Ludwig Zind

Ludwig Zind Pancrazio (* 13. February 1907 in Offenburg ; † 13. April 1973 ) was a German teacher received nationwide attention from Offenburg, which as part of the so-called "case Zind" in the late 1950s.

The Zind case

On the night of April 23rd to 24th, 1957, a momentous discussion took place in the Zähringer Hof inn in Offenburg between the teacher Ludwig Zind, who taught biology and mathematics at the Grimmelshausen High School there, and the businessman Kurt Lieser. This conversation, which was characterized by anti-Semitic insults against the concentration camp survivors and “ half-Jews ” Lieser by the Offenburg university advisor, became the occasion for a public debate about anti-Semitism in the early Federal Republic . In an interview, Zind said, among other things, that the Jews were to blame for the decline of the Weimar Republic and that in the “ Third Reich ” there was a need to “eliminate” them. Zind also stated that he considered the gassing of Jews in the “Third Reich” to be correct and that the basic concept of National Socialism was also correct. Several times, von Zind remarked that it was a pity that Lieser had not been gassed, that Lieser had probably been forgotten to gas and also that it was a pity that he did not go up the chimney or flue. Lieser was also insulted by Zind as a "dirty sparrow" and "dirty Jew". On the basis of advice from the district court director Schiruska, Lieser informed the Baden Israelite Council, which informed the Ministry of Culture in Stuttgart about the incident. The Ministry commissioned the Freiburg Oberschulamt to take care of the case, and the Oberschulamt passed the matter over to the senior director of the Grimmelshausen Gymnasium for clarification . Then there was a discussion in the Grimmelshausen high school. However, Zind refused to retract his comments on the argument. Among other things, he announced: “I don't crawl in front of a Jew, I'd rather go sweeping the streets”, “Israel should be erased”. After the secondary school authorities had not acted, Lieser informed the Stuttgart Spiegel office at the end of 1957 . The news magazine then published an article about the Zind case on December 18. After the article appeared, the Freiburg Oberschulamt initiated criminal proceedings against Ludwig Zind. In Baden-Wuerttemberg state parliament there was a topical interest . In addition, the Offenburg public prosecutor brought charges against Ludwig Zind. The case was also so explosive because Ludwig Zind was a well-known member of the Offenburg Society. For example, the teacher was chairman of the gymnastics club in 1848.

Trial against Ludwig Zind

The District Court of Offenburg found that Zind's statements that the Holocaust had its justification, that the basic conception of National Socialism was correct and that his interviewee Lieser "had better put up the smoke" had been insulting and that the memory of the deceased had been vilified . In the trial itself, Ludwig Zind described the state of Israel as a "plague bump" that should be wiped out, and repeated his views on the dispute. Ludwig Zind was by the district court for sedition sentenced to one year and one day in prison without parole. The verdict was approved by the media, while after the conviction parts of the court audience expressed sympathy for Ludwig Zind.

Zind's escape

Ludwig Zind had his sentence but not compete immediately, and he could before the appeal hearings on 28 November 1958 after Egypt and then to Libya flee where he asylum was enjoyed and a professorship. After an undiscovered stay in Germany in 1960, Zind was arrested in Naples on the return journey to North Africa on the basis of the international arrest warrant . In 1961 the extradition request of the Federal Republic of Italy was rejected and Zind was released again. On July 11, 1970, however, he was arrested by the police on his arrival at Düsseldorf Airport . But not take up his remaining sentence had Zind, it became the parole suspended.

Importance of the media in the Zind case

The prosecution in the Zind case (prosecutor was the Offenburg public prosecutor's office) only came about after the Spiegel reported on December 18, 1957. Despite the failure of a reconciliation conversation between Ludwig Zind and Kurt Lieser, the high school authorities in Freiburg i. Br. Nothing against the avowed anti-Semite and teacher Zind. The inactivity of the high school authorities and the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Culture prompted the 28-year-old Spiegel journalist Stähle to bring the case to the public. The major German newspapers, u. a. Die Zeit , FAZ , Frankfurter Rundschau and Die Welt , as well as international newspapers, took up the case in order to lead a discourse on anti-Semitic ideas in the early Federal Republic. The Zind case was also taken up in the film Rosen for the Public Prosecutor (1959). Zind is called Zirngiebel there. The film alludes to possible help from the judiciary in Zind's escape. The film was awarded the Federal Film Prize in 1960 , whereby the then Federal Minister of the Interior Gerhard Schröder ( CDU ) demonstratively stayed away from the award. Director Wolfgang Staudte did not want to accept the award from "the former SA man" Schröder.

literature

• Werner Bergmann : Anti-Semitism in Public Conflicts. Collective learning in the political culture of the Federal Republic 1949-1989 . Campus, Frankfurt 1997, ISBN 3-593-35765-8
• Frank Flechtmann: Ludwig Pankraz Zind: "By the way, I'm proud of it ..." The Sputnik, Rosemarie Nitribitt and the Zind case . In: Wolfgang Proske (Hrsg.): Perpetrators helpers free riders. Nazi-polluted from Baden-Württemberg , Volume 9: Nazi-polluted from the south of today's Baden-Württemberg . Kugelberg Verlag, Gerstetten 2018, pp. 412-424, ISBN 978-3-945893-10-4 .
• Andreas Lörcher: Anti-Semitism in the Public Debate of the Late Fifties. Microhistorical study and discourse analysis of the Zind case . Dissertation, University of Freiburg i. Br. 2008 ( full text )
• TIME dated April 21, 1958
• In case of a "case" . In: Die Zeit , No. 6/1958
• Zind and his fellow citizens . In: Die Zeit , No. 16/1958
• IN MIRROR VERITAS . In: Der Spiegel . No. 5 , 1958 ( online ).
• Dear mirror reader . In: Der Spiegel . No. 51 , 1958 ( online ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Der Spiegel 51/1957, p. 35: Teacher - Israel will be erased
2. ↑ Kurt Daniel Stahl: Redemption through Annihilation. Time online from May 27, 2010
3. ↑ Der Spiegel 36/1959, p. 72 f .: Clear instructions for action and table of contents
4. ^ Wolfgang Kraushaar : Protest Chronicle . Volume 3, p. 2275.