Wilhelm Jelinek (anarchist)

Wilhelm "Willi" Jelinek (born December 25, 1889 in Ludwigsdorf ; † March 24, 1952 in Bautzen prison ) was a German metalworker, author, works council chairman and representative of anarcho-syndicalism .

Act

After the First World War , more than 150,000 people in Germany organized themselves in the anarcho-syndicalist and anarchist movement. Jelinek contributed to the magazine “ Proletarischer Zeitgeist ” as an author and as a contact address. This "newspaper written by workers for workers" (subtitle) was initially close to the General Workers' Union - Unity Organization (AAU-E), but later turned away from the council-communist orientation of the AAUE.

From 1933 and after 1945 it was difficult for the anarchists to spread their ideology in word and in writing. Jelinek played an important role as anarchosyndicalist immediately after the seizure of power in 1933 by the Nazis and in 1945 after the end of World War II . In 1933 various anarchist activists came into protective custody , including Jelinek, Marie Meier and Martin Küchler. A year later, a group from the liberal socialist circle was arrested in Hagen. Martin Küchler and his wife were convicted of listening to enemy broadcasts .

Wilhelm Jelinek, together with other anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists, organized a meeting place for liberal socialists in the Soviet occupation zone (SBZ) in 1945 , called the "Zwickau direction". At that time he published the Zwickau circular , which was later continued by Willy Huppertz . Former members of the Anarchist Federation (AF), including Fritz Heller, participated in the information center and the circular. “In Zwickau, as unbelievable as it sounds, an information center for all-German anarchism was set up. In mid-1948, she called a secret conference of all anti-authoritarians from different directions living under the Soviet occupation in Leipzig ” . Between 1945 and 1948, anarchist groups in the Soviet Zone were so well organized that they were able to offer West German anarchists financial help, among other things.

In November 1948 a meeting for libertarian groups was organized in Leipzig. Jelinek, who had planned the conference, was arrested, like all other participants, on November 10th by members of Department K 5 of the German People's Police and the Soviet MGB secret police . On February 26, 1949, a Soviet military tribunal sentenced him to 25 years' imprisonment for “anti-Soviet agitation” and “illegal group formation”. To serve his sentence, Jelinek was sent to the Soviet special camp No. 4 in Bautzen, which was taken over as a prison by the East German Ministry of the Interior in 1950 .

Under as yet unexplained circumstances, Wilhelm Jelinek died in Bautzen prison in 1952. His colleagues spoke of " political murder ".

further reading

Books

• Günter Bartsch : Anarchism in Germany. 1945-1965 . Volume 1: Chapter From Zwickau against Ulbricht . Fackelträger Verlag, Hanover 1972. ISBN 3-7716-1331-0
• Karl Wilhelm Fricke, Peter Steinbach, Johannes Tuchel: Opposition and resistance in the GDR . P. 50, about W. Jelinek. Verlag CH Beck, 2002. ISBN 3-406-47619-8
• Andreas Hilger , Ute Schmidt, Mike Schmeitzner (eds.): Soviet military tribunals. The conviction of German civilians 1945-1955 . Volume 2: Writings of the Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarian Research , Cologne 2003. ISBN 3-412-06801-2
• Michael Kubina: About Utopia, Resistance and the Cold War. The untimely life of the Berlin councilor communist Alfred Weiland (1906-1978) . Volume 1, "Dictatorship and Resistance." P. 261. Lit Verlag , Hamburg 2001. ISBN 3-8258-5361-6 ,

Magazines

• Andreas Graf, Knut Bergbauer: Comrades, we have to show the way. Anti-authoritarian labor movement in the Soviet occupation zone: Wilhelm "Willi" Jelinek and the Zwickauer Kreis. In: Direct Action . No. 157, 2003.
• Jonnie Schlichting: Willi Jelinek and anarchism in the Soviet Zone 1945–1948. In: Direct Action. No. 78, 1989, p. 10.

Web links

• Author: Nick Heath. Short biography about W. Jelinek .
• Brief information about the Zwickau circular . In the database of German-speaking anarchism (DadA).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ History of Anarchism . Quote: “Anarchism and libertarian press in the Soviet occupation zone and in the GDR. After the Second World War, the few anarchists who had survived twelve years of the Nazi dictatorship tried to reorganize the anarchist movement, which in the first years after the First World War had more than 150,000 active members in Germany. "
2. ↑ Quotation from: Günter Bartsch: Anarchismus in Deutschland, 1945–1965 . Also published in Trafik No. 12, April 1984. Anarchists in the GDR.
3. ↑ See on this: Michael Kubina: Von Utopie, Resistance and Cold War. P. 261. Quote: “His [W. Jelinek's] "Information Center" soon gained importance beyond the Soviet Zone and became one of the most important engines of the anarchist movement in post-war Germany. "
4. ^ Author: Bernd Drücke, Anarchy in Eastgermany . In: Grassroots Revolution No. 340, 1989.
5. ↑ On arrest and conviction see: Andreas Hilger, Ute Schmidt, Mike Schmeitzner (eds.): Soviet military tribunals. The conviction of German civilians 1945-1955 . P. 237. Quote: “In concrete terms, he [W. Jelinek] accused of having "organized underground anarchist groups" and associated with "leading anarchists of the Western Zones" from whom he received "anti-Soviet and anti-democratic" literature. "
6. ↑ Quotation from: Günter Bartsch: Anarchismus in Deutschland, 1945–1965. P. 200.