Paul Wieczorek

Paul Wieczorek (born July 15, 1885 in Bromberg ; † November 13, 1918 shot in Berlin) was a participant in the November Revolution in Germany and commander of the People's Navy Division .

Life

In 1904 he moved with his parents from Bromberg to Berlin . After finishing school he learned the trade of metalworker. From 1903 to 1906 he did his military service with the Imperial Navy and, among other things, drove on the small cruiser SMS Medusa . After his military service Wieczorek worked as a bus driver for Allgemeine Berliner Omnibus AG (ABOAG). During this time he became a member of the SPD .

With the outbreak of World War I he was called up again for the Navy and came as a mate on a minesweeper . During his service, he was reprimanded several times for military disobedience. With the expansion of the German naval aviation , he volunteered as an aircraft mechanic for the new branch of arms. Wieczorek received flight training and was transferred to the airship port in Tondern . Seriously injured in a plane crash, he was transferred to the airfield of the Marine Land Aviation Department (formerly the Voluntary Marine Aviation Corps) in Johannisthal (near Berlin) after his recovery . Together with his long-time friend Fritz Radtke , he made contact with the workers of the Johannisthaler Flugzeugwerke and organized the revolutionary work among the naval aviators and the soldiers of the Adlershof aircraft maintenance facility.

With the outbreak of the Kiel sailors' uprising and the socialist revolution under Karl Liebknecht , Wieczorek, now chief mate of the Imperial Navy, organized the armed uprising in Johannisthal. In the morning hours of November 9, 1918, Red Sailors, Red Naval Aviators and members of the illegal Spartakus groups took over the Johannisthal airfield and imprisoned the commanders and officers. At the head of a squad of naval aviators, Wieczorek then marched towards Berlin to meet Karl Liebknecht. On the way there there were armed clashes with troops loyal to the emperor in the rural communities of Niederschöneweide and Treptow near Berlin, but the revolutionaries were able to decide for themselves and captured large amounts of weapons and ammunition.

Grave of Paul Wieczorek in Berlin-Kreuzberg

Wieczoreck and his men presumably took part in the occupation of the admiralty staff and the Reichsmarinamt in Berlin. However, there is no evidence for this. On the evening of November 9, 1918, Wieczorek and Radtke met Liebknecht. This referred him to Heinrich Dorrenbach , who should set up armed formations in Berlin. On November 11, 1918, the People's Mariner Council of Greater Berlin and its suburbs was elected from 600 sailors who were gathered in the Berlin Marstall . The sailors themselves called themselves the People's Naval Division and chose Wieczoreck as their commander.

In an attempt by counter-revolutionary forces to take over the leadership of the People's Navy Division, Paul Wieczorek was shot dead on November 13, 1918 in the Berlin Marstall by Corvette Captain Friedrich Brettschneider, who was killed two days later. Wieczorek's grave still exists in Cemetery IV of the Jerusalems- und Neue Kirche congregation in Berlin-Kreuzberg . On the tombstone it is said that Wieczorek was "the victim of his duty". The tombstone was renovated in 2018/19. Since its stability was no longer given by the roots of an avenue tree, the tombstone was repositioned a few meters further south. It is clearly visible from the southern sidewalk of Bergmannstrasse through the grating. The complete inscription reads: "Here rests / my dearly beloved son, our / kind-hearted brother / the Flug.Mech.Ober-Maat / Paul Wieczorek / born July 15, 1884 / born November 14, 1918 / he was the victim of his duty / im Marstall. / At his side rests gently / our loving, loving mother, in-law, / grandmother sister and aunt / Amalie Wieczorek / née Kuhn / born 5.2.1855 died 28.1.1922. / Loved, weeping and unforgotten, Gertrud Wieczorek / * February 13, 1882 + June 11, 1944 ".

literature

• Klaus Gietinger : Paul Wieczorek - News about the first commander of the People's Navy Division, in progress - Movement - History , Issue I / 2019, pp. 41–60.
• Günter Schmitt: The revolutionary naval aviator Paul Wieczorek. In: Horst Skull (Ed.): Fliegerkalender der DDR 1988. Military Publishing House of the GDR , Berlin 1987, pp. 41–45.