Wilhelm Bode (locksmith)

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Stumbling block for Wilhelm Bode in Cottbus

Wilhelm Bode (born April 23, 1886 in Mühlhausen / Thuringia ; † between 1942 and 1945 in the Brandenburg-Görden prison ) was a German locksmith , trade unionist and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Wilhelm Bode was born in Mühlhausen in Thuringia in 1886. In 1919 he came to Ströbitz , a suburb of Cottbus , where he worked as a locksmith in the Reichsbahn repair shop. He was a member of the SPD . At first, Bode organized himself as a union in the German Metal Workers' Association . Later he moved to the Union of Railway Workers in Germany (EdED), where he took on numerous functions (including cashier and secretary at the local level). At times he was an honorary member of the EdED board. He was also a member of the works council at the state railway repair shop in Cottbus.

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists in 1933, the unions were smashed. Many trade unionists fled abroad. Wilhelm Bode was active in the resistance against the Nazi regime. He belonged to an EdED resistance group and coordinated the illegal railway union work in Cottbus and the surrounding area. Bode also kept in touch with some former colleagues who had fled to Amsterdam and Bilbao , among others, the well-known railway unionist Hans Jahn . He reported to him in Amsterdam and Berlin on the political events in Cottbus. In addition, joint actions were planned against the National Socialists and the Spanish Franquists .

After the German occupation of the Netherlands in May 1940, some German emigrants were arrested. Here one also found notes by Wilhelm Bode. This was subsequently arrested, came from 11 June 1940 in "protective custody" and was after a lengthy pre-trial detention on 8 April 1942 for high treason to eight years in prison convicted. He had to serve this in the Brandenburg-Görden prison. He did not return from there after the end of the Third Reich in 1945. The time and exact circumstances of his death are not known. There is also information that Bode was imprisoned in a concentration camp in the spring of 1945 , fled in the chaos of war, but did not return home afterwards.

His son was also a victim of the Nazi dictatorship. He was drafted into a punitive battalion and died in the war .

Honors

Street sign Cottbus Bodestraße in German and Lower Sorbian language

As early as 1946, Bodestrasse was dedicated to Wilhelm Bode in Cottbus . For this purpose, the Spichernstrasse was renamed , which was named after the Battle of Spichern . In addition, on July 11, 2007, a stumbling block was laid in Dissenchener Strasse 98, the former location of Wilhelm Bode's house, in his honor.

literature

  • Helmut Donner: Cottbus street names explained . Euroverlag, Cottbus 1999, ISBN 3-933626-24-2 , pp. 11-12.
  • Erika Pchalek: Died in prison. In: Lausitzer Rundschau . December 24, 2015 ( online , accessed December 7, 2017)
  • Siegfried Mielke , Stefan Heinz : Railway trade unionists in the Nazi state. Persecution - Resistance - Emigration (1933–1945) . Metropol-Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-86331-353-1 , pp. 39, 109–114, 118–125, 140–157, 315–317, 370, 412–414 (short biography), 448, 462 -465, 518, 620, 638, 661, 697 f., 703, 719, 725, 727, 729 f., 734.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Pchalek 2015.
  2. ^ Wilhelm Bode. In: Lausitzer Rundschau . April 22, 2006, accessed December 8, 2017 .
  3. ↑ See Donner 1999.
  4. ↑ Further "stumbling blocks" for Cottbus. In: Websites of the Cottbus district association of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen . Retrieved May 23, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Bode, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German locksmiths, trade unionists and resistance fighters against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH April 23, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Mühlhausen / Thuringia
DATE OF DEATH between 1942 and 1945
Place of death Brandenburg-Görden prison