Otto Brunner (Spain fighter)

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Otto Brunner (before 1939)

Otto Brunner (born October 21, 1896 in Binningen ; † February 16, 1973 in Zurich ) was a Swiss communist who commanded the Chapayev battalion on the republican side during the Spanish Civil War .

biography

Otto Brunner was born in Binningen in 1896 as the son of a typographer. He completed an apprenticeship as a mechanic . In 1913 he emigrated with his parents to Brazil, where he lived until 1927 with a short break. From 1927 he worked as a plumbing fitter in Zurich.

From 1928 to 1931 he chaired the fitters group in the Swiss Metal and Watch Workers' Association (Smuv). In 1932 he led the workers' strike in Zurich . In 1933 he was expelled from the Smuv. From 1932 to 1936 Brunner belonged to the Politburo of the Communist Party , in 1936, 1939 and 1941–42 the party secretariat. From 1934 to 1936 he was also secretary of the Zurich Cantonal Party. From 1931 to 1936 and again from 1946 to 1947 he was a member of the legislature of the city of Zurich; in the years 1935–36 and again from 1947 to 1951 he was a member of the Zurich Cantonal Council .

800 Swiss volunteers fought against Franco and the nationalist troops in the Spanish Civil War . Brunner was in Spain from mid-November 1936 to the end of 1938, initially as a political commissioner . As early as January 4, 1937, he was in command of the Chapayev storm battalion , named after the Russian civil war hero Chapayev and part of the XIII. Interbrigade of the International Brigades was. Serious combat injuries forced Brunner to stay in hospital for weeks in Spain and France after about half a year. At the end of 1937 he returned to the troops, but only performed tasks behind the front lines.

His reputation as a hero of the working class suffered from a shooting, the circumstances of which could never be fully elucidated. In any case, Brunner was accused of having shot a Swiss man in Barcelona who was considered a Trotskyist deviator. In a sensational jury trial that was carried out after his return to Winterthur, however, he was acquitted for lack of evidence.

In Switzerland, the returning Spanish fighters were legally prosecuted and most of them were sentenced to prison terms. Brunner was sentenced to six months in prison for his engagement in Spain in 1939, of which he only had to serve two months, and his civil rights were denied for three years. Together with other returnees from the KP environment, he founded the interest group of Swiss volunteers in Spain in Zurich and became its first president.

Brunner later broke with the Communist Party. In 1951 he was expelled from the Swiss Labor Party (the successor party to the banned Communist Party). When a new edition of the book Spanish War Diary by Alfred Kantorowicz was planned in the GDR in March 1956 , Kantorowicz feared that the names of Wilhelm Zaisser and Otto Brunner would have to be deleted because they had since fallen out of favor. However, the book was published without any cuts in the wake of the thaw policy .

In 1968 Brunner rejoined the Labor Party. In 1973 he died in Zurich.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Erich Günthart, Romy Günthart: Spanish opening 1936. Red Zurich, German emigrants and the fight against Franco . Chronos-Verlag, Zurich 2017, ISBN 978-3-0340-1375-8 , p. 149, 166 .
  2. ^ Josie McLellan: Antifascism and Memory in East Germany: Remembering the International Brigades . P. 64 f. Oxford University Press 2004, ISBN 0-19-927626-9 .

literature

  • Otto Brunner, La Pasionaria (d. I. Dolores Ibárruri ) and Antonio Mije: Spain on the way to freedom. Literature distribution by the Labor Party, Zurich 1946
  • Otto Brunner: The defense of Switzerland in the light of the Spanish experience. Free Switzerland publishing house, Zurich 1939
  • Max Wullschleger (Ed.): Swiss volunteers in Spain. Otto Brunner, commander of the Chapayev storm battalion. Contributions from Swiss volunteers. List of Swiss killed in Spain. Basel cooperative printing company, Basel 1938
  • Alfred Kantorowicz: Spanish War Diary. 1938. New edition: Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Cologne 1966. ISBN 3-596-25175-3 (Fischer paperback edition)
  • Willi Wottreng : Revolutionaries and cross-minds: Zurich fates. Vontobel Foundation , Zurich 2005

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Brunner, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss politicians and fighters in Spain
DATE OF BIRTH October 21, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Binningen
DATE OF DEATH 16th February 1973
Place of death Zurich