Paul Grasse

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Grasse (born December 23, 1883 in Dahme / Mark ( Jüterbog-Luckenwalde district ); † January 24, 1946 in Berlin ) was a German communist union official and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime .

Life

As the illegitimate son of the maid Karoline Grasse, Paul Grasse grew up in poor circumstances. He attended elementary school and then worked as a casual worker on construction sites in Berlin. Soon afterwards he learned the lathe trade . In 1903 he joined the free trade union German Metal Workers' Association (DMV). Soon afterwards he became a member of the SPD . After wandering around, Grasse settled in Berlin .

In Berlin, Grasse initially worked as a businessman. In 1910 he married. In the First World War , Grasse took part in all war years from 1914 to 1918 as a simple soldier. Because of his dissatisfaction with the course of the war and the social situation, he became a member of the USPD in 1917 . He took part in the fighting of the November Revolution in Berlin at the end of 1918. With the left wing of the USPD, Grasse joined the KPD at the end of 1920 , in which he soon took on several functions. In 1925 he became a member of the Berlin KPD district leadership, in 1927 the delegates of the XI elected him. Party congress of the KPD as a candidate in the central committee of the KPD. At the same time, Grasse was a member of Red Aid Germany (RHD).

Grasse was also a member of the Prussian state parliament for the KPD between 1928 and 1932 . During this time he also headed the municipal department of the KPD district leadership Berlin-Brandenburg-Lausitz-Grenzmark. In mid-1932, as part of organizational changes in the Berlin-Brandenburg KPD, Grasse is said to have been "transferred" to the district leadership of the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition (RGO). In the course of 1932, Grasse also took on a leading position in the Union of Metalworkers in Berlin (EVMB).

After the takeover of the Nazis , the police Grasse on 28 February 1933 adopted in connection with the Reichstag Fire Decree established at a meeting of senior officials of EVMB. The meeting already took place in illegality. Grasse was forcibly interrogated and transferred to the Columbia concentration camp . He was then imprisoned in the Alexanderplatz police prison and, according to Stefan Heinz, probably in the Papestrasse SA prison. From January 5 to April 5, 1934, he is also registered as a prisoner in the Oranienburg concentration camp . He is said to have been mistreated there again.

After his release from prison, Grasse went into hiding in Berlin. On behalf of the illegal KPD, the communist trade unionist traveled to Prague in December 1934. He took on a job as general agent for the Deutsche Volkszeitung for sales in Europe. At the same time he took over the function of political leader of the emigrated communists in Czechoslovakia (ČSR).

In 1937 Grasse emigrated to France . In Paris , the communist took an active part in the illegal reconstruction of the KPD in exile. His official expatriation took place at the end of December 1937 and he lost his German citizenship. The Gestapo was searching Meanwhile Grasse. From France, Grasse took part in a leading position in coordinating illegal actions against the Nazi regime in the German Reich . From the spring of 1942, Grasse was a member of the new KPD western leadership under the false name Josef Ullmann , which at that time was headed by Otto Niebergall .

In November 1943 Grasse was arrested in Paris and extradited to the Gestapo. He was detained for several months. At the end of August 1944 he was transported from Compiègne to the Buchenwald concentration camp , where he worked as a Kapo in the camp's infirmary. He stayed in Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar until the camp was liberated.

Only in June 1945 did Grasse return to Berlin, whose health was badly damaged as a result of a stroke he had suffered at the end of his prison term . Soon after, he passed away.

Honors

In the Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg , a street has been named after Paul Grasse since 1953.

literature

  • Stefan Heinz , Siegfried Mielke (ed.): Functionaries of the unified association of metal workers in Berlin in the Nazi state. Resistance and persecution (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - Resistance - Emigration, Volume 2). Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86331-062-2 , pp. 41, 119, 146-150 (short biography).
  • Siegfried Mielke , Stefan Heinz (eds.) With the collaboration of Julia Pietsch: Emigrated metal trade unionists in the fight against the Nazi regime (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - Resistance - Emigration. Volume 3). Metropol, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-86331-210-7 , pp. 59–60, 64, 827–828 (short biography).
  • Stefan Heinz : Moscow's mercenaries? "The Union of Metal Workers in Berlin": Development and failure of a communist union. VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89965-406-6 , pp. 368, 377, 466, 528.
  • Stefan Heinz: “Red Association” and resistance group. The Union of Metal Workers in Berlin (1930–1935). In: information - scientific journal of the German Resistance Study Group 1933–1945 , 42nd year, 2017, No. 85, pp. 10–15.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul-Grasse-Strasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
personal data
SURNAME Grasse, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Josef Ullmann (code name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German communist resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH December 23, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Dahme / Mark
DATE OF DEATH January 24, 1946
Place of death Berlin