Johannes Stelling

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Johannes Stelling
Prime Minister Stelling. Caricature by Egon Tschirch (1924)
November 30, 1918
tomb

Johannes Stelling (* May 12, 1877 in Hamburg ; † murdered on the night of June 21 to 22, 1933 in the course of the Köpenick Blood Week in Berlin ) was a German social democratic politician . Stelling was Prime Minister of the Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin from 1921 to 1924 .

Life

During the German Empire and the First World War

After attending elementary school in his hometown, Stelling completed a commercial apprenticeship from 1892 to 1895 , which he completed with the sales assistant examination. After some time in his learned profession he was editor of the social democratic daily newspaper Lübecker Volksbote from 1901 to 1919 . During this time he was arrested several times. Since 1916 he was a member of the War Aid and the Lübeck State Supply Office.

The local regiment returned home at the main station on the morning of November 26, 1918, coming from the guard duty during the transition period around Strasbourg in Alsace-Lorraine . In the official ceremony on November 30th, Mayor Fehling as representative of the Senate, Dimpker as spokesman for the citizenship, Retyfeldt as a member of the soldiers 'council and the editor Johannes Stelling as a member of the workers' council welcomed the regiment that had returned. However, only remnants of this were left. His officers had already left the regiment. Since the regimental commander , Lieutenant Colonel Ludwig Hauss , was ill, the brigade commander of the command of the 81st Infantry Brigade , Colonel Hans von Werder , also based in Lübeck, thanked him on behalf of the regiment.

Political activity

Stelling joined the SPD early on. Stelling was a member of the Lübeck citizenship from 1907 to 1919. He was a member of the Weimar National Assembly in 1919/20 and then (with the exception of the short electoral period from May to December 1924) to the Reichstag until 1933 .

From August 16, 1919 he was Minister of the Interior and from January 19, 1921 to March 18, 1924 Prime Minister of the Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin . From 1921 to 1924 he was also a member of the state parliament in Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Since 1924 he was a member of the SPD party executive. Also since 1924 he was Gau chairman of the Reichsbanner Black-Red-Gold in Gau Berlin-Brandenburg and member of the federal executive committee. When the SPD executive board emigrated to Czechoslovakia in 1933 , they stayed - despite warnings - in Germany and kept in touch between the emigrants and the members who remained in Germany.

assassination

Due to his prominence and determined stance against the National Socialist dictatorship of the Third Reich , where he tried, among other things, in public and abroad to clarify the Reichstag fire as deliberately provoked by the National Socialists , Stelling was on the night of June 21-22 Persecuted in 1933 on behalf of the Berlin SA storm leader Herbert Gehrke and arrested with several other like-minded people. Eyewitnesses, such as the also kidnapped party friend Heinrich Reinefeld , reported that Stelling was humiliated, abused and tortured by a group of over 150 SA thugs before they were transported to the local court prison in the Seidler bar. On July 1 of the same year, a sack weighted down with stones was recovered from the Dahme , containing a man's corpse, which had been disfigured by numerous gunshot wounds. Relatives were only able to assign the remains to Johannes Stelling on the basis of a wedding ring and a monogram on the handkerchief.

The former Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and a member of the Reichstag for the SPD was one of the victims of the Köpenick Blood Week , during which numerous opponents of National Socialism were captured and mistreated by the SA between June 21 and 26, 1933, and over 20 were murdered. Sewn into sacks that the water of the Dahme washed up on the Grünau ferry at the beginning of July 1933, the mutilated corpses of Johannes Stelling, Paul von Essen and Karl Pokern were found. Stelling and Essen were cremated in July 1933 in the Wedding crematorium (Richtstrasse) with great sympathy from their social democratic comrades . Johannes Stelling was buried on August 15, 1933 in the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery. On February 12, 1934, the Central Public Prosecutor's Office put down the "proceedings in the Stelling, von Essen , Pokern und Pohle " death investigation .

Stelling's grave was incorporated into the Socialist Memorial on December 4, 1950 .

Commemoration

  • Memorial plaques on the Reichstag

  • Memorial plaque on the Stelling-Janitzky Bridge, in Berlin-Adlershof

  • Commemorative plaque in the Lübeck town hall for the members of the citizenry who were victims of National Socialism

  • Memorial plaque on his former home, Stellingdamm 36, Berlin-Köpenick

  • Stumbling stone in front of his former home, Stellingdamm 36, Berlin-Köpenick

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Johannes Stelling  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The homecoming of the Lübeck regiment. ; In: Vaterstadtische Blätter ; Born 1918/19, No. 5, edition of December 8, 1918, pp. 17-19.
  2. ^ Heinrich-Wilhelm Wörmann, p. 62.
  3. ^ Joachim Hoffmann : Berlin-Friedrichsfelde. A German national cemetery - cultural and historical travel guide . Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 2001, p. 109. ISBN 3-360-00959-2
  4. ↑ Stefan Hördler, p. 73.
personal data
SURNAME Stelling, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD), MdR, Nazi victim
DATE OF BIRTH May 12, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH June 22, 1933
Place of death Berlin