Paul Lindner (resistance fighter)

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Paul Lindner (* 10. May 1911 in Berlin , † 1969 in Berlin) was a German resistance fighter in the era of National Socialism .

Life

Lindner grew up in a family that was oriented towards social democracy. As a teenager he became a member of the DMV during his training . From the beginning of the 1930s he was active in the "BB apparatus" (for operational reporting) of the KPD .

In 1932 he was the victim of a Nazi storm troop near his parents' house. In 1933 he was arrested and tortured for twelve days, with his teeth knocked out and long-term kidney damage.

After his release from prison he nevertheless took part in the underground union struggle . He organized a secret club of union youth to train them on the conditions of "illegal" union work, in which by 1935 around 400 people had participated. Since he was targeted by the Gestapo again, he fled Germany to Czechoslovakia (CSR) in 1935 . There he took part in the "border work". He instructed young German emigrants, helped persecuted people to flee across the border as Jews and explored military facilities of the Wehrmacht in the border area for the army of the ČSR .

In 1939 he received a visa for Great Britain and moved to the small English town of Chatham . He received support from the Youth Refugee and Relief Council , an anti-fascist aid organization run by British youth organizations. Thereby he met the Englishwoman Marjorie Andrews, who came from the Labor Party League of Youth and who taught Lindner English. The two married in May 1942 after Lindner had previously been interned as an enemy alien, first in Canada and then on the Isle of Man . After the marriage, Lindner worked as a lathe operator in London.

Through Erich Henschke he got in contact with the US intelligence service OSS .

After completing his OSS training, he was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp in January 1945 to see if he could move around without being noticed among Germans.

At the beginning of March 1945 he landed with Anton Ruh west of Berlin. Both of them reached Lindner's father's house in a leafy settlement in Berlin-Britz , from where they made radio contact with the OSS after just 12 days, as previously agreed. This was done with the help of a newly developed two-way radio, which had a range of about 10 km. To contact curved "Mosquito" - fighter-bombers of the US Air Force in the area of Berlin. Several times they were able to convey important observations. They organized a resistance group and motivated other Berliners to protect the city, especially a bridge, from being destroyed by the Wehrmacht. During the so-called Aktion Hammer, they reported to the OSS until April 25, 1945 about the operation of a Berlin power station and the Berlin traffic systems. They then went into Soviet captivity and were handed over to US troops after two months .

In 1946 he returned to Germany and worked as an SED operational functionary in the construction of the GDR . In the 1960s, Lindner was editor-in-chief of Radio Berlin International .

Honors

In April 2006, he was posthumously awarded the US Order of Silver Star .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael F. Scholz: Do you want Scandinavian experiences? Post-exile and remigration: The former KPD emigrants in Scandinavia and their further fate in the Soviet Zone / GDR . Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2000, p. 101, note 61
  2. ^ Association of German Customs Officers - Berlin Brandenburg District Association (1/2006), p. 14. ( pdf )
  3. ↑ as the first German to be honored with the Silver Star. In: Die Welt from May 23, 2006
  4. ↑ Klaus Wiegrefe: Falsche Freunde , in: Der Spiegel , issue 45 of October 31, 2004
personal data
SURNAME Lindner, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 1969
Place of death Berlin