Max Leven
Max Leven , actually Max Levy , (born June 12, 1882 in Diedenhofen , Lorraine , † November 10, 1938 in Solingen ) was a German journalist . In 1938 he was murdered by leading members of the Solingen NSDAP during the Night of the Pogroms .
biography
Communist and journalist
Max Leven completed an apprenticeship as an export merchant, including several years in Milan , a time that shaped him culturally and during which he discovered his love for opera. Before the First World War he married Emmi Buchthal and in 1916 moved with her and their son Heinz to Solingen, where he initially worked as a clerk. The daughters Hannah and Anita were born in 1917 and 1920. In 1918 Leven became a member of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD), but shortly afterwards switched to the KPD , to which his wife also belonged from 1929. He later worked as the cultural editor of the KPD newspaper Bergische Arbeiterstimme , for which the later spy Richard Sorge worked until 1922 , and was a member of the art committee and judicial assistance in Solingen for his party . He was of Jewish descent but, unlike his wife, did not practice.
After the seizure of power
In 1933 Max Leven was temporarily imprisoned in the Kemna concentration camp in Wuppertal because of his membership in the KPD ; the Bergische workers voice was banned. In April 1936 Leven was arrested again with his wife on alleged communist conspiracies, but released a few weeks later.
During the Reichspogromnacht from November 9th to 10th, 1938, four leading members of the Solingen NSDAP, who had already participated in the arson at the Solingen synagogue , forcibly gained access to the Levens' apartment; including the SS member Armin Ritter (adjutant of the district leader Helmut Otto ), Arthur Bolthausen and the manager of the savings and construction association Solingen , Franz Eickhorn. Bedridden Max Leven, who was particularly hated by them as a Jew and Communist, was tortured in the presence of his family and then downright executed by Ritter with a pistol shot. The next morning Leven's wife wandered through the Solingen city center completely disturbed and only lightly dressed in stockings. The Lord Mayor of Solingen, Rudolf Brückmann , was informed of the murder, but the perpetrators remained at large.
Max Leven's wife Emmi and daughters Hannah and Anita were later deported and murdered in various concentration camps . The fate of his son Heinz, who was probably able to emigrate early, is unknown; his last known place of residence was Paris .
In 1949 the four perpetrators in Wuppertal were charged with murder and crimes against humanity . However, only mild sentences of between one and a half and three years in prison were imposed on them. The former Solingen mayor Brückmann was acquitted.
Max Leven Center
In 1979, the street in Solingen where the Leven family had lived was named after Max Leven and a stumbling block was laid there in 2004 ; In 1991 the city had a memorial stone erected for him and his wife in the Jewish cemetery after students from the Alexander Coppel Comprehensive School had determined the previously unknown location of Leven's grave. The fate of his relatives was researched by Solingen students at the Schwertstrasse grammar school in 2002.
The house in which the Leven family lived in downtown Solingen until 1940 is to be demolished from 2021. The new headquarters of the Solinger Sparkasse is to be built on the property by 2023. The future head office of the Sparkasse will continue to commemorate the Nazi victim Max Leven by integrating a 150 square meter Max Leven Center in Solingen. The Max Leven Center is intended to serve as an educational and memorial site and bring the public closer to the various aspects of persecution and resistance during the Nazi era .
On May 7, 2020, the Max Leven Center for Education and Memorial in the Center for Persecuted Arts opened with the exhibition ... and to say out loud: No. opened.
literature
- Lutz Peters, Horst Sassin : Max and Emmy Leven - fate of a family. In: Manfred Krause (ed.): "... that I had to leave the place of happiness before my death." Contributions to the history of Jewish life in Solingen. Solinger Geschichtswerkstatt eV, Solingen 2000, ISBN 3-9805443-3-8 , pp. 153–157.
- Inge Sbosny, Karl Schabrod : Resistance in Solingen. From the life of anti-fascist fighters. Röderberg, Frankfurt am Main 1975.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Max, Emmi, Heinz, Hannah and Anita Leven on solingen.de ( Memento of the original from December 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Solingen - Chronik 1949, July 21 ( Memento of the original from May 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 629 kB)
- ↑ Solingen - Chronicle 1949 on solingen.de ( Memento of the original from May 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 629 kB)
- ↑ Gesamtschule-solingen.de
- ↑ https://rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/solingen/solingen-verein-bildungs-und-gedenkstaette-max-leven-zentrum-gegruendet_aid-45936755
- ↑ https://solingenmagazin.de/verein-bildungs-und-gedenkstaette-max-leven-zentrum-gegruendet/
- ↑ https://stolpersteine-solingen.de/perspektiven-fuer-bildungs-und-gedenkstaette-an-der-max-leven-gasse/1165
- ↑ Solingen - Chronik 1949, July 21 ( Memento of the original from May 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 629 kB)
- ↑ https://rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/solingen/solingen-ab-2021-wird-die-neue-sparkasse-gebaut_aid-38995745
- ↑ "... and to say out loud: No." - Résumé instead of opening
See also
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Leven, Max |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Levy, Max (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German politician (USPD, SPD) and journalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 12, 1882 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Diedenhofen , Lorraine |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 10, 1938 |
| Place of death | Solingen |