Oswald Wiersich
Oswald Wiersich (born September 1, 1882 in Breslau , † March 1, 1945 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a German trade unionist and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime .
Life
The trained mechanical engineer got involved in the labor movement early on. In 1912 he became an authorized representative of the German Metalworkers' Association in Wroclaw, and in 1923 he was district secretary of the General German Trade Union Confederation in Silesia . Later he became a member of the union's federal executive committee. For the SPD he was a member of the Provincial Parliament of Silesia and was sent by this to the Prussian State Council .
In March 1933, soon after the National Socialists “ seized power ” , he was placed in protective custody for several weeks . After the union was broken up, he worked as an accountant and insurance agent.
From 1935 Wiersich was actively involved in trade union resistance against the Nazi regime. Among other things, he maintained close contact with Wilhelm Leuschner , with several representatives of the "Illegal Reichsleitung" of the trade unions and later also close ties to the resistance group around Ludwig Beck . Wiersich is said to have played a particularly active role in coordinating trade union resistance in Silesia .
After the failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944 , he was arrested on August 22, 1944 and taken to the Groß-Rosen concentration camp .
On February 26, 1945 he was sentenced to death by the “ People's Court ” together with Franz Leuninger and Fritz Voigt . One of the defendants was Wilhelm Winzer , who was sentenced to three years in prison. Wiersich was beheaded only a few days after the verdict was pronounced, on March 1, 1945, shortly before 11 a.m., in the Plötzensee execution site . Fritz Goerdeler had been beheaded there just a few minutes earlier . A few minutes after Wiersich's murder, Fritz Voigt and Franz Leuninger were executed in the same place.
memory
In the Paul Hertz settlement near the Plötzensee execution site, the Wiersichweg was named after him.
See also
literature
- Oswald Wiersich . In: Franz Osterroth : Biographical Lexicon of Socialism . Vol. 1, Hanover 1960, p. 335.
- Siegfried Mielke , Stefan Heinz : Railway trade unionists in the Nazi state. Persecution - Resistance - Emigration (1933–1945) . Metropol-Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-86331-353-1 , pp. 225–228, 264, 377, 411, 619.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wiersichweg. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near Kaupert )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wiersich, Oswald |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German trade unionists, resistance fighters |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 1, 1882 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wroclaw |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 1, 1945 |
| Place of death | Berlin-Plötzensee |