Glauchau-Meerane textile pusher processes
The Glauchau-Meerane textile pusher trials were a series of show trials that took place shortly before the GDR was founded in 1948–1949.
history
prehistory
Glauchau and Meerane had been centers of Saxon cloth production since the late Middle Ages. Intensive industrialization took place in the 19th and early 20th centuries and numerous textile companies were established that exported worldwide. In Glauchau these were u. a. the weaving mills Kratz & Burk (1854–1948), Hans Franz (1870–1953), the silk weaving mill Hermann Vogel (1877–1959), the weaving mill Carl Persch (1880–1945), the company Bößneck & Meyer AG (1886–1948 ), worsted spinning mill Pfefferkorn & Co. , later Pflüger, Köhler & Co. (1892–1953), weaving mill Ernst Seifert GmbH (1920–1948), spinnstoff AG (1923–1946) and silk weaving mill Weissbach (1923–1948) . In Meerane there were u. a. the weaving mills Ludwig Seybt , later Hermann Bohrisch (1880 / 1893–1948), Heinrich Schneider & Sohn (1882–1945), Eduard Reinhold KG (1887 / 1912–1946), Gebrüder Bochmann AG (1890–1946), weaving mill J. Pfeiffer Sons (1891–1951), Thümmler & Bley (1915–1954), Emil Klemm & Co. (1901–1952) and Reinhold & Baum (1923–1948).
After the Second World War, as part of the industrial reform in the Soviet Zone, a large number of the factories were confiscated by the SMAD and had to struggle with major problems. You were acc. SMAD resolution 154/181 returned to the local administrative bodies on May 21, 1946. Almost 90% of the textile industry came back into private ownership, but suffered greatly from the fragmentation of the formerly connected economic area and the dismantling and reparation guarantees of the Soviet military administration . During the Nazi era, many had to switch production to armaments, especially since the demand for luxury goods such as clothing had fallen sharply.
In order to continue to work and feed their own employees, the medium-sized companies had to engage in barter trade, which was prohibited by the Control Council Act and by the SMAD's economic sabotage order No. 160 of December 3, 1945, but - as everywhere in Germany before the currency reform - received little attention. The business was even supported by the city administrations , the trade unions and the Saxon state government , since otherwise the supply of the population would have collapsed.
The Saxon Minister of Economic Affairs since 1945 was Fritz Selbmann ( SED ). He took the view that "one must harness the capitalists to the socialist wagon". and made u. a. the stocking manufacturer Horst Pfotenhauer to one of his department heads. In February 1948 he was appointed to Berlin as one of the deputy chairmen of the German Economic Commission (DWK) . The former Saxon Justice Minister Hermann Kastner (LDPD) also became Deputy Chairman of the DWK in March 1948. Both are said to have benefited privately from the compensation deals, as was the Dresden Ministerial Director Erna Trübenbach (SED). In addition, deliveries had to be made to other SBZ countries and the Balkans. After all, 13 larger companies were missing 1.3 million meters of fabric worth 6.8 million marks.
Investigations by the Central Control Commission
At the end of July 1948, 40 inspectors from the Central Control Commission Berlin (ZKK) of the German Economic Commission, which had recently been founded under Fritz Lange (SED), came to Meerane. You should check the "plan discipline of the private textile industry of Glauchau and Meerane". The "Goldener Löwe" inn became their headquarters. 30 textile entrepreneurs and traders were arrested as a precaution. The victims could not produce any written compensation permits.
However, the head of the responsible Glauchau public prosecutor , Dietrich Großmann, appeared to have constructed the suspicions. He noticed that the officers mistreated the accused, threatened them with revolvers and refused to talk to lawyers. Among other things, this led to Horst Pfotenhauer, whose release Selbmann was still able to obtain, hanged himself shortly afterwards near his property.
At the beginning of September 1948, representatives of the ZKK and the Zwickau public prosecutor's office determined that the proceedings before the Grand Criminal Chamber should be conducted “in a large show trial” based on the Stalinist model. In agreement with the SMAD, at least two death sentences should be imposed. Under no circumstances should one of the operators be acquitted. Due to the resistance of Grossmann, the ZKK finally ensured that the proceedings of the Glauchau district attorney were withdrawn and transferred to the Zwickau regional court . This left the decision as to which persons should be charged, in turn, to the ZKK, which then took care of the filling of the court by docile young graduates of the popular judge schools. Grossmann was only able to escape his arrest on September 3rd by fleeing to West Berlin. Since Justice Minister Johannes Dieckmann (LDPD) did not immediately agree to the dismissal of the old lawyers and the breach of the guarantee of the legal judge, the then Personnel Manager of the Justice Administration Hilde Benjamin ( SED ) came from Berlin to Dresden and had them removed.
Trials at the Zwickau Regional Court
The trials before the Zwickau Regional Court were the first show trials due to SMAD's economic sabotage order No. 160. 40 textile contractors and others were charged. The verdict against the 11 main defendants was issued on December 7, 1948. Six defendants, including Grossmann, were sentenced to death , the rest mostly to 15-year prison terms . Further processes followed. The death sentences were not carried out but were commuted to life imprisonment. The last main defendant was allowed to leave prison on October 5, 1959 and fled to the West. Other victims had already evaded arrest, including the factory owners Ernst Seifert (as early as May 1948), Hermann Rudolf Bohrisch and Franz Bochmann. The property of the condemned was confiscated after the judgment of a lay judge. 1951 were u. a. the weaving mills of Ernst Seifert and Bößneck & Meyer were converted into state- owned companies under the name " VEB Palla-Textilwerke Glauchau " .
Literature and written sources
- Werner Haueisen : Glauchau in the 20th century. Sutton , Erfurt 2001, ISBN 978-3-89702-352-9 .
- Nils Klawitter: In Stalin's name - East Germany's first major show trial , in: DIE ZEIT No. 49, Hamburg, November 26, 1998 ( online )
- Nils Klawitter: Dying Root Remnants , in: DER SPIEGEL 1/2004 December 29, 2003, p. 68 ( online )
- DER SPIEGEL : The Last Capitalists , Hamburg, October 16, 1948, pp. 3–4 ( online )