Theodor Winter

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Theodor Winter

Theodor Winter (born April 15, 1902 in Bremen ; † spring 1945 ) was a German carpenter , communist and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Notice in the cell building of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp for Theodor Winter
Gravestone or memorial stone of Theodor Winter in the Friedrichsfelde central cemetery in Berlin

During his training in 1916 he joined the socialist workers' youth movement and the anti-war movement of the Bremen Left . For the fight against the imperialist war he established connections with Russian prisoners of war and collected food for deserters . He participated in the distribution of the journal Arbeiterpolitik, a weekly journal for scientific socialism . When the International Communists of Germany and the Berlin Spartacus Group merged to form the KPD , he became a founding member. In 1919 he took part in the defense of the Bremen Soviet Republic against the Freikorps troops.

In 1929 he completed a course with Leo Drabent at the Reichsparteischule of the KPD “Rosa Luxemburg” in Fichtenau and then organized the protest movements against emergency decrees , fascism and war . In November 1932 he moved to Berlin and became a teacher at the MAB and the KPD.

After he was briefly taken into “ protective custody ” in August 1933 , he and his wife Elly ( Wilhelm Pieck's daughter ) fled to the Soviet Union in September 1933 and worked there as a model maker . In 1939 he became editor of the Deutsche Zentral-Zeitung in Moscow . After the invasion of fascist forces in the Soviet Union, he held talks with German soldiers and officers in Soviet POW camps. Based on the experience he gained, Theodor Winter helped found the National Committee for Free Germany and trained as a parachutist and radio operator .

On October 7, 1943, together with Käthe Niederkirchner , he jumped over the areas of Poland annexed by Nazi Germany in order to collect reports on the situation in Germany and to transmit them using the shortwave transmitters that were carried along . With the help of Polish partisans , both reached Königsberg . Together they were supposed to make contact with several illegal groups in Berlin, but were discovered on the way there, arrested by the Gestapo , interrogated under torture and taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp . In autumn 1944 Theodor Winter was transferred back to Berlin.

No files have yet been found on his whereabouts. Käthe Niederkirchner was shot by the SS in the Ravensbrück concentration camp on the night of September 27-28, 1944 .

Theodor Winter was married to Elly Winter (born November 1, 1898, † May 13, 1987), the daughter of the politician and later GDR President Wilhelm Pieck .

Honor

  • The Motor Vehicle Regiment 2 in Strausberg , which was directly subordinate to the Ministry for National Defense of the GDR, was named Theodor Winter.
  • The 19th POS Berlin-Mitte in Krausenstrasse 22, DDR-1080 Berlin, was named Theodor Winter.

literature

  • Hans Schafranek : In the rear of the enemy: Soviet parachute agents in the German Reich 1942–1944 . In: Documentation Archive of Austrian Resistance (Ed.), Yearbook 1996, Vienna 1996
  • Luise Kraushaar et al .: German resistance fighters 1933–1945. Biographies and letters. Volume 1. Dietz, Berlin 1970, page 424ff
  • Willy Hundertmark , Jakob Pfarr et al .: Anti-fascist resistance 1933 to 1945 in Bremen. Schmalfeldt-Verlag, Bremen 1974

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Winter, Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighters against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremen
DATE OF DEATH 1944
Place of death Berlin