March fallen

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As March Fallen refers to the victims of the March Revolution of 1848 in Vienna and Berlin . The name was used for other events, including the victims of the Kapp Putsch of 1920 in various cities. Ironically, the term has been used for hundreds of thousands of people after the general election in March 1933 the NSDAP requested -Membership, and for the past 1,960 forcibly collectivized farmers in the GDR .

Those who fell in Vienna in March 1848

In Vienna, those victims who died in the demonstration on March 13, 1848, are referred to as “March fallen”. The demonstration had started at the (old) university and led to the Lower Austrian state parliament in the Herrengasse in Vienna , where two days earlier a petition with liberal demands such as publication of the state budget, public access to court proceedings and freedom of the press had been introduced. As the crowd grew, the government deployed the military. Shots were fired, presumably without direct orders, and panic broke out. A total of 35 men and women were killed, some hit by bullets and some crushed by the crowd.

The dead were buried on March 17th in a mass grave in the Schmelzer cemetery . Because the dead were of different denominations, they were blessed by Catholic , Protestant and Jewish clergymen.

The revolution in Austria broke out with the shots on March 13 ; State Chancellor Metternich had to resign that same evening , the following day the formation of national guards was approved and censorship was lifted, and on March 15, freedom of the press and a constitution were expressly promised. The latter was promulgated on April 25, 1848 ( Pillersdorf Constitution ).

Those who fell in Berlin in March 1848

Ernst Zinna and Heinrich Glasewaldt on the barricade at the corner of Jägerstrasse and Friedrichstrasse , pen lithograph by Theodor Hosemann , 1848
Guard of honor for the Reich Banner in 1932 in front of the cemetery of those who died in March

In Berlin those victims who fell in the barricade against the troops of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Are referred to as "March fallen" . On March 18 and 19, 1848, they fought for democratic rights such as freedom of speech and assembly, freedom of the press and the right to vote. According to a study by Ruth Hoppe and Jürgen Kuczynski , the names of 270 people who died in March are known. The majority of the victims were craftsmen, including 13 apprentices, 115 journeymen and 29 masters. 52 of the victims were laborers (that is, workers), 34 servants, 15 victims were educated. 4 of the victims were nobles. Among the victims there were 11 women, 4 children and 6 teenagers under the age of 18. According to this compilation, the youngest victim was a 12-year-old boy, the oldest a 74-year-old table decker, but most of the victims were between 22 and 26 years old.

The public memorial service for 183 revolutionaries took place on March 22nd with great participation of the population on the Gendarmenmarkt . The funeral procession then paused on Schlossplatz, where the royal couple had to pay their last respects to the dead. Upon a call, the king even took off his cap. The dead were then buried in the specially laid out cemetery of the March dead . The cemetery was then in front of the city walls, today it is part of the Friedrichshain park . More victims who later succumbed to their injuries were buried in the next few weeks, a total of 254 people who died in March are in the cemetery. Adolph Menzel recorded the laying out on the Gendarmenmarkt in his painting Laying out of the March fallen . The poet Ferdinand Freiligrath erected a literary memorial to those who fell in March with his revolutionary poem Die Todten an die Leben .

literature

  • Ruth Hoppe, Jürgen Kuczynski : A job or class and class analysis of those who fell in March 1848 in Berlin. In: Yearbook for Economic History. Born in 1964, part IV.
  • Manfred Hettling: The funeral of those who fell in March 1848 in Berlin. In: ders., Paul Nolte (Ed.): Bürgerliche Feste. Symbolic forms of political action in the 19th century. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1993, pp. 95-123.
  • Peter Brandt u. a .: The failed revolution. In: Peter Brandt: Prussia, on the social history of a state. A representation in sources. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1981, ISBN 3-499-34003-8 , pp. 196-221 ( Prussia, attempt at a balance sheet 3).

Fallen in the Kapp Putsch in 1920

"Memorial to the March Fallen" in Weimar (Walter Gropius, 1922)

During the Kapp Putsch in Weimar , nine striking workers were shot dead by putschists at a rally on March 15, 1920. These "fallen in March" were buried in the historical cemetery in Weimar and were given a memorial there on May 1, 1922 in the form of a lightning bolt made of concrete from the earth. The creator of this “ memorial to those who fell in March ” was the Bauhaus director Walter Gropius . In February 1936 the memorial was destroyed by the National Socialists.

In other places in the region, too, there were victims for whom monuments were later erected, for example in Eisenach a memorial for those who fell in March , a similar one in the small community of Mechterstädt and one for two "March dead" in the New Cemetery in Ohrdruf .

Used in 1933

During the transfer of power to the National Socialists and their allies, and especially after the Reichstag elections in March 1933, there were numerous entries into the NSDAP , not least by civil servants and state employees, who had previously been prohibited from joining. Many of the applicants probably hoped for professional advantages from NSDAP membership or feared professional disadvantages (e.g. dismissal) if they were not NSDAP members. These new members, who were accused of opportunism by the “ old fighters ”, were mocked as “March fallen” or March violets. In order to keep its influence small, the NSDAP issued an admission ban on April 19, 1933, with effect from May 1, 1933, from which certain groups, e.g. B. Members of the SA or SS were excluded. This lock was relaxed for the first time in four years with several changes. A three-month party candidate was introduced. This led to a large wave of entry into the NSDAP. From June 1937 to June 1938, 2.1 million people joined the party. The ban was finally lifted on May 10, 1939.

literature

  • Jürgen W. Falter : The "March Fallen" from 1933. New research results on social change within NSDAP membership during the phase of seizure of power. In: History and Society . Volume 24, 1998, pp. 595-616.
  • Cornelia Schmitz-Berning: Those who fell in March . In: dies .: Vocabulary of National Socialism. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2000, p. 399 .

Use from 1960 in the GDR

After the last independent farmers were forcibly collectivized in the first few months of 1960 and forced to join the agricultural production cooperatives, in some areas of the GDR “March fallen” became a self-designation of the involuntary cooperative farmers. As a result, they often boycotted the companies by working as slowly as possible in the LPG and at the same time devoting all their energy to the 0.5 hectares of personal housekeeping to which they were still entitled .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. Juliane Wetzel: The NSDAP between opening and membership ban . In Wolfgang Benz (Ed.): How did one become a party member? The NSDAP and its members. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 3-596-18068-6 . Pp. 74-80.
  2. Jens Schöne : Agriculture in the GDR 1945–1990. State Center for Political Education Thuringia, 2005, p. 38.