Max Hoelz

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Max Hoelz in 1928 with his wife

Max Hoelz (born October 14, 1889 in Moritz near Riesa ; † September 15, 1933 near Gorki , USSR ), also spelled Hölz , was a German communist .

Life

In Germany

Max Hoelz was born the son of a farm laborer and had to contribute to the family's livelihood as a child. After attending primary school, he worked as a day laborer for various landowners, then went to Baden-Baden as a hotel servant , worked in London and, on his return to Germany, trained as a surveying technician in Berlin and Dresden . In 1915 he married Klara Buchheim, the daughter of a Falkensteiner haulage company. Politicized by military service in World War I , Hoelz was a member of the USPD from 1918 and of the KPD from 1919 .

The historian Ursula Büttner describes him as a "militarily gifted adventurer". As a labor leader in Saxony turned Hoelz - against the wishes of the KPD leadership - armed struggle groups that 1920/21 in Vogtland the uprising named after him, strongly influenced by anarchist ideas initiated (see March struggles in central Germany ). For several days, left enemies of the Republic fought a regular war with the police. Because of these activities, the KPD excluded him on the grounds of indiscipline. Hoelz now joined the left- wing communist KAPD , to which he belonged until the mid-1920s.

In 1921, Hoelz was involved in several bomb attacks against symbols of the "reaction". In 1921 he was sentenced to life imprisonment. The murder of the landowner Hess, which Hoelz was charged with, also played a role. But later the real culprit was found. On the occasion of Hoelz's prison letters published in 1927, which had been published by the well-known journalist Egon Erwin Kisch , numerous intellectuals of the republic ( Bert Brecht , Martin Buber , Otto Dix , Albert Einstein , Lion Feuchtwanger , Carl Froelich , Heinrich Mann , Thomas Mann , Ernst Rowohlt , Arnold Zweig etc.) published for the "review" of the judgment. On July 18, 1928, Hoelz, who had since rejoined the KPD, was given amnesty and released. In 1929 he emigrated to the USSR at the invitation of Josef Stalin .

In the Soviet Union

Hoelz's autobiography was published in 1929 under the title From White Cross to Red Flag . In addition to Ernst Thälmann and Heinz Neumann , he was known to a broader public as a speaker at many meetings in the Soviet Union. He acted as a mediator between German workers and their respective plant management, was increasingly disappointed by the difficult working conditions and was monitored by the GPU .

In August 1933, Hoelz's German citizenship was revoked. His name is listed in the first expatriation list of the German Reich from 1933 .

The GPU used a physical argument with an Austrian journalist in the Moscow Hotel Metropol to suggest that he stay in a state farm near Nizhny Novgorod - on the grounds that he could not be found in the course of an investigation. Shortly afterwards, on the evening of September 15, 1933, Max Hoelz allegedly drowned near Gorki in the Oka . One of the official versions of his passing speaks of drowning after capsizing his boat in a storm on the Volga and Oka.

Nizhny Novgorod. Grave of Max Hoelz in the Bugrovskoye cemetery

According to official reports, Hoelz's body was not found until three days later. It was trapped in the steel struts of the central bridge pillar about three feet below the surface of the water. With the strong current there, it seems unlikely that he should have got there by himself, and Hoelz was a good swimmer. His wife was not allowed to approach the body. Contrary to usual practice, his death was only announced in a small newspaper note. He was also not transferred to Moscow, laid out in public or buried at the Kremlin wall .

Ossip Pyatnitski , member of the Comintern Presidium , instructed some delegates and German communists to attend Hoelz's funeral. He was laid out in the local trade union building, the wake was held by participants from his infantry regiment “Max Hölz”. Because of his disfigured face, some Moscow Bolsheviks secretly traveled to Gorky after the quick burial to clarify the circumstances. They found fishermen who had seen two men in a boat near the pillars of the new Volga Bridge, beating a third person who was speaking with a strange accent. They tied their boat to a pillar and apparently kept the injured man under water. After a while they disappeared downstream at dusk. Under no circumstances were the witnesses willing to swear or even write down their statements.

Aftermath

Hoelz's biography was also the basis for the DEFA feature film Wolz - Life and Transfiguration of a German Anarchist (1973/74) by Günter Reisch (director) and Günther Rücker (scenario). In Falkenstein / Vogtl. a memorial stone for Hoelz was erected on October 14, 1989, which was cleared away on February 2, 1990. In 1972 ZDF produced the television play Max Hölz. A German didactic play (director: Rudolf Nussgruber ) based on a script by Michael Mansfeld , which premiered on July 12, 1972. Mansfeld wrote the script for Die Brücke by Bernhard Wicki as early as 1959 .

Wollenberg-Hoelz conspiracy

Publications

  • [Max Hoelz]: Hölz's accusation speech against bourgeois society. Held before the Moabit Special Court on June 22, 1921 in Berlin. According to the shorthand report. With a foreword by Felix Halle. Frankes Verlag, Leipzig / Berlin, [1921].
  • Max Hoelz: Letters from the prison. Edited and with an afterword by Egon Erwin Kisch . Erich Reiss Verlag, Berlin 1927. - (The book also contains the call of the neutral committee for Max Hoelz by Alfred Apfel, Bruno Asch, Hans Baluschek and others on pp. 117–127).
  • Max Hoelz: From the “White Cross” to the Red Flag. Youth, combat and prison experiences. Malik-Verlag, Berlin 1929. - (Reprint 1969 Verlag Neue Demokratie KG, Frankfurt, ISBN 3-8015-0037-3 ., Further reprint Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 1984, ISBN 978-3-87682-789-6 ).
  • Max Hoelz: "I greet and kiss you - Red Front!" Diaries and Letters, Moscow 1929 to 1933. Ed. [And with a foreword] by Ulla Plener . Karl Dietz Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-320-02053-6 . rosalux.de (PDF).

Documentaries and feature films

literature

(chronologically)

  • Felix Halle : Foreword to Max Hoelz's speech against bourgeois society. Berlin 1921.
  • Egon Erwin Kisch (Ed.): Max Hoelz. Letters from prison. E. Reiss, Berlin 1927.
  • Egon Erwin Kisch: Seven Years of Justice Scandal Max Hoelz , Berlin 1928.
  • Felix Hall; Alfred Apfel : Submission to the German Reichstag and the Prussian state parliament for Max Hoelz, who was sentenced to life in prison . Peuvag, Berlin 1928
  • Erich Müller: Forever in turmoil - 18 portraits of German rebels . Universum Library, Berlin 1928.
  • Walter Drobnig: The Central German uprising in 1921. Its fight by the police . Lübeck / Berlin / Hamburg 1929.
  • Hermann Weber:  Hoelz, Max. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 338 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Gernot Volger: Max Hoelz - fighter, rebel, revolutionary . In: Archive for the history of resistance and work , No. 10, 1989, pp. 109–124.
  • Manfred Gebhardt : Max Hoelz - paths and wrong turns of a revolutionary. New Life, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-355-00940-7 .
  • Reinhard Müller : The Max Hoelz case. Rebel in rank and file. In: Mittelweg. 36, Vol. 8, 1999, H. 1, pp. 78-94.
  • Peter Giersich; Bernd Kramer: Max Hoelz. He was called: arsonist and revolutionary, Robin Hood, Che Guevara, an anarchist, the Red General. His life and his struggle . Karin Kramer Verlag, Berlin 2000.
  • Reinhard Müller: Moscow human trap. Exile and Stalinist Persecution . Hamburg editions, Hamburg 2001.
  • Volkmar Schöneburg : Max Hoelz (1889-1933): Questions to the Weimar judiciary because of its legal burden. Three letters from the penitentiary . In: Yearbook for Research on the History of the Labor Movement , Issue I / 2003.
  • Ulla Plener (Ed.): Max Hoelz: “I greet and kiss you - Red Front!” Diaries and letters, Moscow 1929 to 1933. Karl Dietz Verlag, Berlin 2005.
  • Diethart Kerbs : Lifelines. German biographies from the 20th century . With an afterword by Arno Klönne . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89861-799-4 .
  • Christian Heisenberg: The black heart or the true story of the life and death of Max Hoelz. A political biography . Berlin / Plauen 2010. ISBN 3-00-009658-2
  • Hoelz, Max . In: Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German Communists. Biographical Handbook 1918 to 1945 . 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Karl Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 .
  • Peter Giersich: News about Max Hoelz: His stay in the CSR 1920. In: Yearbook for research on the history of the workers' movement. Issue I / 2013.
  • Ludwig Bergmann: Max Hölz. His entire biography and the true goings-on when he was arrested . Packing paper publishing house, Osnabrück o. J.
  • Norbert Marohn : Hoelz. Biography of a future . Lychatz Verlag, Leipzig 2014, ISBN 978-3-942929-86-8
  • Michael Eckardt: "This dog that no longer wanted to parry": Three documents and a contemporary witness report on the occasion of the 125th birthday of Max Hoelz (1889–1933) . In: Contributions to the History of the Labor Movement 56 (2014) 2: 39-62.

Web links

Commons : Max Hoelz  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ursula Büttner, Weimar. The overwhelmed republic. 1918-1933. Stuttgart 2008, p. 182.
  2. ↑ Ursula Büttner, Weimar. The overwhelmed republic. 1918-1933. Stuttgart 2008, p. 182.
  3. ↑ Ursula Büttner, Weimar. The overwhelmed republic. 1918-1933. Stuttgart 2008, p. 182.
  4. ↑ Michael Hepp (Ed.): The expatriation of German citizens 1933-45 according to the lists published in the Reichsanzeiger . tape 1 : Lists in chronological order. De Gruyter Saur, Munich 1985, ISBN 978-3-11-095062-5 , pp. 3 (reprinted 2010).
  5. ↑ Max Hölz. A German patriot . Publishing Cooperative of Foreign Workers, Moscow / Leningrad 1933, pp. 35–39.
  6. ^ David Pike : German writers in Soviet exile. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1981, pp. 417-418 and 472.
  7. ↑ Jörg B. Bilke: Killed and drowned in the Volga . In: Gerbergasse 18 , Issue 51, 4/2008, pp. 32-33
personal data
SURNAME Hoelz, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German communist politician
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Moritz near Riesa
DATE OF DEATH September 15, 1933
Place of death at Gorky