Wilhelm Knuckle
Wilhelm Knöchel (born November 8, 1899 in Offenbach am Main , † July 24, 1944 in Brandenburg ) was a German KPD functionary and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime .
Life
Knöchel was a lathe operator and pit fitter, joined the SPD in 1919 and switched to the KPD in Dortmund in 1923 . From 1924 to 1930 he was a member of the KPD leadership in Dortmund, and in 1930 again in Offenbach. From 1932 to 1934 he was a student at the International Lenin School of the Communist International in Moscow .
At the “Brussels Conference” in October 1935, Knöchel was elected a candidate for the Central Committee (ZK). From 1936 he built in Amsterdam together with Wilhelm Beuttel illegal KPD section line west and organized communist resistance work in the mines of the Ruhr area , which presented itself at this time as union work. At the Bern conference of the KPD in Draveil near Paris, Knöchel was elected a member of the Central Committee in 1939. As a result of the German-Soviet border and friendship treaty , the KPD section leadership was dissolved.
In January 1942 he traveled illegally to Berlin via the Ruhr area . Together with Willi Seng he built a KPD resistance group, known as Knöchel-Seng-Gruppe , in the Ruhr area and, supported by his partner Cilly Hansmann (1908–1984), tried to contact the comrades in Berlin to establish an illegal KPD that was active throughout the Reich - Build the line. Knöchel produced pamphlets, including the underground magazine " Peace Freedom Progress " (F-Aktion), distributed leaflets and other communist newspapers. In early 1943 a member of the group, Alfons Kaps , was arrested by the Gestapo , then Willi Seng. On January 30, 1943, Knöchel , who was seriously ill with tuberculosis, was arrested in the apartment of the couple Charlotte and Erich Garske in Berlin-Mitte . Under the torture, Seng and Kn ankle revealed other members of the group. Ankle was first incarcerated in the prison of Scheveningen . On June 12, 1944, he was sentenced to death by the People's Court in Berlin after only ten minutes of hearing , and on July 24 he was executed in the Brandenburg-Görden prison .
Commemoration
A stumbling block was laid in Wilhelmstrasse in Offenbach in memory of Wilhelm Knöchel .
literature
- Wolfgang Benz , Walter H. Pehle (Hrsg.): Lexicon of the German resistance. Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-596-15083-3 , pp. 243-245.
- Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German communists. Biographical Handbook 1918 to 1945 . 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 ( online [accessed December 28, 2012]).
- Detlev Peukert : The KPD in resistance. Persecution and underground work on the Rhine and Ruhr 1933 to 1945. Hammer, Wuppertal 1980, ISBN 3-87294-165-8 .
- Beatrix Herlemann : In a losing position: Communist resistance in World War II. The ankle organization. Bonn 1986, ISBN 3-87831-434-5 .
- Thomas Gebauer: The KPD department of the Gestapo Düsseldorf. disserta Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-942109-74-1 . (on Google Books) .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Knuckles, Wilhelm |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German KPD functionary and resistance fighter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 8, 1899 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Offenbach am Main |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 24, 1944 |
| Place of death | Brandenburg |