Köpenicker Blood Week

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The Köpenick Blood Week was an arrest , torture and murder campaign by the SA against civilians in 1933. It took place between June 21 and 26, 1933 in the Berlin district of Köpenick , led by SA Storm Leader Herbert Gehrke . It is possible that the Köpenicker SA-Standarte 15 captured, humiliated and tortured up to 500 opponents of National Socialism . Some of the persecuted were murdered or succumbed to the consequences of torture, and some suffered permanent physical and psychological damage. After the end of the war, from 1947 onwards, perpetrators were brought to justice and convicted.

Places and events

Since Hitler's seizure of power, the NSDAP's Köpenicker Sturmabteilung (SA) had intensified the terror against social democrats, communists and Jews, which led to the anti-Jewish boycott of April 1, 1933 by the SA. On May 2, 1933, the trade unions were banned. On May 9, the newspapers and the Reichsbanner's property were confiscated. Under the pretext that the German National Combat Ring of the DNVP , Hitler's coalition partner, had been infiltrated by communists and social democrats , Hitler, Goebbels and Göring also planned to break the last resistances in the workers' movement. On June 22, Reich Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick forbade the SPD from any political activity, annulled parliamentary seats, had party assets confiscated and around 3,000 functionaries were arrested.

The first target was the Elsengrund housing estate at the Köpenick S-Bahn station . When Anton Schmaus shot three SA men in self-defense, the violent actions had already begun: the Demuth restaurants in Köpenick and Seidler in the Uhlenhorst settlement district, the water sports center formerly owned by the Reichsbanner in Wendenschloßstraße, as well as boathouses in Grünau and the local court prison on Puchanstraße were the scenes where anti-fascists were tortured. Some of those arrested were taken to the police headquarters after being mistreated in the Seidler pub , from where some were released.

The SA-Sturmführer 1/15 Friedrich Plönzke (SA-Lokal Seidler ), SA-Sturmführer Herbert Scharsich (Demuth-Sturm 2/15), SA-Sturmführer Toldi Draeger 4/15 (SA-Lokal Jägerheim ), SA-Sturmführer Reinhold Heinz Wendenschloß-Sturm 3/15, (SA-Heim Müggelseedamm - former Reichsbanner water sports home), SA-Sturmführer Werner Mau 5/15 (SA-Heim Müggelseedamm ) as well as parts of the notorious Maikowski storm of the SA Charlottenburg. SA-Sturmbannführer Herbert Gehrke led the action.

Victims were members of the KPD and SPD , the Reich Banner , the German National Combat Ring (DNVP), Jews , trade unionists and non-party members . Among the victims were the former Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Johannes Stelling (SPD), the Reich Banner Leader Paul von Essen , the district leader of the Reich Banner Richard Aßmann and Paul Pohle , the Communists Erich Janitzky , Karl Lange, Götz Kilian , Josef Spitzer and Paul Spitzer , Members of the Red Front Fighters League like Karl Pokern or Jews like the chemist Georg Eppenstein . Dozens of people died from injuries inflicted by torture, and others remained in permanent health or mental health .

The data on the fatalities vary. In the GDR literature there was talk of 91 fatalities; West German historians such as Walter Tormin or Hans-Ulrich Wehler also adopted this number. This figure later proved to be an unchecked number. The more recent research assumes that the SA terror caused at least 24 deaths. Some of the bodies of victims ended up in the morgue on Hannoversche Strasse, where they are documented in the main admission book. Some of the victims' bodies were tied up in sacks and thrown into the surrounding waters or hung up in the Schmöckwitz forest. The aforementioned Johannes Stelling, Paul von Essen and Karl Pokern were identified in the sacks that the water of the Dahme washed up a few days after the atrocities near the Grünau ferry.

Case study: Anton Schmaus

Memorial plaque on Schmausstrasse 2 in Berlin-Köpenick

The trained carpenter Anton Schmaus , born on April 19, 1910 in Munich, the second son of the family out of five siblings, belonged to the Socialist Workers' Youth , the SPD and, since 1931, the Reichsbanner Youth . His father Johann was a union secretary and member of the Reichsbann.

The actions of the SA storms, which as taxi commandos , hidden in laundry cars, pulled up in front of the houses of well-known opponents of National Socialism in the Köpenick district and brought them into their power, reached their climax on the morning of June 21, 1933, when at least 200 people walked were abused in SA pubs that day.

Anton Schmaus, who, in addition to his professional activity, was looking for further training in evening courses at a construction school, was warned at the train station that evening. According to reports from Willy Urban and Paul Hasche, friends and neighbors of the Schmaus family, the SA had raided the family's living quarters around noon and searched for father and son. Anton rejected his friends' advice to flee, but with the remark: "I'm sick of the lawlessness, I don't want to hide myself all the time."

When the SA entered the Schmaus family's house by force after 10 p.m. on June 22, 1933, Anton's mother, Katharina Schmaus, stood in their way, whereupon the intruders kicked them back and knocked them down. Anton was woken up by his mother's cries for help and found himself on the top step of the first floor facing the storming SA men. He called to them to leave the house, otherwise he would shoot. When the SA men were not deterred by this, Anton Schmaus shot. Two of the attackers collapsed fatally hit, a third got into the line of fire of another SA man, which Anton used to save himself by jumping out the window into the open.

After his escape he voluntarily turned himself in to the police, as the SA was after him and the Köpenick police station offered the last supposedly constitutional refuge. Two police officers transferred Anton to the police headquarters, where a group of around 30 to 40 SA men was waiting to seize him. In the subsequent scramble with the police officers, a shot was fired that inflicted a severe spinal cord injury with paralysis on Anton, from the consequences of which and further abuse by the SA he died on January 16, 1934 in the police hospital at the age of 23. Anton's father, Johann Schmaus, was severely mistreated by the SA and found hanged in his home on June 22, 1933. The suicide was faked to cover up a murder.

Direct aftermath

Nazi opponents brought the truth about the massacre to the public illegally and at risk of death. B. with the camouflage letters air protection is self-protection . The central politician Heinrich Krone protested at the Ministry of the Interior, Pastor Ratsch at the NS mayor, but without success. On July 25, 1933, Reich Minister of Justice Franz Gürtner issued a “pardon” for these crimes, like other crimes connected with the seizure of power . The NSDAP prepared state funerals for the SA men Walter Apel, Ronert (Richard) Gleuel and Wilhelm (Franz) Klein on June 26th and 30th, 1933. Together they were heroes of the Third Reich in the Evangelical Cemetery of the parish in Rudower Straße to bury. They named streets after them: Apel-Straße (previously Alte Dahlwitzer Straße ), Gleuelplatz ( Dahlwitzer Platz ) and Kleinstraße ( Ravensteiner Straße ). The Schmaus family was imprisoned or emigrated and the family's assets fell into the hands of the Nazi state. Herbert Gehrke was instructed by the NSDAP local group leader Kaiser and the mayor Karl Mathow to refrain from further actions of this kind and to put an end to the terror of the SA in Köpenick.

Trials in 1947, 1948 and 1950

The first trial took place before the 1st Large Criminal Court in Berlin-Moabit from June 19 to 21, 1947. Four SA men were charged with crimes against humanity under Control Council laws. Two sentences of eight years and 18 months were imprisoned; one defendant was acquitted; one defendant had fled the trial. In a further process in Moabit in August 1948, two SA men to 15 years, were one to six months ' imprisonment convicted.

The third trial of 61 identified defendants took place from June 5 to July 19, 1950 with great public sympathy before the Berlin Regional Court in East Berlin . Among them were 47 SA men, three NSDAP members, one SS man and ten unorganized at the time of the crime . 34 of the defendants were in custody, 13 were in unknown residence, ten were in West Germany, three were on the run and one had recently died. The court sentenced 15 to death , 13 to life, seven to 25, two to 20 years, eight to 15, three to 12 and five to ten years in prison, and four to five years of forced labor . Six of those sentenced to death died on February 20, 1951 under the guillotine in Frankfurt (Oder) .

After 1990

In 1992, the relatives of one of the convicts demanded a retrial. They cited political purges and Stalinist show trials in the early years of the GDR , which could not be recognized from a constitutional point of view. The convicted Otto Busdorf , a police officer who was a member of the NSDAP and SA squad leader at the time of the crime, was accused in the 1950 trial of being jointly responsible for the murder of the Reichsbanner official Paul von Essen because of the questioning of the Reichsbanner official Paul von Essen. From the published court judgment it emerges that Busdorf [b. 1878], who was a member of the SPD and the Schrader Association , initiated a court case against the NSDAP Gauleiter Joseph Goebbels in 1931 as a detective commissioner, which ended with his conviction. After that, as a precaution, he secretly became a sponsoring member of the SS and, after January 31, 1933, the NSDAP and the SA. His double play in 1934 led to his release from the police, expulsion from the SA, arrests by the Gestapo and four months in a concentration camp . After 1945 Busdorf was a teacher at the Brandenburg Police School . The Berlin Court of Appeal refused to refer back the 1950 judgment in 1992 .

The Südwestrundfunk (SWF) sent on 8 February 2015 radio documentary about Otto Busdorf where the Köpenicker Bloody Week plays a central role.

Commemoration

Monument with plaque and inscriptions

On October 7, 1969 on the Köpenicker of April 23 Place the monument Köpenicker Bloody Week inaugurated. Since 1980 there has been a memorial room in the former district court building of Berlin-Köpenick at Puchanstrasse 2 and since 1987 the Köpenicker Blood Week (restructured in 1993 and 1995) . There are several memorial stones and plaques on the former SA storm locations and the places of residence of some of the victims throughout the district. The Falken youth recreational facility in Neukölln-Britz bears the name of the victim Anton Schmaus, who was a member of the SAJ and was shot and tortured by the SA during the blood week.

literature

  • Xavier de Hauteclocque. La tragédie brune 1934 . - Editions de la “Nouvelle Revue Critique”, 1934.
  • Bartholomew Night in Koepenick . In: Brown book on Reichstag fire and Hitler terror . First published under the title Livre Brun sur l'incendie du Reichstag et le terreur hitlerìenne . With a foreword by Lord Marley. Edition Carrefour Paris 1933, p. 329 ff. At the same time, editions in German were published by the Universum library in Basel and translations into the most important languages ​​of the world. (Lord Marley was an influential Labor politician) Digitized
  • Judgment of the 4th Large Criminal Chamber in the Plönzke u. a. (Köpenick Blood Week) 1933 . Berlin Regional Court, Berlin 1950.
  • Kurt Werner, Karl Heinz Biernat: The Köpenicker Blood Week June 1933. Dietz Verlag , Berlin 1958. (47 pages)
    • Kurt Werner, Karl Heinz Biernat: The Köpenicker blood week June 1933 with an appendix of the victims . Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1960. (103 pages)
  • Köpenicker Blood Week . In: Dictionary of History. AK. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1983, p. 637.
  • André König: The legal processing of the Köpenick Blood Week in the years 1947–1951 and the whereabouts of the Nazi perpetrators in the GDR penal system . Heimatmuseum Köpenick, Berlin 2004.
  • Heinrich-Wilhelm Wörmann: Resistance in Köpenick and Treptow . German Resistance Memorial Center, Berlin 2010. (= Series of publications on the resistance in Berlin from 1933 to 1945. Volume 9) ISBN 3-926082-03-8 . Digitized version (PDF)
  • Alexandra Klein: The transformation of the warehouse. Approaches to the sites of National Socialist crimes . Transcript, Bielefeld 2011, p. 247 ff. Table of contents (PDF)
  • Andreas Neumann: The "Köpenicker Blood Week". Your political claims in printed matter of National Socialism and the GDR . In: Journal of the SED State Research Association . 2012, pp. 3–22.
  • Stefan Hördler (Hrsg.): SA-Terror as security of rule: “Köpenicker Blutwoche” and public violence under National Socialism . Metropol, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86331-133-9 .
  • Gunther Geserick, Klaus Vendura, Ingo Wirth: contemporary witness death. Spectacular forensic medicine cases . Militzke Verlag, Leipzig 2011. ISBN 978-3-86189-798-9 Digitized in part
  • Yves Müller (Ed.): Civil War Army. Research on the National Socialist Sturmabteilung (SA) . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 171 ff. Table of contents

items

Web links

Commons : Köpenicker Blutwoche  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Köpenick Blood Week June 1933
  2. ^ Heinrich-Wilhelm Wörmann, p. 49.
  3. ^ Plönzke: Born on February 16, 1910 in Berlin; executed on February 20, 1951.
  4. ↑ Born on January 12, 1903 in Berlin, last resident in Berlin-Köpenick, residence unknown at the time of the Plönzke trial.
  5. ↑ Heinz: Born February 4, 1903 in Hohnstorff, formerly residing in Berlin-Köpenick, at the time of the Plönzke trial residing in Bergedorf near Hamburg.
  6. ^ Mau: Born January 29, 1906 in Borkfeld (Malchin district), formerly residing in Berlin-Köpenick, unknown residence at the time of the Plönzke trial.
  7. ^ Heinrich-Wilhelm Wörmann, p. 24.
  8. ↑ Heinrich-Wilhelm Wörmann, p. 23.
  9. ↑ Rudolf Hirsch, (June 6, 1950), p. 11 and Commentary, p. 12. Kurt Werner, Karl Heinz Biernat (1960), p. 43.
  10. ↑ The Third Reich . 7th edition. Fackelträger Verlag, Hanover 1970, p. 28, Textarchiv - Internet Archive
  11. ^ Hans-Ulrich Wehler : German history of society. Volume 4, p. 638.
  12. ↑ Rudolf Hirsch, Commentary, p. 12. Günter G. Flick calls this a propagandistic exaggeration of the GDR: The Köpenicker Blood Week. Facts, Legends and Political Justice . In: Zeitschrift des Forschungsverbund SED-Staat 21 (2007), pp. 3–17.
  13. ↑ Amelie Artmann, Yves Müller: Victims of the "Köpenicker Blood Week" in June 1933 . In: Stefan Hördler (Ed.): SA-Terror als Herrschaftssicherung , Berlin 2013, p. 165.
  14. ^ Ingo Wirth, Hansjürg Strauch, Klaus Vendura: The Institute for Forensic Medicine at the Humboldt University in Berlin 1833-2003 . 2003, p. 141. Victims of the blood week are registered under the access numbers 1187–1189, 1245 and 1275 in the access book of the morgue.
  15. ↑ Annedore Leber : The conscience stands up - 64 life pictures from the German resistance 1933–1945. Published in collaboration with Willy Brandt and Karl Dietrich Bracher , Mosaik Verlag, Berlin, Frankfurt a. M. 1956. On Anton Schmaus p. 12.
  16. ↑ Johann Schmaus . Stumbling blocks in Berlin
  17. ↑ 80 years after the Köpenick Blood Week - all strength against the right!
  18. ↑ Goebbels' participation.
  19. ^ List of streets and squares in Berlin-Köpenick .
  20. ↑ Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (ed.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 2: Early camp, Dachau, Emsland camp. CH Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-52962-3 , p. 45.
  21. ↑ Herbert Mayer: Reminder to the Köpenick blood week . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 6, 1998, ISSN  0944-5560 , p. 86-88 ( luise-berlin.de ).
  22. ^ Judgment of the 4th Large Criminal Chamber in the Plönzke u. a. (Köpenick Blood Week) 1933 .
  23. ↑ Rudolf Hirsch: The blood week of Koepenick. From the courtroom .
  24. ^ The inspector from Köpenick - Otto Busdorf. A career as a police officer from the German Empire to the GDR , transcription. (PDF)
  25. ↑ Signature 12 S 358 Berlin State Library and signature D II 15 Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial.