Hermann Wohlgethan

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Hermann Wohlgethan (born February 13, 1907 in Bünde ; † January 31, 2009 in Potsdam ) was presiding judge at the Potsdam district court and chief judge of the Potsdam district court in the GDR . He was responsible for leading show trials in the GDR in the 1950s.

Life

Wohlgethan worked as a miner in the Ruhr area . He joined the Communist Youth Association in 1923 and the KPD in 1928 . In March 1933 he was imprisoned in the Börgermoor concentration camp . After his release in 1934 he worked as a communist functionary in the underground during the Nazi era .

After the Second World War he was trained as a people's judge in a crash course in the Soviet occupation zone . Wohlgethan then became a judge at the Potsdam Regional Court and was presiding judge when it was dissolved. Until his retirement, he held the highest judicial office in the GDR district of Potsdam as chief judge at the Potsdam District Court . He imposed a large number of death sentences , including the last in the Potsdam district . In 1967 he was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze in the GDR .

Wohlgethan is accused of a number of perversions of the law , including several trials against those involved in the uprising of June 17, 1953 . During the GDR era, he was notorious as the “red Freisler”. From 1991 the public prosecutor's office in Neuruppin was investigating Wohlgethan in 300 cases, of which he was charged with 63. Because the 91-year-old was unable to stand trial, the charges planned for 1998 could not be brought.

Wohlgethan belonged to the SED after the forced unification of the SPD and KPD in 1946 and remained a member even after it was renamed the PDS . At the end of the 1990s he left the PDS and became a member of the DKP . He lived in a senior citizens' home in Potsdam until his death in January 2009.

On the occasion of his 100th birthday, there was an uproar when the mayor of Potsdam, Jann Jakobs, sent him an official letter of congratulations from the city on his anniversary, despite previous advice from historians at the Potsdam Center for Contemporary History , and later apologized for it after protests by the judge's victims.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary in the Red Brandenburger Edition February 2009, p. 16 dkpbrandenburg.de .
  2. ↑ New Germany . February 28, 1967, p. 2 .
  3. ^ Der Tagesspiegel of February 15, 2007: Embarrassing congratulations .
  4. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of February 27, 1997: Heinz was just 18 when he was executed
  5. ↑ DS: GDR judge scandal: Potsdam's Lord Mayor apologizes for congratulations. In: welt.de . February 16, 2007, accessed October 7, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Well done, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German judge in the GDR
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Frets
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 2009
Place of death Potsdam