Max Oppenheimer (publicist)

Max Ludwig Oppenheimer (born October 20, 1919 in Karlsruhe ; † August 15, 1994 in Wiesloch ) was a German publicist, historian, trade unionist and politician.

Life

Max Ludwig Oppenheimer was born in 1919 as the son of the government building officer Leopold Oppenheimer (1881–1943) and Rositta Oppenheimer, nee. Kramer (1892–1972), born. Shortly after the birth, the family moved to Heidelberg for professional reasons , where Max Oppenheimer grew up on Landhausstrasse. Due to inflation , Leopold Oppenheimer left the civil service in 1925 and joined his father's tobacco factory in Wiesloch. At first, this proved to be an advantage after the National Socialist seizure of power in 1933, as the family was not affected by the exclusion of Jews from the civil service .

In 1936 Oppenheimer was relegated from the Heidelberg grammar school because the exclusion was foreseeable due to the anti-Semitic law against the overcrowding of German schools and universities . Oppenheimer then began an apprenticeship as a locksmith. In 1937 the family had to sell their house in Heidelberg under pressure from the state and move to Wiesloch on the factory premises. On November 10, 1938, the day after the “ Reichspogromnacht ”, Max Oppenheimer was arrested together with his father Leopold and his brother Hans (1921–1945). Leopold and Hans Oppenheimer were initially released, while Max Oppenheimer was deported to the Dachau concentration camp on the so-called “Judenexpress” . After four weeks in prison, Oppenheimer was released because Swiss relatives had agreed to take him in. He emigrated to Great Britain via Switzerland. Oppenheimer's mother, father and brother were deported to Camp de Gurs on October 22, 1940 and to the Noé internment camp in February 1942 . Leopold Oppenheimer died in Majdanek concentration camp in 1943 , Hans Oppenheimer on March 17, 1945 after a death march from Auschwitz concentration camp in Buchenwald concentration camp . Rositta Oppenheimer survived the Holocaust and returned to Wiesloch in 1946.

In May 1940 Oppenheimer was interned on the Isle of Man for a year , after which he lived in London. In 1941 he joined the Free German Cultural Association in Great Britain (FDKB) , an association of German, cultural emigrants in Great Britain, which is said to be close to the KPD . While in exile in London, Oppenheimer joined the national group of German trade unionists in Great Britain in 1942 . This was a group of emigrated trade unionists led by Hans Gottfurcht , who were influenced by social democracy and who were associated with the Union of German Socialist Organizations in Great Britain . From 1944 to 1945 he was a member of the working committee of the regional group and head of the youth working group. From 1943 to 1945 Oppenheimer belonged to the Free German Movement in Great Britain, in 1946 Oppenheimer joined the KPD.

After his return to Germany in 1947 he was district secretary of the KPD until 1950. He also worked as a journalist.

In 1967 Oppenheimer took part in the conference "Problems of Resistance and Persecution in the Third Reich as Reflected in School Books and Teaching". As a result of the conference, the study group for the research and communication of the history of the German resistance , of which Oppenheimer belonged, was established. From 1970 Oppenheimer was responsible for historical research and mediation at the Presidium of the VVN-BdA . The first exhibition Antifascist Resistance 1933-1945 of the Study Group German Resistance 1933-1945 in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt in 1971 was largely due to Max Oppenheimer. In 1973 Oppenheimer criticized the past politics of the Federal Republic of Germany in a speech to the award of the "Günther-Weisenborn-Preis" . In particular, he criticized the lack of a research assignment to document the struggle of German anti-fascists in the period from 1933 to 1945, which he regarded as politically motivated. Ricarda Huch and Günter Weisenborn saw Oppenheimer as his role models.

In 1984 Oppenheimer obtained his doctorate with the dissertation Mediation of the anti-fascist resistance 1933–1945 as a contribution to the democratic education of the young generation to become a Dr. phil. at the University of Bremen .

Publications

• Max Oppenheimer (Ed.): Eichmann and the Eichmänner. Documentary references to the group of helpers and accomplices in the "final solution" . Ludwigsburg 1961.
• Max Ludwig [Max Oppenheimer]: the diary of hans o .; Lambert Schneider, Heidelberg 1965
• Peter Altmann, Heinz Brüdigam, Barbara Mausbach-Bromberger, Max Oppenheimer: The German anti-fascist resistance 1933-1945 in pictures and documents . Ed .: Presidium of the VVN-BdA. Röderberg-Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1975.
• Max Oppenheimer, Horst Stuckmann, Rudi Schneider (eds.): When the synagogues burned. On the function of anti-Semitism yesterday and today . Röderberg-Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1978, ISBN 3-87682-595-4 , pp. 9-13 .
• Max Oppenheimer (Ed.): Antifascism - Tradition, Politics, Perspective . History and goals of the VVN - Bund der Antifaschisten. Röderberg-Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1978, ISBN 3-87682-597-0 .

literature

• Oppenheimer . Wunderhorn, Heidelberg 1998, ISBN 3-88423-132-4 .
• Günter Benser, Michael Schneider (eds.): “Preserving - Spreading - Enlightening” - archivists, librarians and collectors of the sources of the German-speaking labor movement . Förderkreis Archives and Libraries for the History of the Labor Movement, Archive of Social Democracy of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn 2009, ISBN 978-3-86872-105-8 , p. 238–241 ( library.fes.de [PDF; 5.2 MB ; accessed on March 1, 2019]).
• Oppenheimer, Max Ludwig , in: Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss (Hrsg.): Biographical manual of German-speaking emigration after 1933. Volume 1: Politics, economy, public life . Munich: Saur, 1980, p. 543

Remarks

1. ↑ Published under a pseudonym in memory of his brother.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Günter Benser, Michael Schneider (ed.): “Preserving - Spreading - Enlightening” - archivists, librarians and collectors of the sources of the German-speaking labor movement . 2009, p. 238 .
2. ↑ ^{a b} Oppenheimer, Max Ludwig. In: mahnmal-projekt-leimen.de. Memorial project glue, accessed on March 2, 2019 .  
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} The trade unions in the resistance and in emigration 1933–1945 . In: Siegfried Mielke, Matthias Frese (Hrsg.): Sources on the history of the German trade union movement in the 20th century . tape  5 . Bund-Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1999, ISBN 3-7663-0905-6 , pp. 979 , note 6 .
4. ↑ ^{a b} Survey of eyewitnesses in class. Gerbersruh Community School, accessed March 2, 2019 .  
5. ^ Oppenheimer, Leopold. In: Memorial Book - Victims of Persecution of the Jews under the National Socialist Tyranny in Germany 1933–1945. Federal Archives, accessed on March 2, 2019 .  
6. ^ Oppenheimer, Hans Bernd. In: Memorial Book - Victims of Persecution of the Jews under the National Socialist Tyranny in Germany 1933–1945. Federal Archives, accessed on March 2, 2019 .  
7. ↑ Kramer, Rositta. Memorial project glue, accessed on March 2, 2019 .  
8. ↑ The Free German Cultural Association in Great Britain (1939-1946). In: kuenste-im-exil.de. German National Library, accessed on March 2, 2019 .  
9. ↑ Ulrich Borsdorf: A document of the trade union program in emigration - The regional group of German trade unionists in Great Britain . In: German trade union federation (ed.): Trade union monthly books . tape 1976 , no. 11 . Bund-Verlag, 1976, ISSN  0016-9447 , p. 678 ( fes.de [PDF; 89 kB ; accessed on March 2, 2019]).
10. ↑ ^{a b c} Günter Benser, Michael Schneider (ed.): "Preserving - Spreading - Enlightening" - archivists, librarians and collectors of the sources of the German-speaking labor movement . 2009, p. 239 .
11. ↑ Günter Benser, Michael Schneider (ed.): "Preserving - Spreading - Enlightening" - archivists, librarians and collectors of the sources of the German-speaking labor movement . 2009, p. 241 .