Rudi Hempel

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Rudi Hempel (born June 9, 1911 in Dresden ; † January 7, 1947 there ) was a Dresden worker functionary and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Hempel's urn grave in the Heidefriedhof

Hempel was born in Dresden as one of four sons of a decorative painter. The family lived on Lauensteiner Strasse 54 in Striesen . The father became a body grenadier in World War I and was missing from 1915. Hempel joined the Communist Children's Group at the age of twelve and became an active young pioneer. After finishing school, Hempel began an apprenticeship as a stove fitter . In 1925 he became a member of the Communist Youth Association and in 1928 a KPD member. During this time he took over work all over Germany and also worked for several months as a stove fitter in Switzerland .

After the seizure of power of the Nazis Hempel was illegally involved in working for the Communist Party and among other things, the production of leaflets. From summer 1933 he stayed in Chemnitz , where he was arrested in autumn. In Dresden he was severely mistreated, which led to partial blindness as a result of retinal detachment on both sides . He was sentenced to three years in prison and taken to Waldheim prison. Hempel became almost completely blind in custody. Shortly after his release, Hempel was arrested again and in 1937 deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp , where he stayed until 1945 and was liberated. In Buchenwald, Hempel was involved in the resistance, but became completely blind due to a lack of medical care.

After his liberation, Hempel returned to Dresden in May 1945, got involved in the reconstruction of the city and became a member of the state leadership of the KPD. He fell ill with bilateral pulmonary tuberculosis in 1946 and died in Dresden in January 1947. His urn grave is in the honor grove of the heather cemetery .

Commemoration

From 1962 to 1991, Vitzthumstrasse in Dresden was called Rudi-Hempel-Strasse. A youth hostel in Bad Schandau, Ostrau district , was given the honorary name "Rudi Hempel".

Hempel's curriculum vitae 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

  • Hempel, Rudi . In: Museum für Stadtgeschichte, Alfred Werner (arr.): They fought and died for the coming law. Brief biographies of Dresden workers' functionaries and resistance fighters II . Meißner Druckhaus, Dresden 1963, pp. 46–50.
  • Hempel, Rudi . 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. 37.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hempel, Rudi . In: Museum für Stadtgeschichte, Alfred Werner (arr.): They fought and died for the coming law. Brief biographies of Dresden workers' functionaries and resistance fighters II . Meißner Druckhaus, Dresden 1963, p. 48.
  2. ↑ File DY 55 / V 278/6/665 - overview online
personal data
SURNAME Hempel, Rudi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German worker functionary and resistance fighter against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH June 9, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH January 7, 1947
Place of death Dresden