Ludwig Cyranek

Ludwig Cyranek

Ludwig Cyranek (born September 1, 1907 in Herten ; † June 4, 1941 ) was a German Jehovah's Witness and a victim of Nazi war justice.

Life and activity

Early life

Cyranek was a son of the Westphalian Johann Cyranek and his wife Katharina. After attending school, he completed a commercial apprenticeship. Around 1924 Cyranek joined the religious grouping of the International Bible Students Association, later known as Jehovah's Witnesses.

On May 5, 1927 Cyranek joined the full-time service of the Watchtower Society (WTG), the institution responsible for organizing the practical activities of Jehovah's Witnesses, in whose office in Magdeburg he was active. He left Germany in October 1931. For the next four years he devoted himself to missionary work for his denomination in France, Yugoslavia, Austria and Switzerland.

Period of National Socialism until 1939

At the turn of the year 1934/1935 Cyranek returned to Germany at the behest of the WTG, where the National Socialists had in the meantime taken over political power. Since these had been persecuting Jehovah's Witnesses since 1933 and officially banned in 1935, he quickly fell into the crosshairs of the police supervisory authorities: On April 17, 1935, he was arrested for the first time for a short time, but released after a warning. He was arrested again on September 11 of the same year. The judge set the main hearing for September 20, 1935, but released Cyranek for the time being. He used the opportunity offered to him and went into political hiding. On November 20, 1935, an arrest warrant was issued against him and the search for him was initiated.

On November 5, 1936 Cyranek, who in the meantime had taken on the task of a "district servant" (i.e. a senior functionary) of the Jehovah's Witnesses for the areas of Baden , Hesse and the Main area. In the following trial he was sentenced to eighteen months in prison on April 9, 1937, the pre-trial detention suffered not being taken into account. Cyranek's parents and siblings took the ostracism of their son as an opportunity to change their Polish-sounding name to Emter.

After his release on October 9, 1938, Cyranek first went to the Netherlands, where he determined and prepared his future conspiratorial work in Germany with Robert Arthur Winkler, who was responsible for coordinating the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany.

Second World War

At the end of July 1939 Cyranek returned to Germany with a false passport, where he resumed his old work and, as the de facto highest functionary of the Jehovah's Witnesses within the Reich, rebuilding the organization of his religious community in Germany, which had been almost completely dismantled in 1937 and 1938 directed.

In early 1940, he compiled an illegal pamphlet entitled Do not be afraid from letters from Jehovah's Witnesses sentenced to death as conscientious objectors, which subsequently circulated secretly among Jehovah's Witnesses.

In February 1940 Cyranek was almost arrested during a raid on the house of a fellow believer in which he was spending the night, but escaped and warned several other Jehovah's Witnesses in the Magdeburg area that police were taking action against their circles. He then drove to Dresden, where he was arrested on February 6 in an inn. In the literature it is assumed that his whereabouts were revealed to the secret police by an undercover agent named Hans Müller who had been smuggled into the Jehovah's Witnesses.

After Cyranek had made a comprehensive confession and had been identified as the central organizer of the anti-subversive activities of the Jehovah's Witnesses within the territory of the German Reich, he was brought before the Dresden Special Court because of disruptive military strength with participation in an anti-military association and contravention of the Prohibition of International Union of Serious Bible Students charged. In the session of March 20, 1941, he was found guilty and sentenced to death. Five other Jehovah's Witnesses who were sentenced together with him received long prison sentences. The Nazi press published this judgment, which was supposed to have a deterrent effect on like-minded people, in reports with headlines like Bible Students as saboteurs of the air raid protection. Main ringleaders sentenced to death or the death penalty for "Bible Students" .

The official organ of the NSDAP, the Völkischer Beobachter commented on the blood judgment against Cyranek in its edition of March 21, 1941 as follows:

"The forbidden association not only denies military service, but has made it its task to sabotage the measures of organizations of the national community, including the Reich Air Protection Association. It thus puts the life and property of German comrades in great danger. That is why the main ringleader Cyranek was punished with death, fully corresponds to the feeling of the people, which must be protected from such outrageous conduct. "

His execution followed on June 4, 1941. Cyranek's functions were largely taken over by Julius Engelhard after his arrest and execution .

literature

• Detlef Garbe: Between Resistance and Martyrdom: Jehovah's Witnesses in the Third Reich. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin 2008, ISBN 978-0-299-20794-6 , pp. 322 ff.
• Karl Schröder: On the life and death of the Bible researcher Ludwig Cyranek. , in: Gert Fischer (editor): The forties. The Siegburg area between the beginning of the war and currency reform. (Accompanying book and catalog for the exhibition of the Stadtmuseum Siegburg in the Torhausmuseum des Siegwerk 1988), Rheinlandia-Verlag and Antiquariat Walterscheid, Siegburg 1988, ISBN 3-925551-07-7 , pp. 34–42.

Web links

• Short biography about Ludwig Cyranek