Walter Häbich

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Walter Häbich

Walter Häbich (born October 15, 1904 or 1905 in Botnang near Stuttgart , † June 30 or July 1, 1934 in the Dachau concentration camp ) was a German politician ( KPD ). Häbich became known as chairman of the Communist Youth Association (KJVD) and as one of those killed in the so-called " Röhm Putsch ".

Live and act

Youth and activity in the KPD

Walter Häbich was born in 1904 or 1905 as the fifth child and youngest son of a mechanic in Botnang near Stuttgart . Häbich's family had been running an inn since 1906. After several strokes of fate, such as the death of the eldest daughter in 1912 and the father in 1913, the family became impoverished during the First World War, so that they finally lost their inn. He attended primary school until 1918. Häbich renounced his original wish to become a draftsman: Instead, from 1918 to 1921 he learned the trade of a bandagist , which he detested. From 1923 to 1925, Häbich earned his living as a metal worker.

From 1920 Häbich belonged to the Communist Youth Association of Germany (KJVD). In 1921 he took over the chairmanship of a local group and in 1922 the management of the KJVD-Groß-Stuttgart. From 1923 he was also a functionary of the KPD.

On November 23, 1923, after the failed communist uprisings in Saxony and Thuringia , Häbich was taken into protective custody when he was just under eighteen and sentenced to three years in prison. Until he was released in August 1925 during an amnesty, he sat on the Hohenasperg in imprisonment .

After his release from prison, Häbich became head of the Communist Youth Association of Württemberg and a full-time KPD functionary. In 1926 Häbich took over the management of the KJV district Wasserkante in Hamburg and in this capacity was a member of the KPD district management Wasserkante. In this context he was in close contact with Ernst Thälmann . He took part in the “V. Congress of the Communist Youth International ” took part in Moscow from August 20 to September 18, 1928 and was elected to its executive committee.

From 1928 to 1929, Häbich was the chairman of the KJVD, and in 1929 he was also a short-term member of the KPD's central committee. On the “XII. Party Congress of the KPD ”in Berlin-Wedding from June 9th to 12th, 1929, he reported on the work of the KJVD. Then he was employed as an editor for the newspaper Klassenkampf in Halle, but continued to work as a leading functionary for the communist youth association. From 1930 he worked again as an editor of the Neue Zeitung in Munich. From January to December 1932 he served a fortress detention in Hohenasperg, after which he returned to Munich .

Period of National Socialism and Death (1933–1934)

A few weeks after the National Socialists came to power in the spring of 1933, Häbich went underground on March 6, 1933 . Within a short time he became the driving force behind the illegal communist Neue Zeitung , for which he not only wrote numerous articles, but also edited them. When the Neue Zeitung print shop , which was hidden in a Catholic monastery, was dug up on September 23, 1933, Häbich was also arrested. Together with other employees of the newspaper, he was taken to the Dachau concentration camp as a protective prisoner. There he was tortured and held in dark detention, but was kept alive by other inmates through secret support.

death

On June 30 or July 1, 1934, Häbich was shot by members of the SS camp guard together with four other prisoners of the Dachau concentration camp ( Julius Adler , Erich Gans , Adam Hereth and Paul Röhrbein ) during the Röhm affair . The corpse of Häbich was brought to the municipal crematorium in Munich's east cemetery on the evening of July 2, together with the bodies of fifteen other people killed during the Röhm campaign in Dachau , and cremated there.

The Political Police in Berlin officially declared that Häbich's shooting was an “act of state emergency service” and that there was therefore “no need for further explanations”. He and the other prisoners were accused of sympathizing with the SA leadership, which was used to justify the shootings. Since Häbich's name does not appear on the official death list for the Röhm Putsch, it is doubtful that the order to shoot him came from the political leadership in Berlin. It is more likely that the camp management of Dachau around Theodor Eicke used the favorable opportunity of the state leadership's action against the SA in the period from June 30th to July 2nd to "casually" pick up some particularly unpopular ones in the "slipstream" of this action Eliminate prisoners. The decision and the order to shoot Häbich as well as Adler, Gans and Hereth were therefore in all probability made or issued by the camp administration itself, without any instructions from Berlin.

After handing it over to the family, Häbich's urn was buried in the Botnang cemetery. Despite the presence of the Gestapo, who filmed the event, the funeral turned into a political demonstration against National Socialism. Häbich himself chose the motto on his tombstone:

"The darker the night, the brighter the stars?"

Aftermath

While Walter Häbich was celebrated in the GDR as a hero of the “anti-fascist resistance”, little attention was paid to him in the Federal Republic's reappraisal of the National Socialist era. One exception is Häbich's hometown Stuttgart, where the memory of him was cherished despite his communist sentiments.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans-Günter Richardi: School of violence. The Beginnings of the Dachau Concentration Camp 1933-1934 , 1983, p. 280, gives October 15, 1904 as your birthday, as does Otto Gritscheder: “The Führer sentenced you to death…” Hitler's “Röhm Putsch” murders in court. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-406-37651-7 , p. 132. Willi Bohn: Stuttgart. A documentary report , 1969, p. 255, October 15, 1905, also K. Pech. Walter A. Schmidt: So that Germany might live. A source work about the German ... , 1959, p. 556, again gives October 5, 1905 as the date of birth.
  2. ^ K. Pech: Häbich, Walter Emil . P. 181; Walter Häbich . In: German resistance fighters 1933-1945. Biographies and Letters , p. 253; Hermann Weber, Andreas Herbst (Ed.).
  3. ^ Martin Broszat / Elke Fröhlich / Falk Wiesemann / Anton Grossmann / Klaus Schönhoven / Hartmut Mehringer: Bavaria in the Nazi era. Social situation and political behavior of the , p. 95.
  4. ^ K. Pech: Häbich, Walter Emil , p. 182
  5. ↑ For example, in a letter to Häbich's mother Erna Häbich dated January 18, 1935 in response to a petition from her part to Hitler of November 19, 1934, in which she inquired about the circumstances of her son's death. Printed as a facsimile in: Reinhard Rürup: Topographie des Terrors. Gestapo, SS and Reich Security Main Office on the Prinz Albrecht site , 1989, p. 53. In this letter, July 1 is given as the date of death and it is spoken of a “civil war” shooting “in the course of the Röhm revolt”.
  6. ^ Willi Bohn: Stuttgart. A documentary report , 1969, p. 255, October 15, 1905.
  7. ↑ Examples would be: Walter Häbich . In: German resistance fighters 1933-1945. Biographies and Letters , p. 334: there it says that he was "brutally murdered" and that he had previously been tortured. August-Bebel-Gesellschaft: Marxistische Blätter, 1963, p. 118 ("murdered [...] the comrades Walter Häbich [...].") Or Lina Haag: Eine Handvoll Staub , 1977, p. 21 ("patenter, courageous Burschee von the youth group ").
  8. ↑ For example, the first Federal President Theodor Heuss referred to Häbich on various occasions in speeches and essays, for example in his memory book To and About Jews. Compiled from writings and speeches (1906–1963) and ed. by Hans Lamm . Econ Verlag, Düsseldorf / Vienna 1964, p. 98.
personal data
SURNAME Häbich, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Häbich, Walter Emil (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (KPD)
DATE OF BIRTH October 15, 1904 or October 15, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Botnang near Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 1934
Place of death Dachau concentration camp