Johann Geusendam

Johann Geusendam

Johann Mathias Geusendam (born February 24, 1886 in Rijssen , Netherlands , † April 6, 1945 in Vaihingen an der Enz ) was a politically active worker. His expulsion from the state of Bremen in 1908 triggered a long-term debate in the Bremen citizenship about the policy on foreigners, connected with the question of whether the citizenship should intervene in the powers of the Senate . Geusendam's biography is an example of the way the Bremen authorities dealt with “annoying foreigners” during the German Empire and the Weimar Republic .

Life

Wedding photo of Johann and Katharina Geusendam, Bremen 1910

Geusendam's Catholic parents moved to Ahaus in Westphalia in 1890 because they could not find work in Calvinist Rijssen due to their religious affiliation . Geusendam moved to Bremen in 1905 with Katharina Cordes, his future wife, who came from Oldenburg . Here he started to get involved in the labor movement. He worked in a large tubular chair factory and took part in the May 1st strike in 1908. Subsequently, Geusendam was expelled from Bremen as an "annoying foreigner". He returned illegally to Bremen for the birth of his first son. The authorities temporarily suspended his deportation on condition that he behaved properly and looked after his wife and child. Since then he has been under surveillance by the political police.

In 1922 Geusendam was to be expelled again because of his active membership in the KPD . At the height of the conflict in the citizenry, the majority of MPs decided to overturn the Senate's decision. The workers' parties unanimously campaigned for Geusendam and his family, as political views should not be a reason for deportation. In 1931, after 23 years of uncertainty, the deportation order from 1908 against the Bremen worker Geusendam and his family was carried out. The bourgeois-conservative representatives of the state of Bremen had thus achieved their goal: Geusendam left the Hanseatic city with his wife and two sons and went to the Netherlands.

During National Socialism, the persecution of Geusendam was continued for “reasons of the internal security of the state”. The Gestapo became aware of him and his work on the German-Dutch border in 1935/36. From 1933 on, Geusendam in Enschede organized the refugee work of the Red Aid as a member of the CPN ( Communist Party of the Netherlands ) . He was arrested by the Gestapo for this in October 1940 and deported to Münster . In the following five years, Geusendam experienced the terror of the Nazi prison system: protective custody in Münster, conviction by the People's Court in Berlin in 1942 , imprisonment in the Brandenburg-Görden prison and finally in 1944 the transport to southern Germany to the Kaltenstein Castle workhouse . There he died of ill-treatment and malnutrition on April 6, 1945 at the age of 59 - the day before the workhouse was liberated by French troops.

Debate in the Bremen citizenship

The expulsion of "annoying foreigners" in the Weimar Republic mostly happened almost unnoticed and without further publicity. In 1922, however, Geusendam's complaint reached the Bremen citizenship after the union and KPD protested against the execution of the 1908 expulsion against Geusendam without giving reasons. On February 17th, the KPD MP Gesine Becker submitted the “application for the lifting of an expulsion order”, which kept parliament busy for almost the entire year with its follow-up applications.

Becker pointed out the living situation of the Geusendam family, who would have to build a new existence if they were expelled from a foreign country, since Geusendam had been living in Germany since he was four, his wife came from Bremen and his children grew up in Germany . Members of the USPD and MSPD also campaigned for the family. The point of contention was the allegation that Geusendam had threatened a strike breaker in 1908, as well as the theft of wax worth 70 pfennigs. The police were u. a. accused by Alfred Faust (SPD) of reacting disproportionately and doing so due to Geusendam's political orientation. The constant threat posed by the pending deportation warrant was also widely criticized.

The representatives of the bourgeois-conservative parties pointed out that Geusendam could have “ naturalized ” (naturalized). They also complained about the belated objection to the expulsion so that a final decision by the Senate is still pending. Until then, the pending proceedings may not be interfered with. The main argument, however, was his membership in the Communist Party, in whose "illegal organization" he was active, and which acknowledged the resolutions of the 3rd Comintern meeting in 1921, which u. a. included the violent overthrow of the state.

Despite the differences, the citizenship passed the resolution on March 3, 1922 that the Senate should reverse the 1908 deportation order. This vote came because two representatives of the bourgeois-conservative parties were not present at the relevant meeting, although they had a narrow majority in parliament.

After this decision, questions about the formal course of the procedure dominated the discussion. It was about the competences of the citizens against the Senate. The bourgeois parties insisted that the citizenship should not prejudge the Senate, as the highest body, in its decision or even give instructions. The workers' parties invoked §2 of the constitution, according to which violence emanates from the people, which is represented by the citizens. At the request of a member of the DDP , the question was referred to the Citizenship Legal Committee. This decided that the citizenship had to await the decision of the Senate and that the decision of March 3, 1922 had to be repealed.

On June 23, 1922, the Senate decided to reject Geusendam's complaint, but to exclude his wife and children from deportation. Much of the grounds for expulsion include descriptions of Geusendam's political activities and comes to the conclusion: "The expulsion took place in 1908 because the applicant had been sentenced to imprisonment for coercion, and must be upheld for reasons of internal security in the state." Despite the efforts of the representatives of the workers' parties, the parliament decided on the basis of the proposal of the legal committee.

By March 1931, despite an intensive search, the police commission could not find any valid reasons to justify expulsion, so it was not carried out for the time being. On March 4, 1931, Police Senator Deichmann (SPD) signed Geusendam's deportation order. Geusendam left Bremen on March 18, 1931. After Geusendam's expulsion, a petition by the Workers' Choir led to a final discussion among the citizens, in which Gesine Becker again complained about the political justification for the expulsion application. A requested Senate report on this point was never submitted and the agenda item was postponed.

reception

In 1955, the Kingdom of the Netherlands Johann Geusendam erected a grave of honor in Enschede.

In 2009, students of the project group “From the files to the stage” at the University of Bremen researched Johann Geusendam in various archives and reconstructed his biography from the negotiations in the citizenship, police and court files. The bremer shakespeare company developed a staged reading with the material and performed it in the (new) premises of the Bremen citizenship . The event was under the patronage of the President of the Bremen Citizenship and was part of the program of the Association Remembering for the Future on the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of National Socialism .

literature

• Sigrid Dauks, Eva Schöck-Quinteros (ed.): For reasons of internal security of the state ... expulsion, persecution and murder of the Bremen worker Johann Geusendam (1886-1945). Bremen 2009, ISBN 978-3-88722-706-7 .
• Eva Schöck-Quinteros: "The length of a foreigner's stay in Bremen does not matter ...". Expulsion and persecution using the example of Johann Geusendam (1886-1945) . In: Eva Schöck-Quinteros, Hans Kloft, Franklin Kopitzsch , Hans-Josef Steinberg (eds.): Civil society - idea and reality. Festschrift for Manfred Hahn . Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89626-437-0 , pp. 217-244 .
• Wilhelm Geusendam: Challenges . KJVD - USSR - KZ - SPD. Kiel 1985, ISBN 3-89029-901-6 (biography of Geusendam's son).

Web links

• Project homepage of the University of Bremen and the bremer shakespeare company