Walter Hösterey

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Walter Hösterey , called Walter Hammer , (born May 24, 1888 in Elberfeld , † December 9, 1966 in Hamburg ) was a German publisher and writer . He was a member of the Wandervogel movement , to whose left wing he belonged. Hösterey was a Nietzsche fan and called himself as a writer "Walter Hammer" based on Nietzsche's writing Götzen-Twilight or How to philosophize with the hammer .

Life

Hösterey was the son of the well-known Elberfeld pretzel baker Luca Djürken. At the age of 18 he started working as a writer. In 1913 he took part in the First Free German Youth Day on the Hoher Meissner . From 1915 to 1918 he did his military service, among other things, with the 236th Infantry Division established on the Western Front at the end of 1916. The horrific experiences during this time made him return from the First World War as a staunch pacifist . He processed his impressions in the book of the 236th Infantry Division , which is an indictment against the war. He then worked as the editor of several influential magazines ( Der Fackelreiter , Junge Menschen , Junge Republik ). In 1922, Walter Hösterey was appointed honorary chairman of the Peace Association of War Participants , not only because of his experiences from the First World War . Two years later he ran for the Republican Party of Germany for the Reichstag and in 1925 became a member of the Reich Committee of the Reich Banner .

In 1928 he became a member of the Reich Committee of the Republican Reich Federation and in 1932 was one of the signatories of the urgent appeal for a united front of the workers' parties against National Socialism. But as early as 1933 he was placed in “ protective custody ” under the National Socialists , but continued his publications under a cover name. Finally Walter Hösterey fled to Amsterdam at the end of 1933 . A year later he was with Ludwig Quidde German representative at the World Peace Conference in Locarno , Switzerland , but had to flee again and therefore went to Denmark at the end of 1934 . The National Socialists expatriated him on July 31, 1938.

Walter Hammer grave , Ohlsdorf cemetery

In 1940 Hösterey was arrested by the Danish police while trying to escape to Sweden and handed over to the Gestapo . This was followed by his admission to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . On 29 October 1942, he received a sentence of five years ' imprisonment , up to April 1945, he remained in the Brandenburg prison in custody.

After the end of the war, he began to recover files and provide information to relatives of former concentration camp inmates. In 1948 Walter Hösterey became head of the Brandenburg Research Institute (State Archive Potsdam) and began building a museum with an attached archive and a memorial. But the SED closed his job as early as 1950 , so he left the GDR and moved to Hamburg . There he built up the Walter Hammer Archive on resistance and persecution. He was the founder and head of the German Resistance Working Group. After his death in 1966, the archive was handed over to the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich . It was retro-digitized there in 2012 and is now accessible online.

Walter Hammer was the owner of the pacifist and socialist Fackelreiter publishing house in Hamburg. Numerous books published by him were publicly burned at the stake in 1933 .

Hammer died in 1966 at the age of 78. His final resting place is in the Ohlsdorf cemetery in Hamburg at grid square Q 18 (south of Chapel 2 , north of Cordesallee ). His wife Erna Hammer-Hösterey, who died in 1992, rests next to him.

Awards

Walter Hösterey received the Federal Cross of Merit in 1953 and the Great Federal Cross of Merit in 1964 .

The Walter Hammer hiking trail in Hamburg-Bergedorf in the Boberger Niederung nature reserve was named after him in his memory .

Well-known publications

  • Nietzsche as an educator. Hugo Vollrath publishing house, Leipzig 1914.
  • Documents of Vegetarianism. 2 volumes. Hugo Vollrath publishing house, Leipzig 1914.
  • The book of the 236th I (nfanterie) D (ivision). Elberfeld 1919.
  • Was this necessary? - The ordeal of the German emigrants extradited from Denmark. Brandenburg 1948.
  • Theodor Haubach in memory. Frankfurt am Main 1955, DNB 455037892 .
  • Hohes Haus in Henkers Hand ', review of the Hitler era, the suffering and sacrifice of German parliamentarians. Frankfurt am Main 1956, DNB 451791592 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Walter Hammer
  2. ↑ Celebrity Graves
personal data
SURNAME Hösterey, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hammer, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publisher and writer
DATE OF BIRTH May 24, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Elberfeld
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 1966
Place of death Hamburg