Ludwig Koch (resistance fighter)

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Ludwig Koch (born June 3, 1909 in Munich ; † September 12, 2002 there ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism , a democrat and a trade unionist .

Life

His birth into a working-class family , his apprenticeship as a machinist at the Reichsbahn and his early involvement in the trade union were decisive for his early commitment against National Socialism . From 1923 he took over functions in the German Railway Workers' Association and from 1925 in the Union of Railway Workers in Germany . In 1927 he joined the Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ). In 1930/31 Koch joined the International Socialist Fighting League (ISK). Koch worked in the Reichsbahn repair shop in Munich until the end of 1932, and later he was employed by the "Electrical Research Institute" of the Deutsche Reichsbahn.

His political activities as a member of the management of the South District of the ISK led to his arrest on July 25, 1938 and to a sentence of eight years in prison on April 17, 1939 . In the judgment of the People's Court for “preparation for high treason ”, remand detention was taken into account . Koch served his sentence in various prisons (penitentiaries in Amberg, Zweibrücken, Creussen, Bayreuth).

It was not until April 15, 1945 that US troops liberated Koch from the Bayreuth - Creußen concentration camp . Only a little later the convinced democrat was active again and gave speeches. From 1946 to 1949 he was youth secretary of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) in the Munich district, and from 1953 to 1973 DGB district chairman in Munich. In addition, Koch was a member of the Munich city ​​council for the SPD from 1960 to 1972 . Like no other, he shaped trade union work in Munich and Bavaria and was regarded as a highly valued “veteran”.

Honors

One street in Munich bears the name of Ludwig Koch.

literature

  • Marion Detjen: Appointed an enemy of the state. Resistance, resistance and denial against the Nazi regime in Munich . Buchendorfer, 1998, ISBN 3927984817 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  • Siegfried Mielke , Stefan Heinz : Railway trade unionists in the Nazi state. Persecution - Resistance - Emigration (1933–1945) (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - Resistance - Emigration. Volume 7). Metropol, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-86331-353-1 , pp. 444–445 (short biography).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jan Foitzik: Between the Fronts: on the politics, organization and function of left political small organizations in the resistance 1933 to 1939-40: with special consideration of the exile. Research Institute of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Political and Social History Series, Volume 16. Verlag Neue Gesellschaft, 1986, ISBN 3878314396 , p. 87 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  2. ^ Winfried Nerdinger: Place and memory: National Socialism in Munich . Catalog for the exhibition in the Architekturmuseum TU Munich from February 22 to May 28, 2006. Pustet, Salzburg 2006, ISBN 3-7025-0528-8 , p. 167 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  3. ↑ Heike Bretschneider: The resistance against National Socialism in Munich, 1933 to 1945. New series of publications by the Munich City Archives, issue 20. Munich City Archives, 1968, p. 131 ( limited preview in Google book search).
personal data
SURNAME Koch, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighters and trade unionists
DATE OF BIRTH June 3, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH September 12, 2002
Place of death Munich