Otto Scharfschwerdt
Otto Scharfschwerdt (born January 20, 1887 in Belgard ; died May 4 or May 5, 1943 in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp ) was a trade union official and resistance fighter against National Socialism in Germany .
Life
Otto Scharfschwerdt was born in Belgard in Pomerania , his father was a master roofer . After attending the community school , which he graduated with "honors" after eight years, he learned the trade of a boiler maker in Plauen, Saxony . Active as a wrestler , he became a Saxon champion during this time. From 1904 to 1907 he did his military service in the imperial army . After his military service he was employed by the railroad in Berlin . From 1908 in the driving service, after qualifications he rose to the position of train driver until 1922 .
In his home town of Hohen Neuendorf , he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1909 and became its local association chairman. From 1912 he was actively involved in the Association of Prussian-Hessian Locomotive Drivers , the later union of German locomotive drivers . At the end of the First World War he was elected to the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council and took part as a delegate at the Reichsrätekongress in December 1918 in Berlin. In 1920 he was elected to the board of his union. Soon after, he got a job with the union. He was involved in the organization and implementation of strikes in the early 1920s, including the general railway strike during the Kapp Putsch in March 1920. Scharfschwerdt was 2nd chairman of the Reich Union of German Railway Workers until it was dissolved in 1924 . From 1929 he was a member of the Niederbarnim district council. He was a member of the board of the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold .
In 1929 Scharfschwerdt took part in a meeting of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) in Amsterdam , where they discussed the possibilities for structures for German railway workers with other trade unionists such as Edo Fimmen , Franz Scheffel and Hermann Jochade .
In 1933, Scharfschwerdt and his son, who was also politically active, were taken into so-called " protective custody " by the storm department after a speech by the son at a youth consecration ceremony on the Scharfschwerdts property in Hohen Neuendorf and interned in the Oranienburg concentration camp for five weeks. After discharge is Scharfschwerdt the union representing train drivers, who now sat as ultimately futile committed club German train changed its name, before the DC circuit to preserve. Scharfschwerdt organized resistance, printed leaflets and was active in the "Northern Railway Group", which united trade unionists, social democrats and former Reichsbanner members. He was watched by the Secret State Police .
On January 20, 1937 Otto Scharfschwerdt was arrested again. Before the Berlin Court of Appeal , he was in a process of high treason accused and to a prison sentence of six years ' imprisonment sentenced; he was sent to the Brandenburg-Görden prison . Before the sentence had expired, he was taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . There he was called in to do heavy work in the Klinkerwerk satellite camp . He died on May 4 or 5, 1943 under unknown circumstances, the cause of death is unknown. He is said to be one of the victims of human experiments with typhus vaccinations .
family
He and his wife Henriette had their son Otto Emil Julius Scharfschwerdt, who was born in Berlin on August 27, 1909.
Honors
After 1945 the later re-established GDL kept Scharfschwerdt's name silent. The Union of Railway Workers in Germany (GdED) honored Scharfschwerdt in 1983 with a plaque of honor for the executed railway workers' unionists. The Railway and Transport Union (EVG) honored Scharfschwerdt in 2013 on the 70th anniversary of his death at his grave in Birkenwerder .
The depot of the Deutsche Reichsbahn in Stralsund was from May 1985 to the name Otto Scharfschwerdt. In Hohen Neuendorf a street was named after Scharfschwerdt.
literature
- Siegfried Katzoreck: From the life of the worker functionary Otto Scharfschwerdt. Publications from the history of the local labor movement of District No. 1 . Oranienburg 1972.
- Siegfried Mielke / Stefan Heinz : Railway trade unionists in the Nazi state . Metropol, ISBN 978-3-86331-353-1 .
- Rolf Hofmann / Friedrich Rewinkel: Employees at the railways and their unions. The constant struggle to improve working and living conditions 1835–2017 . Railway and Transport Union, 2017.
- Luise Kraushaar : German resistance fighters 1933-1945. Biographies and Letters, Volumes 1 and 2 . Berlin 1970.
Remarks
This article was created on the basis of the biography of Otto Scharfschwerdts compiled by Arnd Groß on the website of the Brandenburg Memorials Foundation (see under “Weblinks”).
Web links
supporting documents
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sharpsheaded, Otto |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German trade union official, social democrat and resistance fighter against National Socialism |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 20, 1887 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Belgard |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 5, 1943 |
| Place of death | Sachsenhausen concentration camp |