Karl Lüdtke

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Karl Lüdtke (born September 5, 1905 in Berlin ; † January 29, 1945 in the Brandenburg-Görden prison ) was a German communist and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime .

Life

Luedtke, a professional typesetter and member of the printer Association , was an avid water sports and came across the workers' sports movement to KJVD . He later joined the KPD . He married the Hollerith Lochner Lucie Ettig (born August 14, 1902).

Lüdtke was friends with the Swiss graphic artist and wood cutter Emil Zbinden , who worked as a typesetter in Berlin in 1928/1929 and attended the Neukölln School of Applied Arts . Both saw each other for the last time in August 1933, when Zbinden traveled again to Berlin.

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists, Lüdtke took part in the KPD's resistance struggle. He discussed with his work colleagues about the coercive measures of the Nazi state and helped to produce and distribute leaflets . In 1933, he was in " protective custody ", 1935 in remand taken. From 1936 Lüdtke worked as a machine fitter at the Friedrich Stolzenberg & Co. gear factory in Berlin-Reinickendorf . In 1943/44 Lüdtke belonged with Harry Harder , Max Sauer , Siegfried Forstreuter , Waldemar Hentze and other colleagues to a KPD company cell in the Friedrich Stolzenberg company. The operating group he was part of the Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein organization and organized, among other things, the disruption of war production.

When Richard Wenzel asked about the accommodation of a fugitive comrade, he and his wife took Lucie Franz Jacob into their home in autumn 1943. The Lüdtkes made their apartment available for meetings in which Jacob, Wenzel, Harder and Sauer also took part. Lüdtke brought Jacob together with Franz Peplinski at a meeting in Jungfernheide . Lüdtke was arrested on July 28, 1944. On December 14th, the First Senate of the People's Court , chaired by District Court Director Martin Stier, sentenced to death. A request for mercy for Lüdtke has been handed down from two masters from the Stolzenberg company. This petition for clemency, like all petitions for clemency after death sentences, was rejected. On January 29, 1945 he was executed in Brandenburg.

Honors

  • In January 1946, the employees of the Stolzenberg company put a memorial plaque on the factory gate at Saalmannstrasse 9 in honor of their four dead colleagues - Karl Lüdtke, Siegfried Forstreuther, Harry Harder and Waldemar Hentze. In addition to the names of the resistance fighters and the dates of their deaths, the board also reads a sentence from Lüdtke after the death sentence was pronounced: "Better to be killed by the enemy than to fall for the enemy!"
  • The Saalmannstrasse , where the Stolzenberg company was located, was briefly named Karl-Lüdtke-Strasse in 1945/1946 , the name was not officially confirmed and revoked.

literature

  • Luise Kraushaar : German resistance fighters 1933-1945. Biographies and letters. Volume 1. Dietz, Berlin 1970, pp. 606-608.
  • Ursel Hochmuth : Illegal KPD and movement “Free Germany” in Berlin and Brandenburg 1942–1945 . Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-933471-08-7 , p. 191.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alfred A. Häsler: Emil Zbinden. For the 75th birthday . In: Jahrbuch des Oberaargaus , Vol. 26 (1983), pp. 36-48.
  2. ↑ Illustration of the memorial plaque .
personal data
SURNAME Lüdtke, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German communist and resistance fighter against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH September 5, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH January 29, 1945
Place of death Brandenburg