Lorenz Knorr

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Lorenz Knorr (born July 18, 1921 in Eger , Czechoslovakia ; † November 26, 2018 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German socialist politician ( German Peace Union ) and journalist .

Lorenz Knorr (2006)

Life

Resistance to National Socialism

Lorenz Knorr (1978)

Knorr, who came from an active social democratic family, completed an apprenticeship as typesetter and had been active in the trade union youth and in the United Socialist Youth in Eger since 1935. Before the war began, he was arrested for resistance activities. In 1940 Knorr, who was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Czechoslovakia before World War II , was drafted into the Wehrmacht and deployed in Africa, among other places. During the Nazi era, he resisted by disseminating information and publications, acts of sabotage on armaments and war transports, and by blowing up ammunition dumps. In May 1942 and in autumn 1944 he was therefore tried and convicted of " degrading military strength " before a court martial.

1945 to 1989

After being a British prisoner of war, during which he clarified the Nazi crimes, he rose from the State Secretary of the Socialist Youth of Germany - Die Falken (SJD) in Bavaria to their Federal Secretary (1950 to 1960). In this position he served until 1960 as a member of the youth and cultural policy committee of the party executive committee of the SPD, as editor-in-chief of the Junge Gemeinschaft and as editor of the monthly magazine Education and Society . He temporarily represented the SJD in UNESCO . In 1960 he publicly protested against Adenauer's turning to Adenauer's course in NATO and resigned from the party. Knorr founded the German Peace Union (DFU) with Karl Graf von Westphalen , Renate Riemeck and others, for which he also stood as a candidate in the 1961 federal election. Until 1985 he was a member of the DFU board of directors. According to the Federal Archives , which hold the files of the DFU, Knorr left the DFU in July of this year and joined the DKP. As an author, he worked for the new Vorwärts , the trade union monthly books , the Deutsche Volkszeitung , the Marxist papers and the papers for German and international politics . From 1978 to 1980 he was head of the Peace & Disarmament project at the University of Oldenburg. From 1987 to 1989 he was a member of the Scientific Board of Trustees of the Center for Marxist Peace Research (ZMF), a subsidiary department of the DKP's own Institute for Marxist Studies and Research (IMSF). Lorenz Knorr was Vice President of the International Liaison Forum for Peace Forces , based in Vienna, for ten years . At many world peace congresses he presented the positions of the German peace movement.

Trial for insulting former Wehrmacht and Bundeswehr generals

In 1961 he attacked the continuity of personnel from the Wehrmacht to the Bundeswehr at a public youth event and described them as "mass murderers". He had to face several legal proceedings for "insulting" former Wehrmacht generals (including Adolf Heusinger , Friedrich Foertsch , Hans Speidel ) who were now in leading positions in the Bundeswehr , as well as for " endangering the state ". He was defended by Heinrich Hannover , among others, and was able to rely on international support from, for example, Bertrand Russell , Linus Pauling , Arnold Zweig , Martin Niemöller and Wolfgang Abendroth . Without going into the submitted evidence, the verdict District Court in Solingen , it was stated that the term "mass murderer" to an offensive value judgment, in contrast, a proof of the truth is not admissible, but remained with a fine of 300  DM , well below the request of the prosecutor , the demanded a three-month prison term without parole. In 1974 the trial "for minor guilt" was dropped. A parallel proceeding due to "endangering the state" before a special criminal chamber went through all instances and ended with the reversal of the judgment for "endangering the state".

Report against the Nazi generals Heusinger and Speidel

In June 1965 Knorr filed a complaint against the Bundeswehr generals and former Nazi generals Adolf Heusinger and Hans Speidel for inciting or aiding and abetting murder. Knorr had put together a documentary entitled The Guilt of the Hitler Generals for the War Crimes of 1939–1945 . It contained material that had largely been submitted to the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg during the Nuremberg trial of the main war criminals , including documents from the files of the OKH , secret command items, service instructions, guidelines, reports, etc., which indicated that the two generals were involved in companies that violated international law and attacks, the shooting of civilians, hostages, etc. proved.

The public prosecutor closed the investigation against the two generals. The public prosecutor in Cologne rejected a complaint by Knorr on April 19, 1971.

After 1989

From 1992 to 1994 Knorr was the national spokesman for the VVN-BdA . In 2001 he was one of the founding members of the International Committee for the Defense of Slobodan Milošević , for whose release he campaigned. He participated in the European Peace Forum . Knorr published in the DKP party organ Our Time , in the newspapers ICARUS , Z. Zeitschrift Marxistische Renewal and in the German-Czech news . Since 2008 he has been traveling through schools - especially high schools - and lecturing there about his experiences.

Lorenz Knorr died in November 2018 at the age of 97.

Awards

In 1992 Knorr received the Johanna Kirchner Medal from the City of Frankfurt am Main, and in 2010 the “Human Rights Prize” from the Society for the Protection of Civil Rights and Human Dignity .

Publications

  • Causes of War and Peaceful Conflict Resolution. In: Making Peace Without Arms. For non-military conflict resolution in and through Europe. Contributions to the Fifth Dresden Peace Symposium on February 15, 1997. (Ed.) Dresdener Studiengemeinschaft Sicherheitspektiven (DSS) e. V .: DSS working papers , Dresden 1997, Issue 34, pp. 45–52. urn : nbn: de: bsz: 14-qucosa2-340449
  • Drivers of militarized politics and superarmament. In: Why conversion instead of disarmament in Europe? For what peace, for what war and at what price? Contributions to the 6th Dresden Peace Symposium on February 14, 1998. (Ed.) Dresdener Studiengemeinschaft Sicherheitsppolitik (DSS) e. V .: DSS working papers, Dresden 1998, issue 40, pp. 48–56.
  • Right-wing extremism in the Bundeswehr. German military shaped by mass murderers? VAS-Verlag, Frankfurt 1998, ISBN 3-88864-265-5 .
  • Potential causes of war in the 21st century. In: War in the 21st Century? New challenges for the peace movement. Contributions to the 7th Dresden Peace Symposium on February 13, 1999. (Ed.) Dresdener Studiengemeinschaft Sicherheitsppolitik (DSS) e. V .: DSS working papers, Dresden 1999, issue 46, pp. 52–58.
  • Primacy of the military versus popular sovereignty. In: Peace and War on the Cusp of a New Millennium. Contributions to the 8th Dresden Peace Symposium on February 12, 2000. (Ed.) Dresdener Studiengemeinschaft Sicherheitspektiven (DSS) e. V .: DSS working papers, Dresden 2000, Issue 53, pp. 43–56.
  • Deregulation and Future World Peace. In: Opportunities and obstacles on the way to a global peace order. Contributions to the 5th Dresden Peace Symposium "For a Global Peace Order" on November 18, 2000. (Ed.) Dresdener Studiengemeinschaft Sicherheitspektiven (DSS) e. V .: DSS working papers, Dresden 2001, issue 57, pp. 34–42.
  • Social Darwinism versus the culture of peace. In: Ideas in the struggle for a peaceful world. Contributions to the 6th Dresden Symposium for a Global Peace Order on November 24, 2001. (Ed.) Dresdener Studiengemeinschaft Sicherheitsppolitik (DSS) e. V .: DSS working papers, Dresden 2002, issue 60, pp. 19–28.
  • On the multifunctionality of the current US war. In: Against terror (ism) and war. For common security and a just world. Contributions to the Tenth Dresden Peace Symposium on February 16, 2002. (Ed.) Dresdener Studiengemeinschaft Sicherheitsppolitik (DSS) e. V: DSS working papers, Dresden 2002, issue 61, pp. 35–44. urn : nbn: de: bsz: 14-qucosa2-340191
  • Continuities of right-wing extremism. A journey through German history. VAS-Verlag, Frankfurt 2002, ISBN 3-88864-355-4 .
  • Alternatives to the 'new world war order' required. In: Violent peace according to the will of the only world power? Ways out of danger. Contributions to the 11th Dresden Peace Symposium on February 22, 2003. (Ed.) Dresdener Studiengemeinschaft Sicherheitspektiven (DSS) e. V .: DSS working papers, Dresden 2003, issue 65, pp. 72–79.
  • Partners and rivals. USA and EU in crisis. VAS-Verlag, Frankfurt 2005, ISBN 3-88864-399-6 .
  • Spiritual renewal of the SPD? An attempt in the 50s of the 20th century. A contemporary witness report. Koch, Rostock 2005, ISBN 3-938686-20-0 .
  • Antifascist resistance in West Bohemia. Fascism in Germany - Munich Agreement - Benes Decrees. Self-published, Frankfurt am Main 2006.
  • Enlightenment, peace, anti-fascism. Selected speeches and writings. Edited by Lorenz Gösta Beutin , PapyRossa-Verlag, Cologne 2006, ISBN 3-89438-356-9 .
  • Causes and consequences of the social misery in Germany. Self-published by Lorenz Knorr, Frankfurt am Main 2007.
  • Against Hitler and Henlein. Antifascist resistance among the Sudetes and in the Wehrmacht. PapyRossa-Verlag, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-89438-390-9 .
  • Generals in court - or: can the Nazi military be called mass murderers? PapyRossa-Verlag, Cologne, 2011, ISBN 978-3-89438-460-9 .

literature

  • Heidi Beutin , Wolfgang Beutin & Bodo Brücher: Forward after setbacks. In the fight for a humane world. Lorenz Knorr on his 70th birthday. vsa-Verlag, Hamburg 1991, ISBN 3-87975-566-3 (here also a detailed list of publications)
  • Heinrich Hannover : The republic in court 1954–1974. Memories of an uncomfortable lawyer. Structure, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-351-02480-0 , pp. 129-141.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hartmut Barth-Engelbart: “Un-secretly silent heroes”. In: barth-engelbart.de. November 29, 2018, accessed December 2, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Introduction to the DFU files at the Federal Archives, online .
  3. ↑ In the martyr's robe . In: Die Zeit , No. 23/1963
  4. ↑ Instead of newspaper for South Baden : Lorenz Knorr - early on in the footsteps of the Wehrmacht and Bundeswehr ( Memento from August 15, 2017 in the Internet Archive ). Issue 41, November 1999
  5. ^ Members of the International Slobodan-Milošević Committee
  6. ^ Johanna Kirchner Medal. City of Frankfurt am Main, accessed on March 29, 2019 .
  7. ↑ GBM: Human Rights Prize
personal data
SURNAME Knorr, Lorenz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (DFU) and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH July 18, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Eger
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 2018
Place of death Frankfurt am Main