Hermann Geisen

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Hermann Geisen (born September 25, 1899 in Höhr-Grenzhausen , † April 21, 1943 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a German communist resistance fighter against the Nazi regime , fighter of the International Brigades in Spain.

Life

Geisen was born into a working class family. After attending elementary school, he learned the profession of ceramicist . After the outbreak of World War I , he was drafted into army service and awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd class. After the end of the war he became a member of a volunteer corps and the security police . At the beginning of the 1920s he returned to the Westerwald , worked as a ceramist and became manager of the social democratic factory workers' association . After deepening his political views, he joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1929 . In a short time he became a political leader.

After the transfer of power to the NSDAP in 1933, he was repeatedly taken into " protective custody " for a few weeks . When he was released again, he fled to the Saar area, which was under a League of Nations mandate . His wife and son followed him to the Saar area. His wife had previously also been sentenced to eight months in prison for “despising the Reich government” . In 1934 Geisen and his family fled to France . In Paris he joined an emigre group of the KPD. He was supported by the " Red Aid ". In 1936 he went to Spain , joined the fighters against the Franco dictatorship and became commander of the “ Centuria Thälmann ”, which was incorporated into the Interbrigades . He lost one eye due to a serious wound. After his recovery he returned to Paris in 1938, but went to Brussels a year later , where he worked as a supply man for a group of emigrants. After the German invasion of Belgium, he was arrested by the Belgian police and deported to France to the St. Cyprien internment camp . In 1940 he managed to escape and returned to Brussels, where he again looked after the cohesion of German emigrants. After the attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, he put sticky notes for soldiers on transport wagons , calling on them not to go to this war, but to work for socialism . He was arrested in Belgium in August 1941. In June 1942, he is with other detainees to custody after Aachen brought. In November 1942 he was indicted in the People's Court . Together with an SPD comrade, he was sentenced to death in January 1943. On April 21, 1943 - on his wife's birthday - he was executed with the guillotine in Plötzensee .

Geisen was married to Emma geb. Soldier and had a son with her, Kurt.

memory

  • In Höhr-Grenzhausen a street is named after Hermann Geisen.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.mahnmal-koblenz.de/index.php/2013-12-12-02-07-02/die-personentafeln/177-035-hermann-geisen-kommunist-und-spanienkaempfer-aus-hoehr -Grenzhausen
personal data
SURNAME Geisen, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German communist resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH September 25, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Höhr-Grenzhausen
DATE OF DEATH April 21, 1943
Place of death Berlin-Plötzensee