Wilhelm Haase (resistance fighter)

Wilhelm Haase (born February 18, 1890 in Berlin , † March 15, 1965 in East Berlin ) was a German communist union official and resistance fighter .

Life

Haase attended elementary school and completed an apprenticeship as a lathe operator. In 1907 he joined the German Metalworkers' Association (DMV). During the First World War Haase organized himself in the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD). In the course of the November Revolution he joined the Spartacus League . As a result, Haase became a co-founder of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) at the turn of the year 1918/19 . Due to dissatisfaction with the party political positioning in the trade union question, Haase resigned from the KPD in 1920. He also left the DMV for a while. He joined the Communist Workers' Party of Germany (KAPD), which had split off from the KPD and was more radical than the KPD. After the KAPD had lost its importance, Haase rejoined the KPD in 1926.

Haase became involved in the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition (RGO) from 1928/29 . For the RGO, he was elected as a works council in the Osram plants . Haase lost his job in 1931 because of his involvement in trade union politics at the company level for the RGO and because of the difficult economic situation in connection with the global economic crisis . During this time he was also involved in the unified association of metal workers in Berlin (EVMB), the first independent association of the RGO. From around the end of 1931 to the beginning of 1933 , the communist took on the position of district manager for the EVMB in the southern association district (Marienfelde-Tempelhof). In this role he replaced Walter Dittmar .

After the start of National Socialism , the Nazi persecutors arrested Haase several times. From the spring of 1933 he became involved in the resistance for the illegal EVMB in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg and in Berlin-Weißensee , where he was little known. Finally he became district manager of the illegal EVMB in Weißensee in mid-1933. The Gestapo arrested Haase in mid-December 1933 . From December 15, 1933 to January 6, 1934 he was imprisoned in the Columbia concentration camp and from January 6 to January 16, 1934 in the Oranienburg concentration camp . The Nazi persecutors accused Haase of having worked for the "treasonable goals" of the EVMB. Therefore, the Berlin Higher Regional Court sentenced him to two years imprisonment in mid-1934, which he served in the prisons in Berlin-Plötzensee and Berlin-Tegel. After his release, Haase participated again in smaller resistance activities in communist circles. The Wehrmacht excluded Haase from military service because of his political past.

After the end of the Second World War , Haase took part in the reconstruction in East Berlin . He joined the KPD in 1945, through which he joined the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in 1946 . Haase later worked as an employee of the party leadership and was responsible for the cooperation between SED bodies and the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB).

Literature / sources

• Stefan Heinz , Siegfried Mielke (ed.): Functionaries of the unified association of metal workers in Berlin in the Nazi state. Resistance and persecution (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - resistance - emigration. Volume 2). Metropol, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86331-062-2 , pp. 24, 32, 47, 67, 155-159 (short biography).
• Stefan Heinz: Moscow's mercenaries? "The Union of Metal Workers in Berlin": Development and failure of a communist union. VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89965-406-6 , pp. 152, 312, 324, 368, 380, 448, 473, 528.
• Hans-Rainer Sandvoss , Resistance in Prenzlauer Berg and Weißensee (= Resistance in Berlin 1933–1945, Vol. 12), Berlin 2000, p. 120.
• Landesarchiv Berlin , inventory C Rep. 118-01, No. 251 (documents in connection with recognition as a “victim of fascism”).

Web links

• Stefan Heinz: Short biography in the internet exhibition about political prisoners in Oranienburg concentration camp