Hermann Hoefer

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Hermann Martin Hoefer (born August 21, 1868 in Hamburg , † December 13, 1945 in Hamburg) was a German social democratic educator , member of the Hamburg parliament , communist resistance fighter against National Socialism and victims of National Socialism .

Life

Hoefer came from the family of a craftsman . His father, a Catholic shoemaker from the Rhineland , had settled in Hamburg and separated from his Catholic denomination in the new environment. In his shoemaker's workshop there were portraits of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels on the wall , about which his father spoke enthusiastically, which had a lasting influence on the young Hermann. He attended a so-called preparatory school from 1884 to 1887 , and from 1887 to 1890 he studied pedagogy at the teachers' college . From 1890 he worked as a primary school teacher in Hamburg. In 1892 Hoefer joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). His voluntary work as a poor and welfare worker in particular earned him recognition. So he took self-sacrificing care of people who were sick with cholera at the time . Hoefer left the SPD in 1917 and joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) because of the truce policy he had criticized during the First World War . In 1920 he joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) with the majority of the USPD members and took on various functions in it. With her mandate from 1928 to 1930, he became a member of the Hamburg parliament. He was also a member of the Hamburg KPD district leadership.

After the transfer of power to the NSDAP in 1933, his teachers' pension was canceled, his daughter was removed from school without notice and his son was also released from the youth welfare office . Between 1933 and 1935, Hoefer was arrested several times. The family struggled to survive by renting rooms privately and with a small coffee shop . However, as a member of the “ Bästlein-Jacob-Abshagen ” resistance group, he continued to be anti-fascist active. When his friend Heinz Priess was released from prison for a limited period together with 2,000 inmates in 1943, he decided not to return after the two-month period had expired, but rather to keep himself hidden. Without thinking twice, Hermann and Margarethe Hoefer were ready to hide him in their Dassendorf forest house. Both Höfers were an undercover agent betrayed. When doctors were treating Hoefer in the clinic for a stomach disease in 1944 , he too was arrested directly in the hospital. In a process against him and his daughter Margaret were in longer prison sentences convicted, they in prison of Coswig should settle. Hermann Hoefer was freed from Coswig prison on April 23, 1945 - already seriously ill. Some of his children were also in Gestapo detention for several months . His daughter Edith, in a totally weakened condition, carried him in a wheelchair from Coswig to Hamburg. After getting help in hospitals several times, they reached their hometown on November 23, 1945. Hermann Hoefer died there on December 13, 1945 in hospital as a result of his imprisonment.

Hoefer was married to his wife Nicoline and the father of several children.

Honor

Stumbling block for Hermann Hoefer in Eppendorfer Landstrasse 74 in Hamburg-Eppendorf
  • At Eppendorfer Landstrasse 74 ( Hamburg-Nord , Eppendorf ), in front of Hoefer's last residential address, the action artist Gunter Demnig laid a stumbling block in his memory on October 10, 2009 . The memorial words were spoken by his granddaughter Hilde Jacobs .
  • On June 8, 2012, stumbling blocks for the murdered members of the Hamburg citizenship were laid in front of the town hall in Hamburg, including another for Hermann Hoefer.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Margarethe Hoefer at woman biographies hamburg.de
  2. ^ Cushion stone Gretel Hoefer , Ehrenfeld of the Geschwister-Scholl-Foundation at genealogy.net
  3. ↑ Stumbling blocks for murdered MdHB final inscriptions City Hall Hamburg (PDF; 16 kB)
personal data
SURNAME Hoefer, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hoefer, Hermann Martin (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German educator and politician (SPD, USPD, KPD), MdHB, resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH August 21, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH December 13, 1945
Place of death Hamburg