Robert Matzke
Robert Matzke (born December 14, 1884 in Herischdorf , district of Hirschberg in the Riesengebirge , † December 3, 1943 in Dresden ) was a German communist politician ( USPD , KPD ), worker , opponent of the Nazi regime and anti-fascist resistance fighter .
He and his wife were heavily involved in the communist party. Matzke founded and ran a workers' home on Konkordienstraße in Dresden- Pieschen . He became a member of the Red Aid and the Association of Proletarian Freethinkers.
Life
Robert Matzke did an apprenticeship as a basket maker and then went on the "Walz" ( wandering years ) at the age of 18 . In 1906 he married Anna Berta Selma Grun. They founded a family with two children and in 1909 moved to the Pieschen district of Dresden on Leisniger Straße. From 1916 to 1919 Matzke took part in the First World War in Russia and France . In 1919 Matzke joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD), which split off from the SPD during the World War because it rejected the war course. A little later he joined the KPD, which was newly founded in 1919 . In the KPD he was the leader of the Hundreds. When the KPD was banned for several weeks at the end of 1923, he carried out his work illegally . For example, he made leaflets at home with the help of his family. The police repeatedly searched Matzke's apartment and interrogated him and his family. After the seizure of power of the Nazis Matzke appeared at Easter 1933 Brückenberg in Karpacz in the Giant Mountains with relatives. In doing so, he wanted to escape persecution by the SA . During this time, the SA appeared daily in his apartment in Pieschen . They demolished the facility and interrogated his wife Selma without any results. At the beginning of May 1933, Matzke was tracked down and arrested in Brückenberg. He was taken to Dresden police headquarters and later to the Mathildenstrasse detention center . He was released from prison on his birthday on December 14, 1933, but had to report to the police every day. In 1936 he was sent to prison again. A court sentenced him to six months in prison in connection with an operation by the Communist Youth. He had to serve his sentence for two months in Dresden on Münchner Platz and four months in Kötzschenbroda . After his release in March 1937, Matzke joined the Kurt Schlosser group. Kurt Schlosser ran a carpentry shop on Leipziger Strasse , which developed into a center of the KPD's illegal resistance. He had been active in illegal border work since 1933 and, among other things, smuggled leaflets across the border into Czechoslovakia .
For several years the Kurt Schlosser group did resistance work, at the end of 1943 it was blown up. On the morning of December 3, the Gestapo arrested Kurt Schlosser , Arthur Weineck and Herbert Blochwitz. The three were sentenced to death in 1944 and beheaded in the Dresden district court on Münchner Platz . At the same time as Schlosser and Blochwitz, Matzke was arrested at his job at the Klingner company at Brunnenplatz 1 in Radebeul and taken to the police headquarters in Dresden's Schießgasse. At noon the Gestapo searched his apartment. His wife Selma received news of his death that same evening, the cause of which could never be determined. She had to bribe a morgue attendant to see her husband's body. He had numerous bruises . His wife suspected that her husband had been beaten to death by the Gestapo on Schießgasse. Matzke's comrades-in-arms were sentenced to death on Münchner Platz and executed. Even after Robert Matzke's death, his family experienced further harassment. Gestapo informers monitored the funeral ceremony in the crematorium. They photographed the participants and partly followed them. Matzke's urn grave is located in the honor grove of the Dresden Heidefriedhof .
Memorial sites
On July 1, 1946, Moltkestrasse in Pieschen was renamed Robert-Matzke-Strasse because of its military connection .
The 27th Polytechnic Oberschule (POS) on Robert-Matzke-Straße 14 was called POS "Robert Matzke" until 2006.
On November 10th, 2011 the traveling exhibition Dresden-Pieschen in the time of National Socialism opened in the town hall Pieschen (Bürgerstraße 63) with the commemorative plaque about Robert Matzke.
On September 23, 2012 the history and commemorative plaque about Robert Matzke in the residential and cultural project RM16 was inaugurated . Since then, the plaque can be seen in the stairwell at Robert-Matzke-Straße 16.
Individual evidence
- ^ Streets and squares in Pieschen
- ↑ Pieschen in National Socialism
- ^ Club RM16 Inauguration of the history and commemorative plaque
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Matzke, Robert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German resistance fighter and communist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 14, 1884 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Herischdorf , district of Hirschberg in the Giant Mountains |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 3, 1943 |
| Place of death | Dresden |