Johannes Cieslak

Johannes Cieslak 1991

Johannes Cieslak (born January 19, 1914 in Seifhennersdorf ; † August 19, 2003 in Seifhennersdorf) was stove setter and president of the regional synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony .

Life

Josef Johannes Cieslak was born in Seifhennersdorf, Seifen No. 611 (now: An der Scheibe 14). His mother Auguste Martha Cieslak (née Frey) was a seamstress, she came from a Seifhennersdorfer family of craftsmen. His father Josef Cieslak grew up in Witaschütz near Jarotschin ( Jarocin ) in the Prussian province of Posen and came to Seifhennersdorf as a journeyman to learn the craft of stove and tile maker. Johannes Cieslak also became a stove fitter. He did an apprenticeship with his father from April 1, 1929 to March 31, 1932.

On July 24, 1939, he married Susanne Schreiber. The couple had two children: Ingrid Singer and Jürgen Cieslak .

Johannes Cieslak died on August 19, 2003 at the age of 89.

Resistance to Hitler

In his youth, Cieslak joined the gymnastics youth . The Seifhennersdorfer local association had contact with the Jahngemeinde Sebnitz , through which it came into contact with the Black Front and Otto Strasser . Strasser had gone to Prague and from there tried to smuggle pamphlets against Hitler into Germany. Cieslak helped him by secretly picking up the leaflets and putting them in mailboxes in various places. His friend Susanne helped him with this. Both were betrayed, however, on July 3, 1934, Cieslak was arrested by the Gestapo and taken to Dresden . The interrogations lasted four weeks, after which he was transferred to the men's concentration camp in Lichtenburg near Torgau with other arrested persons (including his girlfriend, who had also been arrested in the meantime) . In the concentration camp, Cieslak came into contact with Hans Litten , a lawyer who taught him cultural history and who made a lasting impression on him.

On January 28, 1935, the Berlin People's Court issued the arrest warrant for Johannes Cieslak. Soon afterwards he was taken to Fort Zinna , the later Wehrmacht prison in Torgau . After three weeks he was transferred to Moabit , a large detention center.

The trial began on March 6, 1935. The indictment was that Cieslak had "in non-statute-barred period" until July 1934 continued partly abroad, partly in different places in Germany and acting collectively the treasonous enterprise, by force to the constitution of the Reich change, having prepared, taking the act

a) is aimed at establishing or maintaining organizational cohesion in preparation for high treason,

b) e.g. In some cases it is also aimed at making the Reichswehr or the police unfit to fulfill their duty to protect the German Reich against attacks on its external or internal existence,

c) aimed at influencing the masses by distributing writings,

d) e.g. T. was committed abroad and because the perpetrators had undertaken to import fonts from abroad for the purpose of disseminating at home.

Crimes against §§ 80 Paragraph 2, 83 Paragraph 2 and Paragraph 3 Numbers 1–4, 86, 86 a StGB. NF

After three days of trial, Cieslak was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison, minus eight months of pre-trial detention. The " Berlin Illustrated Night Edition " headlined on March 8, 1934: "Five couriers from the 'Black Front' sentenced to prison in Berlin." Cieslak served his sentence in the Charlottenburg prison , in the Waldheim prison and in the Osterstein prison near Zwickau.

War and Captivity

Cieslak was initially not drafted because he had become “unworthy of defense” during his imprisonment. The master's examination and the driver's license were also refused due to his time in prison. On November 13, 1942, however, he too was declared worthy of military service “on the basis of a special Führer decree” and was called up. He came to the 962nd Regiment of the 999 Africa Brigade and was stationed near Tunis , among other places . There he fell into American and English captivity and came to Aliceville , Alabama, and Belgium. During this time, Cieslak became increasingly concerned with questions of faith and helped to organize church services and community life in the camps.

He was released from captivity on June 22, 1946. As a so-called “anti-Nazi” he was allowed to return home straight away.

post war period

After the war, Cieslak was accepted into the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime (VVN) . Since he did not take part in the activities of the local group due to political differences, on August 1, 1951, the Ministry for Labor and Development of the State of Saxony, Department VdN, denied him recognition as a victim of the Nazi regime and at the same time his previous recognition as a victim of fascism withdrawn. Decades later this withdrawal was reversed.

In 1947 Cieslak was allowed to take the master craftsman's examination and on January 1, 1951, he took over his father's stove fitter business.

Church activities

One of Johannes Cieslak's concerns was to include all parishioners ("lay people") in life in a Christian community, and not to let the pastor shape this primarily and alone.

Out of this motivation, the Lückendorf working group was founded on September 26, 1952 , which wants to live an alternative to paternalistic church concepts in monthly meetings through Bible study, lectures and discussions as well as joint leisure activities. The meetings took place in Lückendorf until the 1990s , and since then in Seifhennersdorf.

At the invitation of Reimer Mager , Cieslak became a member of the Saxony State Committee of the German Evangelical Church Congress in May 1950 , for which he was henceforth strongly committed. The 1983 Kirchentag took place under his leadership.

On March 1, 1967 Cieslak was elected President of the Saxon Synod elected. He held this office until 1982.

literature

• Irmgard Litten: A mother is fighting. Rudolstadt 1947.
  • New edition: A mother fights against Hitler. Deutscher Anwaltverlag, Bonn 2000, ISBN 3-8240-0435-6 . - The bricklayer mentioned in the book is Johannes Cieslak.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cieslak / Singer stove-topping company - history. Retrieved July 20, 2013 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Johannes Cieslak: Memoirs . 2003 (unpublished).
3. ↑ Irmgard Litten: A mother fights against Hitler . Deutscher Anwaltverlag, Bonn 2000.
4. ↑ Dietrich Strothmann : Open visor . In: The time . No. 29 , 1983 ( online ).