Oskar Walz

Oskar Walz (born July 2, 1904 in Leipzig , † November 25, 1993 in Berlin ) was a German syndicalist and communist union official and resistance fighter .

Life

Walz grew up in a social democratic family. He attended elementary school and learned the mechanic's trade. He then worked in the AEG equipment factory in Berlin-Treptow , and later also in the Klingenberg power station.

In 1920 Walz joined the KAPD . At the same time he was involved in the radical council communist union Allgemeine Arbeiter-Union - Einheitsorganization (AAUE). Until 1928 he was part of the AAUE management. About 1930/31 joined the KPD . From 1930 onwards, Walz became a member of the Union of Metal Workers in Berlin (EVMB), for which he soon took on functions. So he became EVMB district manager for the districts of Neukölln and Treptow. At the same time he belonged to the "extended board" of the association.

After the National Socialists came to power , Walz continued to work as an instructor for the now illegal EVMB. In 1933 he was very active in the resistance of the association, which was one of the largest trade union resistance groups in the early phase of the Nazi regime. In addition to Rudolf Lentzsch , Walter Kautz , Wilhelm Bielefeld and August Bolte , Walz is one of the most important functionaries of the illegal EVMB. From mid-1933, Walz coordinated the illegal work for the association districts Neukölln-Britz, Neukölln-Treptow, Tempelhof, Marienfelde and Schöneberg-Steglitz-Lichterfelde-Friedenau-Schmargendorf-Wilmersdorf, each of which had a manager who was responsible for Walz.

On December 14, 1933, the Gestapo arrested Walz on suspicion of "preparing a treasonous enterprise". He was taken to the Gestapo's “house prison” (Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse 8). The communist was then imprisoned in the Columbia-Haus and Oranienburg concentration camps, later also in the police headquarters on Alexanderplatz and in the Berlin-Moabit prison. On June 19, 1934, the Fourth Criminal Senate of the Higher Regional Court in Berlin sentenced Walz to a prison term of two and a half years for “preparing for high treason”.

After his release from prison he worked again as a metal worker or mechanic. During the Second World War he was drafted and was taken prisoner by the United States at the end of the war.

From the summer of 1949 Walz lived in Berlin again. He joined the SED and the FDGB . He worked for the GDR Chamber of Commerce and Industry for a long time .

literature

• Stefan Heinz , Siegfried Mielke (ed.): Functionaries of the unified association of metal workers in Berlin in the Nazi state. Resistance and persecution (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - resistance - emigration. Volume 2). Metropol, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86331-062-2 , pp. 24, 30 ff., 39, 60, 84, 138, 153, 175, 282 ff. (Short biography).
• Stefan Heinz : Moscow's mercenaries? "The Union of Metal Workers in Berlin": Development and failure of a communist union. VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89965-406-6 , pp. 152, 291, 312, 324, 369, 395, 529.
• Stefan Heinz, "Red Association" and resistance group. Der Einheitsverband der Metallarbeiters Berlins (1930–1935) , In: information - Scientific journal of the study group German Resistance 1933–1945, 42nd year (2017), No. 85, pp. 10–15.

Web links

• Marie-Carolyn Hars and Stefan Heinz: Short biography in the internet exhibition about political prisoners in Oranienburg concentration camp