Max Sellheim

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Max Sellheim (born June 26, 1883 in Berlin ; † May 3, 1945 in Siggelkow ) was a German politician ( KPD ) and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Memorial plaque on the Sellheim Bridge, in Berlin-Blankenburg

Sellheim learned after visiting the elementary school the profession of lithographer and later worked as a painter . In 1905 he joined the Association of Painters, Varnishers, House Painter, Tüncher and Weißbinder in Germany and in 1910 became a member of the SPD .

In the First World War he did military service as a soldier from 1915 to 1918 . During the war, Sellheim joined the USPD . In 1920 he was elected to the district assembly of Kreuzberg for the USPD , but joined the KPD in the same year. From 1923 to 1925, Sellheim was employed at the Siemens plant in Berlin-Siemensstadt , where he was a works council. He then worked as a travel agent for communist newspapers until 1930 . From January 1931 to the end of 1933 he was a correspondent at the commercial agency of the USSR in Berlin.

From 1923 to 1929 Sellheim was a member of the Berlin city council . In December 1924 he moved to the Prussian state parliament as a member of parliament . He was a member until 1928. In 1928 he was elected district councilor in Berlin-Charlottenburg . From 1925 Sellheim was a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg (-Lausitz) district leadership of the KPD.

After the National Socialists “ seized power ” in 1933, Sellheim continued to work for the illegal KPD. At the end of 1933 he became unemployed. Sellheim was particularly active for the forbidden Red Aid Germany (RHD), which, among other things, organized support for the families of those arrested. He was agitprop head of section line A of the sub-district Berlin-Pankow / Vineta, Berlin-Pankow / Land, Berlin-Weißensee , Berlin-Nordring, Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin-Friedrichshain (Strausberger Platz and Zentralviehhof) and Berlin-Lichtenberg I and II of the RHD as well as head of the illegal RHD from Berlin-Pankow. Sellheim ensured that the Pankow Church was regularly supplied with illegal RHD material. Sellheim was arrested on April 7, 1935 and was imprisoned for three and a half months in the Gestapo headquarters at Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Accused on August 27, 1937, he was sentenced on November 2, 1936 by the “ People's Court ” to five years in prison for “preparation for high treason ”. He was then imprisoned in the Brandenburg-Görden , Dessau-Roßlau and Zweibrücken prisons. After his imprisonment had expired, Sellheim was not released, but was taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp . He was one of about 1,500 prisoners who were driven from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on a " death march " towards Schwerin shortly before the end of the war . Lying exhausted by the road, Sellheim was murdered by the SS in Siggelkow (Mecklenburg) .

Honors

Stumbling block for Max Sellheim
  • Plaque on the wall of the memorial of the socialists in Friedrichsfelde
  • The Sellheim Bridge over the Berlin outer ring in Berlin-Blankenburg was named after him. It is not far from his last apartment at Mittelstrasse 20. A metal plaque installed there in 1959 commemorates the resistance fighter.
  • In June 2009 a stumbling block was laid for Sellheim in front of the house at Naunynstraße 2 Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg.

Web links

Commons : Max Sellheim  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Hans-Joachim Fieber et al. (Ed.): Resistance in Berlin against the Nazi regime 1933 to 1945. A biographical lexicon. Volume 7 [S]. Trafo-Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89626-357-9 , p. 227.
  • Christine Fischer-Defoy (Ed.): Put in front of the door. Berlin city councilors and members of the magistrate persecuted during National Socialism from 1933 to 1945 . Active Museum Association, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-00-018931-9 , p. 346f.
  • Sellheim, Max . In: Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst (ed.): German communists. Biographical Handbook 1918 to 1945 . 2nd revised and greatly expanded edition. Karl Dietz Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 .
  • Joachim Bennewitz: Max Sellheim for the 125th memories of an anti-fascist MP . In: Our sheet. Berlin VVN-BdA . Issue 39, September 2008, p. 10.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Illustration of the memorial plaque
  2. ↑ biography, portrait of Sellmann as well as illustration of the Stolperstein on the page "Stolpersteine ​​in Berlin".
personal data
SURNAME Sellheim, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (KPD), trade unionist and resistance fighters
DATE OF BIRTH June 26, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH May 3, 1945
Place of death Siggelkow