Rudolf Lentzsch

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Rudolf Lentzsch (born November 7, 1900 in Torgelow ( Ueckermünde district ), † April 29, 1945 in Berlin ) was a German communist trade union official and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime .

Life

Lentzsch grew up in a social democratic family. After attending school, he learned the trade of an iron maker. At a young age, Lentzsch organized in the German Metal Workers' Association (DMV). During the First World War Lentzsch joined the USPD , later he was one of the co-founders of the KPD local group in Torgelow .

In 1924/25 Lentzsch moved to Berlin due to a lack of work . In addition to the KPD, he was particularly active in the DMV. Lentzsch became a leading functionary in the iron forming industry in the Berlin DMV. From 1928 Lentzsch supported the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition (RGO), which is why he was expelled from the DMV in the same year. In the meantime, Lentzsch took over functions in the RGO in Halle and Merseburg, but in mid-1930 he returned to Berlin.

At the beginning of November 1930 Lentzsch was a founding member of the Union of Metal Workers in Berlin (EVMB), the first independent “red association” of the RGO. He took on a number of functions for the EVMB. In addition, Lentzsch also took over functions in the RGO's metal industry group leadership. In this context he was involved in numerous conflicts with the KPD leadership.

After the National Socialists came to power and the factual ban on the EVMB as a result of the Reichstag Fire Ordinance, Rudolf Lentzsch became the leading head of the EVMB "resistance organization". From March 22 to May 11, 1933, he was taken into "protective custody" by the National Socialists. From June / July 1933 onwards, however, he was particularly active in rebuilding the EVMB in illegality. At his side were the instructors Walter Kautz , August Bolte , Oskar Walz and Wilhelm Bielefeld , who took on the coordination of the illegal work in several districts.

Lentzsch became the head of the illegal EVMB, which, according to the Gestapo , is said to have organized up to 1,000 communists in illegality due to the intensive work of the instructors and district leaders . Lentzsch participated in the distribution of irregularly published illegal publications, in the collection of contributions and donations to finance the illegal work, and in the collection of mood reports and other information from the factories. His goal remained the revolutionary overthrow of the Nazi regime and the building of a communist social order.

On December 14, 1933, the Gestapo arrested Rudolf Lentzsch. On the same day he was transferred to the Columbia concentration camp , where he remained imprisoned until January 5, 1934. Lentzsch was a prisoner in the Oranienburg concentration camp from January 5 to 19, 1934 . He was mistreated several times. Lentzsch was then imprisoned in the remand prison in Berlin-Moabit and was waiting for his trial because of the continuation of illegal activities for the EVMB.

On June 19, 1934, the Berlin Court of Appeal sentenced Rudolf Lentzsch to three years in prison for “preparing for high treason”. The time of pre-trial detention was counted towards the total detention time. Lentzsch spent the subsequent period of imprisonment in the Brandenburg-Görden prison . His wife separated from him during this time and his son was taken away from him. Although Lentzsch had served his regular prison term in early 1937, he was transferred to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on January 20, 1937 as a “protective prisoner” . His imprisonment there ended on December 29, 1938 and he was released.

After his release, Lentzsch continued illegal activities in the vicinity of communist resistance circles in Berlin, despite the dangers. At first he found it difficult to find a new job and at times had to finance himself with odd jobs. Since he was considered "unworthy of defense", Lentzsch was spared participating in the Second World War. He married again, a long-time friend from the illegal KPD, Ella Wolke .

Shortly before the end of the war, in the evening hours of April 27, 1945, Lentzsch was lured into the street in front of his apartment in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg. Lentzsch had previously been promised to hand him food. When he got downstairs and stood in the street, a Soviet soldier snatched his leather jacket from him. The Soviet soldier is said to have fired a shot at Lentzsch. Communist Rudolf Lentzsch died two days later as a result of the Soviet soldier's gunshot wound.

Evaluation of the circumstances of death

In their biographical studies of Rudolf Lentzsch's life, the historians Siegfried Mielke and Stefan Heinz assume that the "circumstances of death" and the problematic orientation of the "red association" EVMB contributed to the fact that Lentzsch, although the "driving force behind the activities." of the illegal unit association of metal workers in Berlin (EVMB), one of the largest trade union resistance groups, ”played almost no role even in the comparatively extensive GDR resistance research that was focused on communist resistance. According to Mielke and Heinz, a discussion of Lentzsch's biography would have broken a taboo "dealing with the offenses of the Soviet Liberation Army". According to the “official language regulation”, which Rudolf Lentzsch's mother is said to have adopted, her son Rudolf Lentzsch died in “a tragic accident”, so that he “did not live to see the victory of the Red Army”, according to Mielke and Heinz in a biographical summary based on archival material.

literature

  • Stefan Heinz , Siegfried Mielke (ed.): Functionaries of the unified association of metal workers in Berlin in the Nazi state. Resistance and persecution (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - resistance - emigration. Volume 2). Metropol, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86331-062-2 , pp. 23–24, 30 ff., 42 ff., 44, 47, 60, 66 ff., 84, 109 ff., 158 ff., 175 ff., 180 ff., 188–199 (short biography), 200 ff., 231.
  • Stefan Heinz : Moscow's mercenaries? "The Union of Metal Workers in Berlin": Development and failure of a communist union. VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89965-406-6 , pp. 147, 151 ff., 188, 277, 288 ff., 299, 306 f., 310 ff., 320, 324 f., 369, 399, 446, 453 ff., 466 ff., 473, 486, 523, 528.
  • Stefan Heinz, Siegfried Mielke: Rudolf Lentsch (November 7, 1900 - April 29, 1945) , In: Siegfried Mielke, Günter Morsch (ed.): »Be vigilant that night never falls over Germany again.« Trade unionists in concentration camps in 1933 -1945. Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-86331-031-8 , pp. 132-143 (biography).
  • Stefan Heinz: "Red Association" and resistance group. Der Einheitsverband der Metallarbeiters Berlins (1930–1935) , In: information - Scientific journal of the study group German Resistance 1933–1945, 42nd year (2017), No. 85, pp. 10–15.
  • Stefan Heinz: The 'Red Unions' and their Resistance to National Socialism: The Unity Union of the Berlin Metal Workers 1930–1935 , In: Ralf Hoffrogge , Norman LaPorte (eds.): Weimar Communism as Mass Movement 1918–1933 . Lawrence & Wishart, London 2017, pp. 187-204.
  • Siegfried Mielke, Julia Pietsch: A significant group in the prisoner society. Union officials in early concentration camps , In: Jörg Osterloh, Kim Wünschmann (eds.): "... at the mercy of the most unlimited arbitrariness". Prisoners of the early concentration camps 1933–1936 / 37 . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 2017 (Scientific series of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Vol. 31), ISBN 978-359350-70-26 , pp. 173-196, here pp. 187 ff.
  • Hans-Rainer Sandvoss : The “other” capital of the Reich: Resistance from the workers' movement in Berlin from 1933 to 1945 . Lukas-Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-936872-94-1 , p. 367 ff.

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Cf. - Short biography of Rudolf Lentzsch in the Internet exhibition about political prisoners in the Oranienburg concentration camp
  2. ↑ See ibid.
personal data
SURNAME Lentzsch, Rudolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rudolf Adolf Emil
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German communist resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH November 7, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Torgelow
DATE OF DEATH April 29, 1945
Place of death Berlin