Hermann Fischer (assassin)
Hermann Willibald Fischer (born February 6, 1896 in Florence , † July 17, 1922 at Saaleck Castle ) was a German mechanical engineer . He was a member of the right-wing extremist terrorist organization Organization Consul (OC) and one of the assassins who murdered the then Reich Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau on June 24, 1922 .
Life
The son of a painter and professor in Dresden took part in the First World War as a volunteer . Most recently, Fischer was a company commander with the rank of lieutenant. At the end of the war, he began studying mechanical engineering in Chemnitz , which he successfully completed in March 1922. At the same time he interrupted, first at the Chemnitz food riots in August 1919 his studies again and again to get different volunteer corps to join. As a member of the Ehrhardt Marine Brigade , he took part in the Kapp Putsch and fought with the Upper Silesian Self-Protection in the early summer of 1921 . He was a member of various right-wing extremist organizations, including the Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund .
It is not exactly known when Fischer joined the Consul organization. It is considered likely that the contact came about through his membership in the Ehrhardt Brigade. According to Ernst von Salomon , Fischer directed the operations of the Consul organization in Saxony . For example, he had prepared a weapon shift to the Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia . On the occasion of the liberation of the convicted war criminal Ludwig Dithmar from the Naumburg / Saale prison, Fischer met with his future fellow assassin Erwin Kern . Together with Kern and Salomon, Fischer formed a terrorist cell for the Consul organization, an explosive and murder squad under the direction of Karl Tillessen . According to statements made by Hamburg OC men, this cell was also responsible for an unexplained murder of the Jewish trader Sina Aronsfrau in Mannheim , who was found shot in May 1922.
During the assassination attempt on Rathenau, Fischer sat with Kern in the rear of a car driven by Ernst Werner Techow . The assassins overtook the foreign minister's car driving in front of them in Berlin's Grunewald . While Kern was shooting at Rathenau from a submachine gun, Fischer threw a hand grenade into the car.
After the attack, Kern and Fischer initially managed to escape, which eventually led them to Saaleck Castle . While the lord of the castle, OC member Hans Wilhelm Stein , drove to Munich to prepare for the further escape, two travelers discovered light on Saaleck Castle on July 16, 1922 from the Rudelsburg opposite , although the lord of the castle had canceled his trip would have. Two detectives found Fischer and Kern on the morning of July 17th. When Fischer aimed at one of the officers, he opened fire. Kern was immediately fatally hit. Fischer carried him to a bed before he shot himself.
During the National Socialism , the Rathenau killers were the subject of hero veneration. The Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten , Hermann Ehrhardt , representatives of the SA and SS inaugurated a memorial plaque on the keep of the castle on July 17, 1933. On October 29, 1933, a memorial stone was erected at the Saaleck cemetery in the presence of Ernst Werner Techow, Heinrich Tillessen , Hanns Hustert and Ludwig Dithmar, which was removed and destroyed in 2000.
literature
- Martin Sabrow : The Rathenaumord. Reconstruction of a conspiracy against the Republic of Weimar . Munich 1994, ISBN 3-486-64569-2 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sabrow, Rathenaumord , pp. 138f.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Fischer, Hermann |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Fischer, Hermann Willibald (full name); Vogel, Hermann (cover name); Pecheur, Hermann (cover name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German mechanical engineer and murderer Walther Rathenau |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 6, 1896 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Florence |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 17, 1922 |
| Place of death | Saaleck Castle |