Karl Merkel (resistance fighter)

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Karl Merkel (born January 20, 1903 in Limbach , † July 28, 1937 in Brunete near Madrid ) was a German communist and resistance fighter against National Socialism and a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War .

Life

Karl Merkel was born as the son of a railroad worker in Limbach and moved a little later with his parents to Alt-Saarbrücken . After finishing school, he worked briefly as a miner and met Elisabeth Schommer . He married her in 1924 against the wishes of Elisabeth's parents because a child was on the way. The two moved to Malstatt , where he earned a living as a taxi driver . He also joined the Red Front Fighters Union (RFB) of the KPD . In 1931 he was fired because he was actively involved in the KPD. As an unemployed man, he devoted all his time to politics. The family lived on Else Merkel's income as a printer.

In the KPD, Karl Merkel was regarded as the right hand of RFB Gauführer Otto Niebergall . His commitment to the Red Front Fighters Association, which was banned in Germany but still existed in the Saar area, led to his being arrested at a passport control in Bruchmühlbach and imprisoned in Zweibrücken while attempting to illegally enter Germany . A case of treason against him was dropped after 11 months in prison by an amnesty decree by Kurt von Schleicher , and he was released. During the referendum campaign in the Saar region, Merkel took over the leadership of the RFB after Niebergall had traveled to the Soviet Union in 1934 .

When the result of the vote became known, Karl Merkel had to emigrate because he was wanted as the foremost fighter in the RFB. His wife stayed in the Saar area with her ten-year-old son, while Merkel left for Stiring-Wendel . Merkel ran a KPD border post together with Niebergall and Fritz Lenz. Together with Philipp Daub he got involved in the Red Aid . Together with Max Braun , Emil Kirschmann , David Meyer and Fritz Lenz, he ran a non-partisan counseling center for Saar refugees in Forbach.

In August 1935 he went to Paris and from there, together with Artur Mannbar and Luise Herrmann, to Moscow at the International Lenin School of the Communist International (ComIntern). There he took part in various courses as Willi Breit . He then attended the Soviet Military Academy and moved from there to the Spanish Civil War in 1937. With the rank of first lieutenant , he commanded a tank in the Thälmann battalion . He died on July 28, 1937 at the Battle of Brunete .

The Reich Security Main Office apparently had no knowledge of Merkel's death. It wrote him out in 1939 in the special wanted list West with the following information about the search: "Merkel, Karl, born January 20, 1903 in Limbach, motor vehicle driver".

His son Heinz (* 1924) was a member of the federal committee for the establishment of the DKP and from 1968 district chairman of the DKP-Saarland.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dieter Muskalla: NS policy on the Saar under Josef Bürckel . Kommissionsverlag, Saarbrücken, ISBN 3-925036-94-6 , p. 418 .
  2. ^ Stiftung Demokratie Saarland (Ed.): January 13, 1935 The struggle for the Saar - 70 years later (=  Dialog . No. 12). Saarbrücken 2005, p. 32 ( online at: stiftung-demokratie-saarland.de [PDF]).
  3. ↑ Gerhard Paul, Klaus-Michael Mallmann: Resistance and Denial in Saarland 1935-1945. Volume 3: Milieus and Resistance . Dietz, Bonn 1995, p. 264.
  4. ^ Special wanted list West, CEGES-SOMA Brussels, AA 1835.
  5. ↑ dkp-online.de : 40 years of DKP. Declaration on the reconstitution of a Communist Party , dated September 25, 1968, accessed on August 23, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Merkel, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighters against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Limbach (Kirkel)
DATE OF DEATH July 28, 1937
Place of death Brunete