Paul Langen

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Paul Langen (born January 12, 1893 in Cologne-Nippes , † March 16, 1945 in Siegburg ) was a German opponent of National Socialism . As the main teacher (rector) of the Catholic primary school in Holzlar , he spoke out against the National Socialist propaganda towards students, parents and colleagues. It was founded in 1943 by the Gestapo arrested and died in 1945 in prison from Siegburg.

Life

childhood and education

Paul Langen was born in Cologne-Nippes on January 12, 1893, the son of the iron turner Johann Langen and his wife Christine Elisabeth. He was the youngest of the family's five children. The young Paul Langen was described by his teachers as a "good, but also difficult" student. In 1913 he completed his school career at the Realgymnasium with the Abitur. From 1913 to 1914 he attended a commercial school in Cologne and studied political science at the University of Bonn.

When the First World War broke out in August 1914 , he volunteered and served in the Guard Pioneer Battalion in Berlin . In 1918 he was dismissed from service as "war disabled due to typhus and malaria ".

After the end of the war, Langen studied philosophy and history at the universities of Bonn and Frankfurt. At the same time he took part in a teachers' seminar in Wipperfürth . When he was offered a position as a teacher in Hetzenholz at Much in June 1920 , he broke off his university studies and devoted himself to his profession. In 1922 he married Clara Müller from Siegburg, with whom he was married until her death in 1942. From this marriage there were three children. In 1923, Langen completed his training as a teacher by passing the second teacher examination.

Transfer to Wegescheid

Langen's illnesses during the First World War affected his well-being. In Hetzenholz he got into conflicts with the mayor of Much and with the school board in Wipperfürth. Due to allegedly untenable conditions in Hetzenholz, he was transferred to the one-class school in Wegescheid (Gummersbach district) on October 1, 1928.

Rehabilitation and transfer to Holzlar

In 1931 Langen was rehabilitated and was allowed to choose another school. So he came to the Catholic elementary school in Holzlar near Bonn as the main teacher (rector). There he was involved in various ways in the community life of the place. In the citizens' association founded in 1931, he assumed the function of secretary; In 1934 he became a founding member of the Holzlar volunteer fire brigade and played the role of St. Martin on Martinszügen for several years . He also supported his students outside of the regular lessons with tutoring and swimming lessons.

time of the nationalsocialism

According to a report by his daughter Hiltigunt Langen, Paul Langen and his wife were the only citizens of Holzlar who did not vote for the NSDAP in the 1933 Reichstag election , which was a well-known fact. She further reports that a few days later two SA men appeared in the school yard "to punish him". Langen, however, “threw it over the garden fence without further ado”.

Langen joined the NSDAP in May 1933, a step without which it might not have been possible for him to continue to exercise the teaching profession, since according to § 4 of the law passed in April 1933 on the restoration of the civil service, "civil servants who, according to their previous political Activity does not guarantee that they will stand up for the national state without reservation at any time, [...] be dismissed from service ”. In a report on Paul Langen compiled by the Catholic elementary school in Holzlar after the end of the Third Reich , it was noted that he was only “forced to become a party member”.

Regardless of his membership in the NSDAP, Paul Langen opposed the National Socialists and their propaganda in many ways. He and his students listened to enemy radio stations on the radio , and many of his former students remember that in a conversation with their parents he spoke out against National Socialism and the continuation of the Second World War and that he publicly described the National Socialists as "criminals".

According to the report of the Catholic elementary school Holzlar about Paul Langen, he was known to his colleagues "as the most determined active opponent of National Socialism", who "expressed his negative opinion [against National Socialism] at every opportunity". Langen's immediate successor as main teacher, Erwin Zimmermann, reported to the National Socialist authorities on January 19, 1944 that "from [Langen's] statements it [was] inferred that he was opposing today's state".

Arrest and death

During a visit to his daughter Hiltigunt in the Houverath labor camp near Euskirchen in 1943, Langen told her and some other girls that he was of the opinion "that a victorious end to the war is completely impossible for Germany". One of the girls reported these statements to the camp manager, who then filed a complaint. In the course of the following investigations it was found that Langen “spoke against National Socialism everywhere” and “criticized the measures of the National Socialist government in the strongest form”.

Langen was arrested by the Gestapo on December 17, 1943 and taken to the Gestapo prison in Cologne for interrogation . A few days later he was transferred to the Cologne prison . Because of this, however, as a result of the bombing of Cologne by the Allies was badly damaged in 1944, Langen, together with other prisoners in the prison in Siegburg laid, where he due to the detention conditions of typhus fell ill and died on March 16, 1945th

legacy

Street sign for Paul-Langen-Strasse in Holzlar

As early as 1954, a street in Holzlar was named after him in memory of Paul Langen, originally as Langenstrasse . In 1962 the name was expanded to the current form Paul-Langen-Straße , and information boards were added to the street signs through an initiative of the Holzlar Citizens' Association for the 600th anniversary of the district in 1994.

The sinologist Wolfgang Kubin , who lives in Holzlar, dedicated his poem Paul-Langen-Straße , published in 2002 in the volume of poems Narrentürme , to Paul Langen , which has the subtitle I will not let myself be bonded! Paul Langen (1893–1945) carries and mixes impressions from Holzlar with biographical fragments from Langen's life.

As part of the Federal President's history competition in 2009, the Bonn schoolboy Lukas Ahlborn wrote a work entitled Revered, misunderstood and almost forgotten hero? The Bonn main teacher Paul Langen , who is based on original sources and contemporary witness reports and for whom he was awarded as one of the state winners of the competition.

Stumbling block for Paul Langen in front of the Holzlar primary school

In 2010, a stumbling block designed by the artist Gunter Demnig for Paul Langen was set in the sidewalk in front of the Catholic elementary school in Holzlar, Langen's former place of work.

Former pupils of Langen met in November 2009 for an evening of remembrance, at which Paul Langen's daughter Sigrid Langen, today's principal of the elementary school Manfred Hoyer and various local politicians were also present.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ahlborn 2009, p. 3
  2. ↑ a b c Ahlborn 2009, p. 21: Langen's handwritten curriculum vitae from October 1927
  3. ↑ a b c d Kuboth, Joachim: Remembrance evening for Paul Langen on November 20, 2009 . In: Holzlarer Bote . Volume 24, No. 1 , 2010, p. 1–4 ( bonn-holzlar.de ). bonn-holzlar.de ( Memento of the original from August 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bonn-holzlar.de
  4. ↑ a b Ahlborn 2009, p. 7
  5. ↑ Ahlborn 2009, p. 6
  6. ↑ Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service . In: Reichsgesetzblatt , Part I . 34, April 7, 1933, p. 175 f.
  7. ↑ a b c d Ahlborn 2009, p. 37 f .: Paul Langen teacher files, report BR-PE 2261a.
  8. ↑ Ahlborn 2009, p. 17: Paul Langen teacher files, report BR-PE 2261, subsidiary files 633b 003
  9. ^ Paul-Langen-Straße in the Bonn street cadastre
  10. ↑ Wolfgang Kubin : Narrentürme: Poems . Weidle Verlag, Bonn 2002, ISBN 978-3-931135-62-1 , Paul-Langen-Straße ( nrw-literatur-im-netz.de ).
  11. ^ Ahlborn 2009
personal data
SURNAME Langen, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Opponents and victims of National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH January 12, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne trinkets
DATE OF DEATH March 16, 1945
Place of death Siegburg