Schumann-Engert-Kresse Group
The Schumann-Engert-Kresse Group was one of the most active resistance groups in Germany against the National Socialist regime in 1943/44 .
From 1941 Georg Schumann built one of the largest communist resistance groups in Leipzig together with Otto Engert and Kurt Kresse . The group oriented itself towards the National Committee for Free Germany , but, like the Knöchel-Seng group in the Ruhr area , emphasized its socialist goals ( expropriation of large-scale industry, etc.) more clearly than did the KPD's leadership in exile in Moscow at the time.
The wave of arrests by the Gestapo began in the summer of 1944 . In July Schumann, Engert and Kresse were arrested. They were severely tortured to be asked to reveal more members' names, but stood firm, possibly saving the lives of many other resistance fighters. In November 1944, the People's Court in Dresden sentenced them to death, and on January 11, 1945 the three were executed in the courtyard of the Dresden Regional Court .
Other members of the group were:
- William Zipperer
- Arthur Hoffmann
- Horst Schumann , son of Georg Schumann
- Karl Jungbluth
- Alfred Kastner
- Alfred Frank
- Georg Schwarz
- Willi singer
- Kurt Kühn
- Wilhelm Grothaus
literature
- Ilse Krause: The Schumann-Engert-Kresse Group. Documents and materials of the illegal anti-fascist struggle (Leipzig 1943 to 1945) . Dietz, Berlin 1960.
- Carsten Voigt: Communist resistance in Leipzig 1943/44. in: IWK , 38 (2002), H. 2, pp. 141-181.