Horst Heilmann (resistance fighter)

Horst Heilmann

Horst Heilmann (born April 15, 1923 in Dresden ; † December 22, 1942 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism in the Berlin Red Orchestra , student and radio operator in a unit of the OKH ( inspection 7, group VI , section 12 - " Unit Vauck ") for deciphering of agents radio .

Life

Heilmann was born the son of Jakob-Adolf Heilmann , the Halle city planner . After graduating from high school, he was drafted into the Wehrmacht and worked there in the General Intelligence Unit, Inspection VI, first in Section 7, then 1, then, in August 1942, in Section 12, which deciphered the agent's radio. He was there with Sergeant Alfred Traxl and other Nazi opponents. This assignment in Berlin, Matthäikirchplatz 4, gave him the opportunity to study at the Faculty of Foreign Studies at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität at the same time . From 1939/1940 onwards, a lively group of resistant lecturers and students gathered there. Among them were Harro Schulze-Boysen and Horst Heilmann, Professor Albrecht Haushofer and the student Rainer Hildebrandt .

Through Schulze-Boysen, with whom he was working on a joint thesis on Napoleon , he had contact with the Red Orchestra. At the end of August 1942, Heilmann learned of decrypted Soviet radio messages with the names of Harro Schulze-Boysen, John Graudenz , Arvid Harnack , Adam Kuckhoff at his office and tried to warn them and others. But in a very short time well over 120 members of the Red Orchestra were arrested.

Heilmann was sentenced to death on December 19, 1942 by the Reich Court Martial . The not yet final judgment was on 22 December 1942 at Plötzensee prison with a non-intended for the military prison in Germany method by beheading enforced .

Honors

In Leipzig -Möckern is Horst-Heilmann-street named after him, as are in Berlin-Lichtenberg , Halle (Saale) , Guesten - Amesdorf and Bernburg (Saale) .
In the courtyard of the Humboldt University in Berlin-Mitte ( Unter den Linden 6) his name is mentioned on the memorial wall erected in 1976. In 2007, Horst Heilmann received another award from the Humboldt University.
- Rainer Hildebrandt recalled in his memoir: "I lost my best friends, Albrecht Haushofer and Horst Heilmann, in the Nazi Empire".
Peter Weiss set Horst Heilmann a literary monument in his novel The Aesthetics of Resistance .
The DEFA filmed scenes from the life of Horst Heilmann 1970 in KLK Calling PTZ - The Red Orchestra . (Script: Wera and Claus Küchenmeister )
In his literary bestseller Who Blinks Is Afraid of Death, Knud Romer describes the close relationship between his mother, who escaped the Nazi terror only with luck, to her childhood friend Horst Heilmann and his colleagues from the resistance group "Rote" who were murdered in Berlin-Plötzensee Chapel".

literature

Hans Coppi : Harro Schulze-Boysen - ways in the resistance . 2nd edition, Fölbach Verlag, Koblenz 1995, ISBN 3-923532-28-8 .
Rainer Hildebrandt : A tragic prelude to the division of Germany and the Wall (new edition of the publication first published in 1948 ... the best minds you can think of ). Verlag Arbeitsgemeinschaft August 13, ISBN 978-3-922484-48-6 .
Gilles Perrault : On the trail of the Red Chapel . Europaverlag, Vienna / Munich 1994, ISBN 3-203-51232-7 .
Gert Rosiejka: The Red Chapel. "Treason" as an anti-fascist resistance. Results-Verlag, Hamburg 1986, ISBN 3-925622-16-0 .
Heinz Höhne , Gilles Perrault: "ptx calls Moscow". The story of the Red Chapel . In: Der Spiegel . No. 23 , 1968 ( online series nos. 22-30).
Stefan Roloff : The Red Chapel. Ullstein-Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-548-36669-4 .
Leopold Trepper : The Truth: Autobiography of the "Grand Chef" of the Red Chapel . dtv, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-423-01387-7 , pp. 120-375.

Fiction

Knud Romer : Anyone who blinks is afraid of death . Suhrkamp, Frankfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-458-17360-1
Peter Weiss : The Aesthetics of Resistance . Frankfurt (Main) 1988, ISBN 3-518-11501-4

Web links

Commons : Horst Heilmann - collection of images

Individual evidence

↑ Unit's Diary
↑ CSDIC Volume 4, Army High Command Sigint Service
↑ Steffen Rückl among colleagues. by Karl-Heinz Noack: Everyday student life at Berlin University from 1933 to 1945 . In: Christoph Jahr (Ed.) With the collaboration of Rebecca Schaarschmidt: The Berlin University in the Nazi Era . Vol. 1. Stuttgart 2005, pp. 115–142, here: p. 137.
↑ Henriette Schuppener: "Nothing was free". Harald Poelchau and the German resistance . Berlin / Hamburg / Münster 2006, p. 82.
^ Stefan Reichardt: Memorial in memory of the book burning on May 10, 1933. Humboldt University, archived from the original on February 2, 2007 ; Retrieved December 25, 2014 .
↑ Richard Schröder : On the processing of the history of the Humboldt University ( Memento from January 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
^ Rainer Hildebrandt: A tragic prelude to the division of Germany and the wall . Verlag Arbeitsgemeinschaft August 13 , ISBN 978-3-922484-48-6 (new edition of the publication first published in 1948 ... the best minds you can think of ).
↑ A bestseller about hatred of Germany divides the Danes. In: Hamburger Morgenpost . February 20, 2007, archived from the original on December 25, 2014 ; Retrieved December 25, 2014 .

personal data
SURNAME	Heilmann, Horst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH	April 15, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH	Dresden
DATE OF DEATH	December 22, 1942
Place of death	Berlin-Plötzensee

[1] Unit's Diary

[2] CSDIC Volume 4, Army High Command Sigint Service

[3] Steffen Rückl among colleagues. by Karl-Heinz Noack: Everyday student life at Berlin University from 1933 to 1945 . In: Christoph Jahr (Ed.) With the collaboration of Rebecca Schaarschmidt: The Berlin University in the Nazi Era . Vol. 1. Stuttgart 2005, pp. 115–142, here: p. 137.

[4] Henriette Schuppener: "Nothing was free". Harald Poelchau and the German resistance . Berlin / Hamburg / Münster 2006, p. 82.

[5] Stefan Reichardt: Memorial in memory of the book burning on May 10, 1933. Humboldt University, archived from the original on February 2, 2007 ; Retrieved December 25, 2014 .

[6] Richard Schröder : On the processing of the history of the Humboldt University ( Memento from January 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive )

[7] Rainer Hildebrandt: A tragic prelude to the division of Germany and the wall . Verlag Arbeitsgemeinschaft August 13 , ISBN 978-3-922484-48-6 (new edition of the publication first published in 1948 ... the best minds you can think of ).

[8] A bestseller about hatred of Germany divides the Danes. In: Hamburger Morgenpost . February 20, 2007, archived from the original on December 25, 2014 ; Retrieved December 25, 2014 .