 1950s, Kirschey separated from the syndicalist movement for political reasons and because of personal disappointments; In 1968 he joined the Communist Party in Sweden after this position against the invasion by troops of the Warsaw Pact into Czechoslovakia had moved.

In the last years of his life, Helmut Kirschey became a public figure in Sweden and enjoyed a great reputation. He was a sought-after contemporary witness in schools, universities and political youth organizations. In 1998 he published his memoirs, written by the journalist Richard Jändel, for which he received the culture award of the Swedish Workers' Education Association.

In 2006 a one-hour documentary film A las barricadas about the life of Helmut Kirschey was released.

literature

  • Helmut Kirschey: “A las Barricadas”. Memories and insights of an anti-fascist . Written down by Richard Jändel. Edited by Andreas G. Graf and Dieter Nelles. Bocholt and Bredevoort 2000. ISBN 978-3980849845

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personal data
SURNAME Kirschey, Helmut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German anarchist and resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Elberfeld
DATE OF DEATH August 23, 2003
Place of death Gothenburg