Was duration high school process

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The Werzeit high school student trial was a court case against 19 young people from a resistance group against the SED regime in the GDR . Most of them were students at the Alexander von Humboldt High School in Werdau, Saxony . The members of the group were sentenced to a total of 130 years in prison in 1951 for " boycotting against democratic institutions and organizations" .

history

In Werdau , a resistance group had formed in protest against the Volkskammer election on October 15, 1950, when there was no possibility of choosing between different parties and candidates. The group was inspired by publications by the Munich resistance group White Rose during the Nazi era . Like them, the Werzeit high school students printed and distributed leaflets calling for resistance to the SED dictatorship. For this they obtained pressure rollers from the West Berlin Combat Group against Inhumanity (KgU). They also protested against the death sentence for Hermann Joseph Flade , who like them had rebelled against the bogus election. With stink bombs they disrupted SED events.

On the night of May 18-19, 1951, the People's Police made their first arrests : two of the students were arrested during a leaflet campaign . More high school students were arrested in the following days.

On October 3, 1951, the 19 pupils were sentenced to long prison terms by the Zwickau Regional Court . Six of the convicts were still minors, including three girls. Only politically reliable persons were allowed to attend the proceedings. The parents and relatives of the students were denied access to the negotiating room, press reports were prevented. Parents who tried to get to their children were beaten out of the courthouse. The names of the convicts were:

Surname Age at time of judgment Sentence
Joachim Gäbler 18 years 15 years
Karlheinz Eckardt 16 years 14 years
Gerhard Schneider 19 years 13 years
Sigrid Roth 17 years 12 years
Theobald grains 18 years ten years
Heinz Rasch 19 years ten years
Achim Beyer 19 years 8 years
Günter Fritzsche 17 years 7 years
Gerhard Büttner 16 years 6 years
Hermann Krauss 18 years 6 years
Gottfried Karg 19 years 5 years
Siegfried Mueller 19 years 5 years
Walter Daßler 31 years 5 years
Manfred Always 24 years 3 years
Günther Kahler 19 years 3 years
Gudrun Pleier 18 years 2 years
Edgar Göldner 17 years 2 years
Wolfram Schürer 18 years 2 years
Anneliese Always 16 years 2½ years

Achim Beyer was the last of the convicts to be released in October 1956. Fifteen of the convicted high school students left the GDR after their release. They were rehabilitated by an inmate assistance law passed in the Federal Republic of Germany in the early 1950s and recognized as former political prisoners . Gerhard Schneider stayed in Werdau and was only allowed to speak openly about his fate after the peaceful revolution .

In 1992, Joachim Gäbler, on behalf of the entire group, filed a criminal complaint against those who were still alive in the trial. In 1996, the Dresden public prosecutor drew up an indictment for perversion of the law and deprivation of liberty against the still living judges Fritz Huebsch and Edith Müller. The case against Hübsch was later dropped due to the defendant's inability to stand trial. Edith Müller's proceedings were discontinued in return for a payment of DM 4000  .

See also

literature

Movies

  • Martin Kreutzberg, Christian Klemke: The high school student trial - Werdau / Saxony 1951 . 2001, 59 minutes

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The High School Student Trial - Werdau / Saxony 1951 in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used