Rudolf Ladewig

Rudolf Ladewig (born April 30, 1893 in Brodersdorf near Rostock ; † April 23, 1945 in Neuengamme concentration camp ; full name Rudolf Wilhelm Emil Ladewig ) was a German architect who belonged to the Hamburg resistance group Kampf dem Faschismus (KdF) . In 1945 he was the Gestapo - spy Alfons Pannek denounced and two children along with his girlfriend Anna Elisabeth rosary and Anne Marie and arrested Rudolf Karl, the Gestapo prison Fuhlsbüttel admitted and as part of the Neuengamme concentration camp in Endphaseverbrechen murdered.

Life

Training and activity as an architect

Rudolf Ladewig, the only son of the couple Rudolf Karl Heinrich Ladewig and Lucie, b. Wollner, had two biological sisters and three younger half-siblings. After attending secondary school in Rostock, he trained as a bricklayer and then studied architecture at the Strelitz Polytechnic Institute . At the beginning of the First World War he volunteered for military service in August 1914 . After being seriously wounded in the fighting off Verdun in 1916 , a thigh had to be amputated and he was discharged from the army. In October 1918 he finished his architecture studies and has been working ever since.

On 15 March 1919 he married in Wroclaw his fellow student Hildegard Bucka (1892-1944), who had studied architecture in Wroclaw and Strelitz. Her parents were of Jewish origin, but had raised their daughter in the Protestant faith. The marriage had two children: Annemarie (1919–1945) and Rudolf Karl (1923–1945). The family initially lived in Neidenburg in East Prussia.

formerly higher textile school in Reichenbach

In 1919 Ladewig got a job as a city architect in Waldenburg . In November 1925 he became the first city architect in Reichenbach in the Vogtland . From September 1926 he worked as a freelancer, but from May 1928 he was again employed by the city of Reichenbach. He played an essential role in the planning and construction of the Marienkirche, the water tower, the textile school, a settlement on Erlicht, residential buildings on Schützenstrasse and Bebelstrasse, the crematorium and a shelter for the homeless. Since the "Design and Construction Management" department was dissolved, he was given notice at the end of 1931 and he went back to work as a freelancer. Under his leadership, the Sternsiedlung was built between 1932 and 1933 , in which he implemented his concept of small-scale apartments and houses, which ensured more economic efficiency and a better floor plan .

time of the nationalsocialism

Since the National Socialists called his marriage a “ mixed marriage ” because of his wife's Jewish descent , he was no longer able to work unhindered in Germany after he came to power . Therefore, from 1934, he worked for a short time in Sofia , Bulgaria . After his return, he moved with his family to Hamburg on September 1, 1935 , where he got a job with the architects Fritz Höger and Rudolf Klophaus . He also worked for the German Academy for Housing in Berlin.

During the Second World War , Rudolf Ladewig, who was politically more of a "conservative social democrat ", became a member of the resistance group Kampf dem Faschismus (KdF) . In August 1943 he and his family moved to Blumenstrasse. Rudolf Klophaus quit his job on June 28, 1944 "with consideration for the current situation". According to his sister Charlotte, he felt “threatened” in the summer of 1944 and moved in with her in Ludwigslust . At the instigation of his children, his wife, who was mentally ill, was admitted to the Eppendorf Psychiatric Clinic , which was run by Hans Bürger-Prinz , by the Blankenese doctor Sartorius, who was engaged to Annemarie Ladewig . Since she allegedly fell seriously ill there, Rudolf Ladewig returned to Hamburg and was forced to work as a construction worker for an architect from October 23, 1944, despite an objection due to his severe war disability. After his wife died on November 30, 1944 under hitherto unexplained circumstances in the Eppendorf psychiatry, he left their apartment on Blumenstrasse after an argument with his children and moved to Armgartstrasse to live with his friend Elisabeth Rosenkranz, who, like himself, was part of the resistance group KdF belonged. Ladewig, who had been in contact with the National Committee for Free Germany since the spring of 1944 , was under surveillance by the Gestapo since the beginning of 1945 at the latest.

Arrest and death

Stumbling blocks for Rudolf Ladewig and Elisabeth Rosenkranz in Armgartstrasse

At the beginning of 1945, Elisabeth Rosenkranz received the billeting of a V-Person named Lotte Hinze. At the same time, the Gestapo spy Alfons Pannek was assigned to Ladewig and Elisabeth Rosenkranz. As the operator of a lending library stocked with confiscated books from the possession of Nazi opponents, he won their trust. After Elisabeth Rosenkranz had given him a manuscript which was sharply criticized by the NSDAP leadership and which was to be published after the end of the war, he passed it on to his superior at the Gestapo, Henry Helms .

On March 22, 1945, Elisabeth Rosenkranz and Rudolf Ladewig were arrested and then the siblings Annemarie and Rudolf Karl Ladewig were arrested and taken to the Gestapo prison in Fuhlsbüttel. Their names were on a list of 71 people from the Hamburg Resistance to be liquidated, including 13 women and 58 men.

According to an evacuation plan, which was to be carried out in the event of the Allied forces coming closer, they were transferred to the Neuengamme concentration camp on April 20, 1945 . Annemarie Ladewig, who was able to write a letter to her fiancé Sartorius on the same day, reported that her father had been betrayed by an informant.

On the night of April 21-22, 1945, the 13 women on the list, including Annemarie Ladewig and Elisabeth Rosenkranz, were hanged on the orders of the Higher SS and Police Leader Bassewitz-Behr during the final phase crimes in the Neuengamme concentration camp . The 58 men, including Rudolf Ladewig and his son Rudolf Karl, were murdered between April 21 and 24. The exact circumstances of her death have not been conclusively clarified. Some of the men who were housed in the same detention bunker as the murdered women tried to defend themselves and barricaded the doors. Several of them were killed by a hand grenade thrown through the window by the protective custody camp leader Anton Thumann , while the survivors and the men from the other bunkers were shot.

In honor of Rudolf Ladewig and Elisabeth Rosenkranz, Stolpersteine ​​were laid in front of their last apartment in Hamburg's Armgartstrasse . Since April 30, 2012, Rudolf Ladewig's birthday, a memorial plaque on the Reichenbach water tower has commemorated the architect and resistance fighter.

literature

• Ulrike Sparr (Ed.): Stumbling blocks in Hamburg-Winterhude. Biographical search for traces. Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-929728-16-3 , pp. 134-138.
• Herbert Diercks : Memorial Book Kola-Fu. For the victims from the concentration camp, Gestapo prison and Fuhlsbüttel subcamp. Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, Hamburg 1987, p. 53.

Web links

• Well-known Reichenbachers: Rudolf Ladewig , short biography
• Maike Bruchmann: Rudolf Ladewig , at stolpersteine-hamburg.de , published by the State Center for Civic Education Hamburg

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ulrike Sparr (Ed.): Stolpersteine ​​in Hamburg-Winterhude. Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-929728-16-3 , p. 133.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Ulrike Sparr (Ed.): Stolpersteine ​​in Hamburg-Winterhude. Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-929728-16-3 , p. 134.
3. ↑ Well-known Reichenbacher: Rudolf Ladewig, short biography
4. ↑ Images of the Reichenbacher Sternsiedlung and the water tower
5. ↑ Ulrike Sparr (Ed.): Stolpersteine ​​in Hamburg-Winterhude. Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-929728-16-3 , p. 135.
6. ↑ Stolpersteine ​​Armgartstrasse 4
7. ↑ Stolpersteine ​​Blumenstrasse, complete representation of all family members
8. ↑ The hospital management stated suicide as the cause of death, although, according to Maike Bruchmann , euthanasia cannot be ruled out either.
9. ↑ Ursel Hochmuth , Gertrud Meyer : Streiflichter from the Hamburg Resistance 1933-1945. Frankfurt am Main 1969, p. 456 and p. 459.
10. ↑ ^{a b} Ulrike Sparr (ed.): Stolpersteine ​​in Hamburg-Winterhude. Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-929728-16-3 , p. 137
11. ^ Herbert Diercks: memorial book Kola-Fu. For the victims from the concentration camp, Gestapo prison and Fuhlsbüttel subcamp. Hamburg 1987, p. 46.
12. ↑ Maike Bruchmann: Stolpersteine ​​Armgartstraße 4, at stolpersteine-hamburg.de
13. ↑ SPD Ortsverein Reichenbach ( Memento of the original from March 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.