Otto Renois

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Otto Renois, around 1930

Otto Renois (born August 8, 1892 in Griesel , † April 4, 1933 in Bonn ) was a model carpenter and city councilor for the KPD . He is considered the first person to be killed by National Socialism in Bonn.

Live and act

Renois was born in Griesel (since 1945 Gryżyna ) in the Brandenburg district of Crossen (Oder) , where he learned the carpentry trade. He came to Bonn as a traveling journeyman , where he settled in 1919. In 1922 he married Margarethe Schlimbach from Bonn, and in 1927 their son Manfred was born. The family lived in Poppelsdorf . In 1925 Renois passed his master craftsman examination. He was a member of the German Woodworkers' Association and worked at the Kessenicher furniture factory Kürten & Dinter, where he was dismissed at the end of 1927, presumably because of his work as manager . He remained unemployed until his death.

Political commitment

On November 17, 1929, Renois was elected to the Bonn City Council at number 3 of the Bonn KPD, where he established his party a. a. represented in the welfare and building committees. The focus of his engagement was on social policy, to which a large number of inquiries and applications from his pen bear testimony, from rent subsidies for recipients of support to raising welfare rates to setting up soup kitchens. Renois was one of the four Bonn city councilors during the Weimar Republic who were elected to the council out of unemployment.

In addition to his work on the council, he also appeared as a public speaker at KPD events. In September 1931, the interest group for working-class culture organized a so-called sports and culture day on Bonn's Venusberg together with the Dynamo Bonn sports association . Renois signed as responsible for the association.

In illegality

As early as January 30, 1933 - immediately after the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists - Renois went into hiding and hid in various apartments in Cologne and Bonn, including in the barber shop of his brother-in-law Hans Höfs. In the early city council elections on March 12, the KPD still received 7.1% of the vote, despite the persecution that began in the wake of the Reichstag fire , which would have allowed it to continue to have three council seats. However, the elected city councilors of the KPD - including Renois - were no longer invited to the constituent meeting of the Bonn city council on March 31.

assassination

Stumbling stone in Jagdweg 45

In contrast to his comrades Wilhelm Parsch and Heinrich Lein, who were also elected to the council (in " protective custody " since March 1 and 23, respectively), Renois initially managed to evade arrest. This made him the “most wanted KPD functionary in Bonn”. On the evening of April 3, he returned to his Poppelsdorf apartment, presumably to say goodbye to his family before he wanted to flee to the Saar area, which was then administered by the League of Nations . On this occasion, an SS patrol took him into “protective custody”. He was mistreated in the vehicle when he was taken away. According to Höfs, Renois' hat was thrown out of the car on Poppelsdorfer Allee . When Renois obeyed orders to retrieve the hat, he was shot at. At around 1:30 a.m. on the morning of April 4, he was admitted to the surgical university clinic with a throat wound, where he was operated on by Alfred Gütgemann . At around 5:30 a.m. he died of cardiovascular failure .

Margarethe Renois was only informed after the death of her husband. She and her brother-in-law Höfs were asked to identify Renois' body in the forensic institute. On this occasion Höfs managed to secretly take a photo. Instead of the corpse, the widow was given an urn some time later.

aftermath

Grave of Otto Renois in the Poppelsdorf cemetery

On April 5, 1933, a short report from the office of the acting Lord Mayor Ludwig Rickert appeared in the Bonner General-Anzeiger , claiming that Renois had been shot "while on the run". However, doubts soon arose about this official version. Höfs circulated copies of his secret recording to draw attention to the murder of Renois, suspected by large parts of the population. A large crowd gathered for the funeral on April 15th.

Margarethe Renois filed a complaint against Peter Holzhauer, the leader of the SS patrol, who had arrested her husband. On the night of June 1st, friends of the Renois wrote on a house facade in Wilhelmstrasse (where the district court was also located) “ When is the Renois murder trial - Holzhauer? ". A short time later a communist leaflet was circulated with the same question. Holzhauer, a member of the NSDAP and the Bonn SS since 1930, was appointed auxiliary policeman after the "seizure of power" . He was specifically responsible for the arrests and interrogations of political suspects and was considered extremely violent by both political opponents and his own people. The investigation was closed in 1934 without charge. Margarethe Renois' complaint to the Ministry of Justice was also unsuccessful.

At the end of August 1933, a letter from Bonn carpenter Johann Radermacher to a Dutch family was confiscated and opened. In it he reported on the situation in Bonn immediately after the "seizure of power". Mainly because of his detailed descriptions of nocturnal arrests and mistreatment by the SA and SS - the fate of Renois, whom he described as a "very good friend", he describes in detail - and the fact that the letter was addressed abroad, Radermacher was told on 17 November. because of treachery sentenced to the maximum penalty of two years in prison.

Margarethe Renois was arrested on July 24, 1935 because of contacts with Heinrich Lein and Wilhelm Parsch. Parsch and Lein were part of a communist resistance group that worked closely with the student resistance group around Walter Markov . On May 9, 1936, she was sentenced to two years in prison for “preparation for high treason” in a “less serious case”. During her imprisonment, her husband's grave was confiscated and the memorial stone was removed. In 1940 she was able to restore the grave with the help of an SA storm leader she knew.

After 1945

A detailed report on the circumstances of Otto Renois' death appeared on April 4, 1946 in the Communist Volksstimme , which had recently been founded . The author complained about the failure to clarify the case legally and the coverage of the alleged perpetrator Peter Holzhauer by the responsible authorities. The Bonn city director wrote to the public prosecutor's office in 1948 that “Peter Holzhauer, who is generally known in Bonn as violent and dangerous”, had been targeted on Otto Renois. Again, due to a lack of evidence, there was a preliminary investigation.

Honors

Street sign in the Reutersiedlung in Bonn with new legend text (2018)

By decision of the Bonn City Council of 5 August 1949 in the then emerging Reuter settlement in northern Kesse ego a street named after Renois.

The memorial book of persecuted city and community officials compiled by the Bonn city archives is kept in a showcase in front of the council chamber in the Bonn town hall . There is also an entry on Renois.

His grave in the Poppelsdorf cemetery is on the list of honorary graves .

It is part of the wall installation in the memorial room at the Bonn Memorial . The memorial book on display there dedicates a detailed article to him.

In 2004 a stumbling block was laid in front of his former residence in the Poppelsdorfer Jagdweg .

On April 4, 2018, members of the Bonn district association of the Die Linke party laid a wreath on his grave on the occasion of Renois' 85th anniversary of his death. A board member gave a memorial speech. On May 15, the Bonn district council unanimously decided on a new text for the legendary signs on Renoisstrasse at the request of the party.

Judgments about Renois from his contemporaries

Renois was "respected and recognized because of his social commitment across party lines". Even the NS Mayor Rickert is said to have said, "Renois was a calm, matter-of-fact, distinguished person who enjoyed general popularity." Long-time CDU city councilor Therese Körner called Renois a "nobleman".

literature

  • Horst-Pierre Bothien: 6. O. Js. 458/35. The great trial of a resistance group of communists and socialists in Bonn in 1936. StadtMuseum Bonn, 2017, ISBN 978-3-931878-49-8 .
  • Lothar Schenkelberg: The Bonn city council in the Weimar Republic. A biographical lexicon . Bonner Geschichtswerkstatt , Bonn 2014, ISBN 978-3-9806609-7-6 .
  • Horst-Pierre Bothien: "... against any disturbance of the internal front." Bonners before the Cologne special court . Klartext , Essen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8375-0884-0 .
  • Josef Niesen : Bonn Personal Lexicon. 3rd, improved and enlarged edition. Bouvier, Bonn 2011, ISBN 978-3-416-03352-7 .
  • Horst-Pierre Bothien: The brown Bonn. People and Events (1925–1939) . Klartext, Essen 2005, ISBN 3-89861-419-0 .
  • Wolfgang Alt , Heribert Faber, Christian Kleist, Helmut Uessem: Poppelsdorf. Chronicle 1904–2004. Festschrift 100 years of the district of Bonn. Bonn 2004, ISBN 3-00-013953-2 .
  • Dieter Partzsch: You once lived in Kessenich. Life and work of well-known Kessenich citizens, including the personalities after whom streets in Kessenich are named . Bonn 1997.
  • Nazi murder went unpunished. In: Paul Zurnieden: Bonner Geschichte (n) . Bonn 1994, pp. 158-161.
  • Association "An der Synagoge" (Ed.): Bonn and the Nazi era. The Nazi period in the Spiegel Bonner Postwar Newspapers (1946–1949) . Bonn 1990.
  • Helmut Vogt : Bonn in times of war and crisis (1914–1948) . In: Dietrich Höroldt (Hrsg.): History of the city of Bonn. Volume 4, Dümmler, Bonn 1989, ISBN 3-427-82141-2 .
  • City Archives Bonn (ed.): The National Socialist "seizure of power" in Bonn 1932/33. A documentation from Bonn newspapers. Bonn 1983.

Web links

Commons : Otto Renois  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Bothien 2016, p. 12, Niesen 2011, p. 385, Vogt 1989, p. 528.
  2. ↑ cf. Bothien 2012, p. 22.
  3. ↑ Confiscation action completed ..... Labournet Germany , accessed on May 29, 2017 (speech by Andreas Buderus, working group against racism and right-wing extremism of ver.di NRW-Süd, on November 9, 2001 in front of the University of Bonn .).
  4. ↑ a b c cf. Schenkelberg 1999, p. 141.
  5. ↑ Alt u. a. 2004, p. 37.
  6. ↑ a b Niesen 2011, p. 384.
  7. ↑ a b Zurnieden 1994, p. 159.
  8. ↑ Schenkelberg 2014, p. 27.
  9. ↑ Bothien 2017, p. 12.
  10. ↑ Bernhard Berzheim: Venusberg - The balcony of Bonn, history of a neighborhood. Bonner Heimat- und Geschichtsverein, Stadtarchiv, 2001, ISBN 3-922832-31-8 , p. 115.
  11. ↑ cf. Zurnieden 1994, pp. 158-159.
  12. ↑ Stumbling block at openstreetmap.org  on OpenStreetMap
  13. ↑ cf. Schenkelberg 2014, pp. 184/148.
  14. ↑ Bothien 2005, p. 40.
  15. ↑ a b c d e f Zurnieden 1994, p. 160.
  16. ↑ Bothien 2005, p. 143.
  17. ↑ GA v. April 5, 1933 From the office of the State Commissioner: the communist city councilor Renois shot while trying to escape. reprinted in: Stadtarchiv Bonn, 1983, newspaper article 107
  18. ↑ cf. Bothien 2005, pp. 40/41/143
  19. ↑ Partzsch 1997, p. 134.
  20. ↑ Bothien 2005, pp. 40–42.
  21. ↑ Bothien 2012, pp. 20–22.
  22. ↑ Bothien 2017, pp. 29, 38, 45.
  23. ↑ Vogt 1989, p. 528.
  24. ^ Fritz Tewes: In memoriam Otto Renois. In: Volksstimme. April 4, 1946, reprinted in: Association "An der Synagoge" 1990, p. 2.
  25. ↑ Bothien 2005, p. 114.
  26. ↑ Renoisstraße in Bonner Straße cadastral
  27. ↑ Commemorative book of persecuted city and local councilors. City of Bonn, accessed on April 5, 2019 .
  28. ↑ "Graves of Honor" in the Poppelsdorf cemetery. Kolping Family Poppelsdorf, accessed on May 29, 2017 .
  29. ^ Exhibition and Collection of the Bonn Memorial . Working group of Nazi memorials and places of remembrance in NRW e. V., accessed on May 29, 2017 .
  30. ↑ Bonn Memorial Book. Working group of Nazi memorials and places of remembrance in NRW e. V., accessed on May 29, 2017 .
  31. ↑ Catalog of the Stolpersteine ​​laid in Bonn so far (as of 2016). (PDF) Memorial for the Bonn Victims of National Socialism - An der Synagoge e. V., accessed on May 29, 2017 (pdf file).
  32. ↑ Sebastian Flick: Commemoration of murdered politicians. Kreisverband der Linke lays a wreath on the 85th anniversary of Otto Renois' death. In: General-Anzeiger, April 5, 2018, p. 21
  33. ↑ wreath at the grave of Otto Renois occasion of his 85th death anniversary. THE LEFT. Bonn , archived from the original ; accessed on April 9, 2018 .
  34. ↑ Printed matter no. 1811135: Application: Supplementary street sign Otto Renois - completion and renewal of April 24, 2018 Online PDF / Online in the Bonn Council and Information System
  35. ↑ nwbib.de
  36. ↑ nwbib.de
  37. ↑ nwbib.de
personal data
SURNAME Renois, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German communist and resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH August 8, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Curmudgeon
DATE OF DEATH April 4, 1933
Place of death Bonn