Leo Statz
Leo Statz (born July 17, 1898 in Cologne , † November 1, 1943 in Brandenburg an der Havel ) was a German entrepreneur and staunch critic of National Socialism .
Life
Leo Statz was the son of Richard Statz, who was transferred to Düsseldorf as a district judge at the beginning of the 20th century . He grew up in Düsseldorf and graduated from high school at the age of 17. He took part in the First World War as an officer and was then part of the German Freikorps .
In 1927 Statz became a board member and director at Birresborner Mineralbrunnen AG Düsseldorf and Birresborn .
In Düsseldorf Carnival Leo Statz heavily involved. He wrote carnival songs and humorous poems, early on he was a member of the Great Rifle Club and the Düsseldorf Jonges , later he became President of the Carnival Committee of the City of Düsseldorf and the Prinzengarde .
From 1931 the Catholic was a member of the Center Party and after 1933 was in opposition to the National Socialists, who murdered his cousin Erich Klausener in 1934 . A GeStaPo file on Leo Statz was kept from 1934. He came into conflict with the National Socialists, for example, through the carnival song "Duze, Duze, Duze mich", which was sung by many in allusion to Mussolini as "Duce, Duce, Duce mich". He said of the Nazis: "The browns have it easy with us ... We have no courage. A tram uniform in Germany makes a whole car full of people stand at attention. "
On September 1, 1943, the Gestapo arrested him after he had been reported by an employee of his company. On July 22, 1943, Statz had negotiated sales with the canteen keeper of a Trier military barracks and is said to have said to severely injured soldiers in the canteen that they had their bones shot together not for the German people but for Adolf Hitler and that they had a happy optimism, to think that as severely injured they would get through life.
On September 27, 1943, the hearing before the People's Court took place under its President Roland Freisler . Statz was sentenced to death for "decomposition propaganda". Despite numerous requests for clemency, the execution was carried out by beheading on November 1st in the Brandenburg-Görden prison .
Leo Statz was married to Mia Wegmann, daughter of a textile manufacturer from Rhede , and had a son. His sister Magda was Hermann Pünder's wife .
Leo Statz was buried in the Düsseldorf Südfriedhof in field 27 on the cemetery wall. In August 2014, stumbling blocks were laid for him and his cousin Erich Klausener at Leo-Statz-Platz in Düsseldorf-Unterbilk (then Kronprinzenstrasse 43) . His estate is accessible in the Hermann Smeets archive of the Bilker Heimatfreunde.
Honors
In memory of Leo Statz, the Leo Statz vocational college in Düsseldorf , a street in Golzheim and a square in Unterbilk bear his name. On this Leo-Statz-Platz in Unterbilk, at the former location of the house at Kronprinzenstraße 43 (birthplace of Erich Klausener and property of Leo Statz's father) there is a memorial stone. Günter Haese , a master student of Ewald Mataré , designed the 2.6 meter high monument made of shell limestone . Haese's design was implemented in 1963 by the sculptor Wolfgang Kuhn . The Funken-Artillerie Rot-Wiss annually awards the Leo-Statz-Plaque for services to the Düsseldorf Carnival . The Leo-Statz-Weg in Rhede is named after him. He had house No. 6 built for himself and his family in 1942 and 1943.
In 1999 the Catholic Church accepted Leo Statz as a witness of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century .
literature
- Carl Dietmar, Marcus Leifeld : "Alaaf and Heil Hitler". Carnival in the Third Reich. Herbig , Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-7766-2630-8 .
- Helmut Moll (Ed. On behalf of the German Bishops' Conference): Witnesses for Christ. Das deutsche Martyrologium des 20. Jahrhundert , Paderborn et al. 1999, 7th revised and updated edition 2019, ISBN 978-3-506-78012-6 , Volume I, pp. 411-414.
- Ekkart Sauser : Leo Statz. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 14, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-073-5 , Sp. 1519-1520.
- LG Düsseldorf, April 23, 1949 . In: Justice and Nazi crimes . Collection of German criminal judgments for Nazi homicides 1945–1966, Vol. IV, edited by Adelheid L Rüter-Ehlermann, CF Rüter . Amsterdam: University Press, 1970, No. 135, pp. 429–447 Trial of Hans Wienhusen for crimes against humanity, life imprisonment.
Web links
- Leo Statz on the memorial site Trier
Individual evidence
- ↑ Leo Statz on the Trier memorial page
- ^ Chronicle of Düsseldorf , Homepage Thomas Bernhardt, Düsseldorf
- ^ Leo Statz , Homepage of the Leo Statz Vocational College
- ↑ BBV-Net of February 10, 2005
- ^ Tilman Pünder : From Rhenish citizens. Images of life, values, current affairs. The Pünder / Schoemann and Statz / Biesenbach families from their roots to the present day. Edition Octopus in the publishing house Monsenstein and Vannerdat, Münster 2013, ISBN 978-3-86991-909-6 .
- ^ Garden cemetery and forestry office, Südfriedhof Düsseldorf.
- ↑ Hermann Smeets Archive of the Bilker Heimatfreunde on geschichte-in-duesseldorf.de
- ↑ Leo-Statz-Platz , geschichtswerkstatt.info
- ^ Kronprinzenstrasse 43, E. (= property) Statz, Richard, Geheimer Justizrate, Statz, Leo, Kfm. , In address book of the city of Düsseldorf, 1927, p. 175
- ↑ Memorial stone for Leo Statz and Dr. Erich Klausener , from emuseum.duesseldorf.de , accessed on July 29, 2017
- ^ Leo Statz badge , funkenartillerie-rot-wiss.de
- ^ Carnival under Hitler. How the Nazis instrumentalized the carnival review of the book Alaaf and Heil Hitler on 3sat.de in the Kulturzeit program on February 15, 2010.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Statz, Leo |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German entrepreneurs and victims of National Socialism |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 17, 1898 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cologne |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 1, 1943 |
| Place of death | Brandenburg |