Matthias Theisen

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Matthias Theisen , incorrectly also Theissen (born January 30, 1885 in Essen , † April 10, 1933 in Braunschweig ), was a German trade union secretary and politician (first of the KPD , then the SPD ) in Braunschweig. He was murdered by the SS .

Theisen was managing director of the paying office of the building trade union in Braunschweig and until 1928 the only member of the KPD in the Braunschweig city council. When he at that time in 1929 Magdeburg city council and SPD member Ernst Böhme with his election as mayor of Braunschweig gave the city his voice, he demanded the KPD on then, his mandate to lay down. Theisen initially refused, but then joined the SPD and was re-elected as a Social Democratic MP in 1931.

Arrest, torture and death

The Volksfreund-Haus 2011

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , Theisen initially managed to escape arrest by fleeing, but his hiding place was betrayed. On March 25, 1933, the same day as Ernst Böhme, Theisen was attacked by SS members in his apartment , beaten up in the presence of his wife and then taken to the former Volksfreund-Haus of the SPD, which was occupied by the SS , where he stayed for a long time was tortured. One of the aims of the torture was to force Theisen to resign from his city council mandate - but he refused. The later NSDAP Justice and Finance Minister of the Free State of Braunschweig , Friedrich Alpers , was temporarily present during the abuse.

Theisen's wife finally managed to bring her seriously injured husband to the St. Vincent's Hospital, where he died a few days later as a result of the severe abuse, despite intensive efforts. His body was so disfigured by the torture that the attending physician, Dr. Waldvogel took photos of it. A colleague then denounced him to the Gestapo . Waldvogel escaped arrest by suicide .

After Theisen's death, his wife and the central board of the building trade union in Berlin filed a criminal complaint with the Braunschweig public prosecutor for murder . This then confiscated Theisen's body. As a result, it had to be publicly admitted that Theisen died as a result of the mistreatment of the SS, a very rare case at the time, in which the death from torture was not only officially documented but also confirmed.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Robert Gehrke: From Braunschweig's darkest days. The Rieseberg mass murder. Braunschweig 1962, p. 65.
  2. ^ Hans Reinowski: Terror in Braunschweig. From the first quarter of Hitler's rule. Report issued by the Commission investigating the situation of political prisoners. Zurich 1933, p. 22.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Theisen, Matthias
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politicians (KPD, SPD) and Nazi victims
DATE OF BIRTH January 30, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH eat
DATE OF DEATH April 10, 1933
Place of death Braunschweig