Max Zschoke

Max Zschoke (born April 2, 1873 in Wilsdruff ; † June 1952 ) by profession wood turner , was for many years an unpaid city ​​councilor and city ​​councilor in Wilsdruff and there since 1896 for 50 years the foreman of the local social democracy . In the evening hours of May 7, 1945, he and two other citizens saved the city of Wilsdruff from threatened destruction at the risk of his life.

Childhood, vocational training

The Zschoke family only moved to Wilsdruff in the second half of the 19th century. The father, bricklayer Ernst Wilhelm Zschoke, was born on July 7th 1843 in Grund near Mohorn . In Wilsdruff he married Auguste Karoline Ehrhardt, born in 1851. The family lived on what was then Bahnhofstrasse, now Freiberger Strasse. The marriage resulted in 9 children, three of whom were of compulsory schooling after the early death of the father. Max Zschoke was born on April 2, 1873 as one of the older children. Around 1890 he learned the wood turning trade and attended the advanced training school in Wilsdruff.

Social democrat

At that time, the Wilsdruffer woodworkers Hildebrand, Logemann and Schlichenmaier were already agitating fairly successfully for the ideas of social democracy. The alternative, advocated by school principal Gerhard, "to maintain the existing divine order, everyone is subject to the authorities", could hardly serve as a perspective for an up-and-coming generation at that time. Max Zschoke joined the SPD as early as 1890 (several of his siblings soon followed) and went on a journey in the first half of the 1890s. After his return in 1896, he took over the leadership of the Wilsdruffer Social Democrats for exactly half a century. Until a few years after the turn of the century, he was also the elected shop steward of the Wilsdruffer woodworkers.

As early as 1896 and 1899, he organized the first two Wilsdruffer woodworkers' strikes , which the apparently surprised manufacturers barely opposed and finally met the demands of the carpenters. The great Wilsdruffer woodworkers' strike in 1904, which Max Zschoke also organized, was much more intense for more than four months. Gustav Stresemann , who later became Chancellor and then syndic of the Saxon industrialists, asked for the support of the furniture manufacturers in Wilsdruffer in a letter that was widespread across Saxony. The strike ended with a compromise.

Working life

When the Löbtau consumer association opened a branch on Meißner Strasse in Wilsdruff in May 1900, Max Zschoke was hired as a warehouse keeper. He had to deposit the high sum of 600 marks, which he only managed with the support of other Social Democrats. After retiring from consumption, he started his own business in 1910 as a bookseller on Nossener Straße 4 (today Augenoptik Rastig) in Wilsdruff. His family had lived in this house since around 1920 and gave up their previous residence on Friedhofstrasse.

City Councilor

In 1907 Max Zschoke was elected city councilor as the first Wilsdruffer social democrat. Even at the beginning of his activity it was clearly recognizable that housing construction was to become a focus of his decades of parliamentary activity, if not the one. Even before the First World War, he promoted non-profit housing construction through the city, calculating for his fellow city councilors that the lack of small apartments in particular hampered the growth of the city and the further development of the furniture industry because carpentry families could no longer find a place to stay. In 1913, this point of view also prevailed in the city council and they started looking for building land.

When the First World War broke out in the summer of 1914, he was one of the first to be called up and had to serve until the end. After returning home in November 1918, Zschoke was one of the founders of the Wilsdruffer Workers' Council and with it ended the old order in his hometown on November 18, 1918, without even the slightest resistance.

City council

When Max Zschoke was re-elected city councilor in 1919 and served as an unpaid city councilor from 1920 to 1933, he was already in his fifth decade and at the height of his work. It is largely thanks to him that public housing construction began in the city as early as 1919 by the non-profit building company Wilsdruff and the so-called “Ministerviertel”, a closed small housing estate, was created. In the following years his commitment in this field did not decrease. The construction of the "Randsiedlung" above Nossener Straße, which began in 1932, was largely due to his work, as was the construction of the air and swimming pool in 1926 with funds from "productive unemployment welfare". At the same time he was firmly rooted in a large number of workers' associations. A highlight for Max Zschoke was certainly the celebration of the 30th foundation festival by the “Brudergruss” choral society in 1927. He gave the address to 750 people in the “Lindenschlösschen”. His commitment was surely crowned on November 13, 1932, when the Wilsdruffer Social Democrats, with Max Zschoke at their head, were clearly the strongest party in the upcoming city council elections and thus prevented the NSDAP from gaining a majority in free elections in the city.

During the time of National Socialism , Zschoke behaved in an outwardly apolitical manner, but his bookstore ("adorned" with a large picture of Hitler in the entrance area) was at times a place to go for secret meetings with other Social Democrats. At the beginning of 1945, in view of the looming defeat of Hitler's Germany in World War II , such activities were intensified and contact was apparently made with other personalities in the city.

May 7, 1945: At the risk of his life ...

On May 7, 1945, the front stood directly in front of Wilsdruff. The declared a fortress and SS - tanks defended city was under attack of the Red Army , threatened a disaster. On this day, Max Zschoke made lasting contributions to his hometown. Together with two other citizens, he handed Wilsdruff over to the Red Army with the white flag in hand and at the risk of his life. Contemporary witness noted:

Countless direct hits, everything is crouching in the cellars. At around 7 p.m. Max Zschoke and architect Kuhr set out to move the German troops to evacuate. The commander of the SS tanks brusquely explains that the population should flee to the Tharandt forest , there is enough space there. The tanks left town around 9 p.m. At the same time, however, increased artillery and tank fire started on Wilsdruff. At around 10:30 pm, Max Zschoke and Rud get together. Kluss again, this time to get in touch with the Russians. You come across three Red Army soldiers on Meißner Strasse. The officer says he will search the cellars in a few hours. If he finds German soldiers, he will have them shot. At dawn, Kluss and Zschoke went home. Red Army troops sat in the market.

Retirement

In September 1946, Zschoke was re-elected as a city councilor. At this point in time he gave up the local chairmanship of the SED , which he had held since the forced unification of the SPD and KPD . His public engagement decreased noticeably and at the end of the electoral term in 1950 he voluntarily resigned as a city councilor. When he died very old in June 1952 of complications from pneumonia , the city of Wilsdruff did not respond to this public response. An obituary notice of the family in the Sächsische Zeitung was the only noticeable utterance.

swell

• Lettau, Mario: We are the part of Wilsdruff on which its good reputation is based! - The history of social democracy in the furniture town of Wilsdruff. Wilsdruff 2003.
• Eberhard Reichelt: Wilsdruff in World War II - Experiences, Events & Episodes. Reports of a difficult time in and around our hometown. Wilsdruff 2006