Otto Biehl

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Otto Biehl (born April 20, 1895 in Bubach ; † June 5, 1974 ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Otto Biehl first grew up in Bubach and moved with his family to Steinbach near Ottweiler , where he earned his living as a steelworker in the Neunkirchen ironworks . During the First World War he served as a non-commissioned officer and was awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd and 1st class .

In 1919 he became a member of the German Metalworkers Association and in 1920 he joined the SPD , whose local association in Steinbach he co-founded. On May 1, 1935, he was dismissed from the ironworks for economic reasons and worked as a peddler . Since he openly refused to join the Saar area to the German Reich , he lived at the subsistence level during this time. After the Anschluss, he openly opposed the system and was particularly involved in his circle of friends.

In 1935 he worked on the track construction for the Albert company on the Ostertalbahn . He openly agitated against the Nazi regime during lunch breaks and was denounced several times . His employer gave him backing, but on October 10, 1937 he was arrested and sentenced on November 4 by a special court in Saarbrücken to a sentence of six months for treachery , which he served in the Lerchesflur until March 1938 .

He was then employed again by the Albert company, but was repeatedly arrested and interrogated in the period that followed. In 1939 he was drafted into military service and was in Poland during World War II until 1940 . He was then requested again by the Albert company and worked as a chess master . From November 9 to 30, 1943, he was imprisoned in the Gestapo camp in Neue Bremm after his own daughter accused him of listening to an enemy radio station. For lack of evidence he was eventually released and had to spend the last years of the war under police supervision.

The US occupation forces appointed him mayor of Steinbach in 1945 . He then founded a local association of the Social Democratic Party of Saarland (SPS) and played a key role in gaining an absolute majority in the SPS in the municipal council election on September 15, 1946. He served as mayor until 1949 and then withdrew from active politics.

literature