Max Dittrich

Max Dittrich (* 29. July 1889 in Wilkau ; † 9. March 1976 in Alfeld ) was a German resistance fighter in the era of National Socialism . As a police officer , his moral courage saved several fellow citizens from reprisals by the Nazi state.

Life

Max Dittrich was born in Saxony as one of twelve children of a miner and an ironer . He learned the bakery trade and served in a field kitchen during the First World War . After a life-threatening dilation of the heart due to a flour dust allergy was discovered, Dittrich had to retrain. After a year at the police school in Zwickau , he joined the police force. He was free to choose between Cologne and Schöneiche near Berlin and opted for the smaller Schöneiche, as it was closer to his Saxon home.

In 1920 Dittrich moved into the service building in Schöneiche, which was not recognizable as a police station. He refused to join a party because he could not reconcile it with his official ethos. In addition to the Gutsdorf Schöneiche, the still independent village of Kleinschönebeck as well as the colonies of Fichtenau, Grätzwalde, Hohenberge and the villa colony Schöneiche belonged to the work area of ​​the only village policeman who held the rank of sergeant. Most of the time he was out here with a company bike and dog. In general, he was able to solve any problems that occurred through his natural authority, only in disputes between the Communists from Kleinschönebeck and the National Socialists from Schöneiche did he have to seek support from the Landjäger several times . In addition to his actual official business, Dittrich was also a construction policeman and state disinfector of the place, which was forcibly unified in 1939. In the mid-1930s he had to join the NSDAP in order not to lose his position.

Dittrich's importance goes back to his moral courage shown several times during National Socialism . At the end of January 1934 he went to Ludwig von Gerdtell's apartment that evening and warned him of the arrest that was to take place the next day. Gerdtell fled that night and left Germany. In January 1944, he warned the Ritscher family of the impending deportation of their mother Susanne. Her children faked suicide at Müggelsee , so Susanne Ritscher was able to flee. Thanks to Dittrich's conscientiously prepared minutes, the Gestapo accepted the events described.

Shortly before the end of the war, Dittrich fled from the advancing Red Army , as rumors of the shooting of all police officers in the Soviet-occupied part of Germany were circulating. In Wittenberge he was arrested by members of the US Army on May 8, 1945 , but released a little later. He fled further west on foot.

literature

• Jani Pietsch: I owned a garden in Schöneiche near Berlin. The managed disappearance of Jewish neighbors and their difficult return . Campus, Frankfurt / Main / New York 2006, ISBN 3-593-38027-7 , pp. 114-116 .