Reinhold Greiner

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Reinhold Greiner (born December 27, 1903 in Weißwasser , † 1941 in Tomsk ) was a German communist and anti-fascist .

Greiner was born as the eighth child of a family of glassmakers from Jämlitz at Goethestrasse 11. He had a brother named Ferdinand and a sister named Gretel (later Wenzel). After attending school for seven years, he started working as a glassmaker at Osram (the later specialty glass factory Einheit , now Telux ) in Weißwasser. In 1920 he joined the local group Weißwasser of the KPD . During the Kappputsch he took part in the general strike and with the workers' combat groups in the armed guarding of the Weißwasser train station and in the disarming of so-called “counter-revolutionary gangs” in Kromlau , Gablenz and Tschernitz .

In 1921 Greiner went to Thuringia , worked in Graefenroda and Königsee , at the end of 1923 he went on a journey that took him to Hungary , where he carried out political agitation work for the local glassmakers in Tokaj and Esztergom on behalf of the KPD and together with his brother Ferdinand Greiner led the German workers on a solidarity strike . After their arrest, both brothers were expelled to Romania . In search of work they also ended up in Turkey and Bulgaria , after being deported again to Yugoslavia via Belgrade , Budapest and Vienna in the summer of 1925 back to Weißwasser, where they found work again at the Osram plant after a long and unsuccessful search. As part of his propaganda activities, he took part in reconnaissance troops , so-called Land Sundays , and in turn initiated border meetings with Polish and Czech comrades with his brother.

After appearing at a meeting of National Socialists from Forst (Lausitz) in Sagar , he and his people were ambushed by a Nazi squad with pistols, cutting and stabbing weapons. As a result of the conflict, Greiner was arrested from among 30 comrades and sentenced to 6 months in prison in Görlitz . After his release, he organized a spruce sports festival in the Qualisch district of Weißwasser, which in turn had to be defended against advancing National Socialists. Greiner kept handing out leaflets calling for demonstrations. After another National Socialist attack on a protest action, Greiner was arrested again by the police, interrogated and sent to Görlitz prison for 9 months, where he was released on December 24, 1932.

On February 27, 1933, Greiner reported in the party office in the Gebauer slipper factory about a poster on the wall of the printing house for the latest news on the market in Weißwasser, which called for the arrest of all communists on the occasion of the Reichstag fire . As a result, the party material was saved. Greiner himself evaded arrest until August 1933. Then he was interrogated in the SA- Home on Jahnstrasse and mistreated in such a way that one of his kidneys was destroyed. The civil magistrate in the Weisswasser district court , before whom he was brought, gave him the opportunity to escape. Then, like his brother before, he emigrated to Czechoslovakia , where he continued to be politically active and, among other things, took care of accommodation and food for German emigrants in the Kladno area .

After learning of the civil war in Spain , Greiner made his way there via Austria . After being arrested in Switzerland and interim returning to Czechoslovakia, he arrived at the second attempt via France to Spain , where he worked for the International Brigades in the news company of the battalion " Edgar André " and in the Thalmann Battalion fought and led, among other things, a grenade launcher department. After the war he was sent to the internment camps of St. Zyprien and Camp de Gurs , where he again worked as an agitator. Greiner received a visa for the Soviet Union and, together with 153 other Communists, was taken to Leningrad on the Soviet cargo ship Pamir , from where they traveled on to Moscow , where he then lived and worked in a glass factory. After Germany's attack on the Soviet Union , he and his friends were evacuated to Tomsk . Whether Greiner really died in Tomsk or fell victim to a Stalinist purge is not exactly proven.

Honors

The still existing vocational school in Weißwasser was named after Greiner . In addition, there was a school sports community of his name in Weißwasser until 1990.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lutz Stucka : The power plant pulled like a magnet. Judokas in white water. Lausitzer Rundschau, lr-online.de, October 22, 2005, accessed on October 8, 2011 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Greiner, Reinhold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German communist, anti-fascist and Spain fighter
DATE OF BIRTH December 27, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Weißwasser / Upper Lusatia
DATE OF DEATH 1941
Place of death Tomsk