Paul Black

Paul Schwarze (born December 28, 1888 in Wittenberg , † April 1, 1943 in Sachsenhausen concentration camp ) was a Dresden worker functionary, local politician and resistance fighter .

Life

Schwarze was born as the son of a shoemaker in Wittenberg. He attended the local elementary school until 1902 and completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter from 1902 to 1906 . He then worked in the mill construction division in Wittenberg, where he also joined the woodworkers' association. He settled in Dresden in 1909, but had to do his military service from 1910 to 1912. Then Schwarze, who had become a member of the SPD in 1913 , was employed in the artillery workshop in the arsenal in Dresden's Albertstadt . As a sought-after specialist, he was initially released from military service as indispensable, but in 1916 he was suspected of having distributed Karl Liebknecht's leaflets . He was drafted for military service on the Western Front and came to the Eastern Front in 1917 . After the collapse of the front, he was active in the soldiers' council during the November Revolution.

Back in Dresden, Schwarze worked as a carpenter for Zeiss Ikon from 1919 ; Black was elected to the works council by his colleagues. After a short membership in the USPD , Schwarze joined the KPD in 1920 . He was actively involved in the party and was involved in the suppression of the Kapp Putsch in 1920 by actively campaigning against the putschists in Dresden. In 1921, Schwarze was fired for his political work at Zeiss Ikon. It was not until 1925 that he found work as a carpenter in the workshops of the Dresden tram in Trachau . He became part of the KPD operating group there and in 1931 sharply opposed the dismissal of the works council members Paul Gruner , Arno Lade and Ernst Götze , who had called for a strike due to increasing wage cuts by tram operators. Schwarze called a protest strike against the dismissal and was also dismissed. A lawsuit at the regional labor court was dismissed.

Urn grave of Paul Schwarze in the Heidefriedhof

In 1927, Schwarze was elected Dresden city councilor and was active on the audit and finance committee until 1929. From 1930 until the KPD was banned in March 1933, he was a city councilor in Dresden and was primarily active in the field of schools. Among other things, he campaigned for the rapid construction of the Reicker School in 1927 . He was also active as an advisor to the district leadership of the KPD East Saxony.

After the National Socialists seized power and the Reichstag fire in 1933, Schwarze went underground, where he continued his political activities as a member of the KPD's sub-district leadership. However, he returned to his home on July 7th, where he was arrested. He was mistreated at the Dresden police headquarters and then taken to the Colditz concentration camp. He was not released until December 16, 1933. After a period of unemployment, Schwarze, who was under police surveillance after his release, began to earn money as a soap dealer. During his work he was able to make new contacts with other communists, including Robert Matzke and Gustav Richter and his son Rudolf. In June 1941, Schwarze was arrested again and severely mistreated several times in police headquarters. He was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for high treason and taken to Waldheim prison. In September 1942 he was again transferred to the police headquarters and from there deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he died on April 1, 1943. His urn grave is located in the honor grove of the Dresden Heidefriedhof .

Commemoration

Paul-Schwarze-Strasse in Dresden with an explanatory sign

Since 1946 the former St. Privat -Straße at the main state archive in Dresden has been called Paul-Schwarze-Straße. On the skyscraper on Albertplatz , a memorial plaque commemorated the anti-fascists on the Dresden tram in GDR times. The inscription on the plaque read: "Keep fighting in your spirit - Paul Gruner, Arno Lade, Paul Schwarze, Gustav Richter, Karl Stein, Arthur Knöfel".

Schwarzes Lebenslauf is part of the biographical collection of the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime , which was founded in 1947 and dissolved in the GDR in 1953 , which is kept in the Federal Archives .

literature

Paul Black . In: Elsa Frölich: Striving towards the highest of humanity. Brief descriptions of the lives of Dresden worker functionaries and resistance fighters . Museum for the History of the Dresden Labor Movement, Dresden 1959, pp. 72–82.
Blacks, Paul . In: Museum for the History of the City of Dresden: Biographical notes on Dresdner Strasse and squares that recall personalities from the labor movement, the anti-fascist resistance struggle and the socialist rebuilding . Dresden 1976, p. 75.

Individual evidence

↑ Paul Black . In: Elsa Frölich: Striving towards the highest of humanity. Brief descriptions of the lives of Dresden worker functionaries and resistance fighters . Museum for the History of the Dresden Labor Movement, Dresden 1959, p. 72.
↑ Paul Black . In: Elsa Frölich: Striving towards the highest of humanity. Brief descriptions of the lives of Dresden worker functionaries and resistance fighters . Museum for the History of the Dresden Labor Movement, Dresden 1959, p. 74.
↑ Paul Black . In: Elsa Frölich: Striving towards the highest of humanity. Brief descriptions of the lives of Dresden worker functionaries and resistance fighters . Museum for the History of the Dresden Labor Movement, Dresden 1959, p. 77.
↑ Paul Black . In: Elsa Frölich: Striving towards the highest of humanity. Brief descriptions of the lives of Dresden worker functionaries and resistance fighters . Museum for the History of the Dresden Labor Movement, Dresden 1959, p. 78.
↑ Blacks, Paul . In: Museum for the History of the City of Dresden: Biographical notes on Dresdner Strasse and squares that recall personalities from the labor movement, the anti-fascist resistance struggle and the socialist rebuilding . Dresden 1976, p. 75.
↑ Neustädter street names: Paul-Schwarze-Straße. In: Dresden-Neustadt.de. Retrieved June 7, 2014 .
↑ Cf. Monika Zorn: Hitler's Victims Killed Twice: West German Final Solution of Antifascism in the Territory of the GDR . Ahriman publishing house, Freiburg i. Br. 1994, p. 280.
↑ File DY 55 / V 278/6/1796 - overview online

personal data
SURNAME	Blacks, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Dresden worker functionary, local politician and resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH	December 28, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH	Wittenberg
DATE OF DEATH	April 1, 1943
Place of death	Sachsenhausen concentration camp

[1] Paul Black . In: Elsa Frölich: Striving towards the highest of humanity. Brief descriptions of the lives of Dresden worker functionaries and resistance fighters . Museum for the History of the Dresden Labor Movement, Dresden 1959, p. 72.

[2] Paul Black . In: Elsa Frölich: Striving towards the highest of humanity. Brief descriptions of the lives of Dresden worker functionaries and resistance fighters . Museum for the History of the Dresden Labor Movement, Dresden 1959, p. 74.

[3] Paul Black . In: Elsa Frölich: Striving towards the highest of humanity. Brief descriptions of the lives of Dresden worker functionaries and resistance fighters . Museum for the History of the Dresden Labor Movement, Dresden 1959, p. 77.

[4] Paul Black . In: Elsa Frölich: Striving towards the highest of humanity. Brief descriptions of the lives of Dresden worker functionaries and resistance fighters . Museum for the History of the Dresden Labor Movement, Dresden 1959, p. 78.

[5] Blacks, Paul . In: Museum for the History of the City of Dresden: Biographical notes on Dresdner Strasse and squares that recall personalities from the labor movement, the anti-fascist resistance struggle and the socialist rebuilding . Dresden 1976, p. 75.

[6] Neustädter street names: Paul-Schwarze-Straße. In: Dresden-Neustadt.de. Retrieved June 7, 2014 .

[7] Cf. Monika Zorn: Hitler's Victims Killed Twice: West German Final Solution of Antifascism in the Territory of the GDR . Ahriman publishing house, Freiburg i. Br. 1994, p. 280.

[8] File DY 55 / V 278/6/1796 - overview online