Kurt Vorpahl
Kurt Vorpahl (born May 7, 1905 in Krempe ; † June 26, 1944 in the Hamburg remand prison ) was a German communist resistance fighter against National Socialism and victims of National Socialism .
Life
Vorpahl was the son of the dentist Emil Vorpahl and Frieda Vorpahl , née Brauer. After attending high school he trained as a locksmith and worked interrupted by a year of unemployment in 1927 as a welder at the shipyard of the company Blohm & Voss . In the 1920s he still sympathized with the promises of the NSDAP , but never became a member of the party. When he found love for the Social Democrat Gertrud Knickelbein , his political convictions changed. The couple married in 1926 and had three daughters and a son. The family lived in a cooperative apartment in Hamburg-Horn . From 1930 to 1932 Vorpahl belonged to the KPD and also became a member of the Red Aid and the RGO .
After the transfer of power to the NSDAP in 1933 and the immediate persecution of members of the workers' parties , he took part in the illegal resistance. When foreign forced laborers were used for armaments purposes after the beginning of the Second World War , the resistance group " Bästlein-Jacob-Abshagen " organized support and assistance and provided political education among the workers. Vorpahl joined this group. Together with Hans Hornberger , Walter Reber and Ernst Heisel , he built a new operational cell for the resistance. After the Gestapo became aware of this, he too was arrested on October 24, 1942. He was then imprisoned in the Fuhlsbüttel police prison and the remand prison on Holstenglacis. Due to bomb damage, he was temporarily released from July 30 to September 9, 1943, but returned to custody voluntarily.
Together with three other Hamburg resistance fighters, he was charged by the senior Reich attorney in Berlin before the People's Court on February 26, 1944 with “establishing a communist company cell organization”. Vorpahl and many of his comrades were sentenced to death in the so-called “ Communist Trial ” on May 4, 1944 at the People's Court in Hamburg for “preparing for high treason ” and “favoring the enemy” . On June 26, 1944, he was beheaded together with Paul Thürey , Erich Heins , Karl Kock , Hans Köpke , Otto Mende , Ernst Mittelbach , Walter Reber, Wilhelm Stein and Oskar Voss in the Hamburg remand prison .
Honors
- In the honor grove of Hamburg resistance fighters at the Hamburg cemetery in Ohlsdorf there is a pillow stone for Kurt Vorpahl (third row from left, fourth stone).
- In front of Vorpahl's last residential address at Snitgerstieg 3 in Hamburg-Horn , the action artist Gunter Demnig laid a stumbling block in his memory on November 9, 2009 . The Horn comprehensive school , together with the building cooperative of the houses in question, sponsored eight stumbling blocks, including the one for Kurt Vorpahl.
Web link
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stolperstein in honor of Kurt Vorpahl ( memento from September 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) at the Horn district school
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Vorpahl, Kurt |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German communist resistance fighter against National Socialism |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 7, 1905 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | brim |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 26, 1944 |
| Place of death | Hamburg remand prison |