Johann Gerdes (politician)

Johann Wilhelm Gerdes , also Johannes Gerdes , (born April 16, 1896 in Groß Bornhorst , † March 5, 1933 in Oldenburg ) was a German politician of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). In 1932/33 he was a member of the Oldenburg State Parliament . After Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 he was the first victim of National Socialist terror in Oldenburg i. O.

Life

Gerdes was the son of a worker. At first he was a telegraph worker at the post office. He fought as a soldier in the First World War . After the end of the war he joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) in 1918 . After the split in the USPD, he joined the KPD in 1920 as part of its left wing. In 1923 he emigrated to Brazil. After his wife fell ill with malaria , he returned in 1927 and acquired a small settler position in Ofenerdiek , municipality of Ohmstede.

In 1930 Gerdes became a council member in Ohmstede . He was used as a speaker and edited the community newspaper Der Rote Sender von Ohmstede . In 1931 he moved to Etzhorn .

As a successor he moved into the Oldenburg State Parliament on December 10, 1932 , where he took a seat on the Petitions Committee. He dealt primarily with agricultural policy.

In early 1933 he took on a leading role in the emergency workers' strike in Ohmstede.

On the night of March 2nd to 3rd, 1933, Gerdes was lured out of his house and beaten up by a squad of the National Socialist Sturmabteilung (SA). Then the SA leader Ludwig Thielebeule shot Gerdes. Three days later Gerdes died of his injuries in the Oldenburg Pius Hospital.

The perpetrators from the ranks of the SA were initially arrested, but released after a few days due to an amnesty. The funeral procession for the burial in the Ohmsteder cemetery on March 10, 1933 was the last major demonstration against National Socialism in Oldenburg.

Criminal proceedings were only brought against the murderer Ludwig Thielebeule after the National Socialist era . He was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1947.

Honors

• In 1998, in Oldenburg-Bürgerfelde / Ofenerdiek, "Johann-Gerdes-Straße" was named after him.
• On February 22, 2017, a stumbling block was laid for him in front of Gerdes' former home at 50 Neusüdenderweg .

See also

• the victims of National Socialism among the parliamentarians from Lower Saxony areas

literature

• Albrecht Eckhardt: From the bourgeois revolution to the National Socialist takeover - the Oldenburg state parliament and its representatives 1848–1933. Isensee, Oldenburg 1996, ISBN 3-89598-327-6 , p. 94.
• Gerdes, Johannes (Jan). In: Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German Communists. Biographisches Handbuch 1918 to 1945. 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 .
• Beatrix Herlemann , Helga Schatz: Biographical Lexicon of Lower Saxony Parliamentarians 1919–1945 (= publications of the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen. Volume 222). Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hanover 2004, ISBN 3-7752-6022-6 , pp. 121–122.
• Peter Haupt: Gerdes, Johann Wilhelm In: Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg . Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , p. 232 ( online edition of the Oldenburg State Library, Section G ).
• In 1933 Johann “Jan” Gerdes was murdered by the fascists , DKP newspaper “Pulverturm” (2012/01 edition), p. 4

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Beatrix Herlemann , Helga Schatz: Biographical Lexicon of Lower Saxony Parliamentarians 1919–1945 (= publications of the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony and Bremen. Volume 222). Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hanover 2004, ISBN 3-7752-6022-6 , pp. 121–122.
2. ↑ HH Adler: Council honors murdered anti-fascists. In: Oldenburger Stachel 6/1998, p. 15.
3. ^ Stumbling block in memory of the Oldenburg communists . In: Oldenburger Rundschau . 20th February 2017