Otto Kropp
Otto Kropp (born May 7, 1907 in Elberfeld , † May 25, 1937 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a German resistance fighter .
Life
Kropp was a casual worker, he sometimes worked as an errand boy or as a packer and textile worker. He was active in the workers' sports movement . In 1931 he became a member of the KPD and the RFB .
At the beginning of 1933 he was attacked several times by SA thugs after they had been declared auxiliary police. In May 1933 he emigrated to the Netherlands to avoid further abuse. Together with his childhood friend Ewald Funke , he agreed to support the resistance struggle in Germany as an instructor for the KPD Central Committee . From September 1934 he repeatedly traveled illegally to Essen to support the KPD resistance groups there and to supply them with information materials.
In August 1935 he went to Cologne and, together with Kurt Bachmann and Ulrich Osche, reorganized the KPD organization, which had been weakened by mass arrests. He succeeded in reestablishing the broken contacts with anti-fascist workers at Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz , the main railway workshops and in other large companies. As a result of his initiative, several illegal newspapers were published, some of which were also specifically aimed at SA members and police officers. At the same time he maintained regular contact with the representatives of the Central Committee section leadership in Amsterdam . During his stays in Cologne he also tried to implement the popular front policy decided by the KPD in October 1935 . In doing so, he managed to gain contacts with Catholic resistance groups and to start an action with them to support political prisoners. Kropp also received support from Eugen Zander .
In March 1936 Otto Kropp was arrested by the Gestapo and tortured for weeks in order to obtain names and information about his contacts. Since he did not reveal anything, a death sentence was passed against him in January 1937 .
In his memory , a stumbling block was laid at his former address in Cologne-Ehrenfeld by the artist Gunter Demnig .
literature
- Luise Kraushaar : German resistance fighters 1933 to 1945. Berlin 1970 Volume 1, p. 531ff
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kropp, Otto |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German communist and resistance fighter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 7, 1907 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Elberfeld |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 25, 1937 |
| Place of death | Berlin-Plötzensee |