Hartwimmer-Olschewski Group
The Hartwimmer-Olschewski-Gruppe was a Munich national revolutionary - communist resistance group against National Socialism . It was in contact with the Berlin group around Robert Uhrig and Beppo Römer and was the last major attempt at organized communist resistance in Bavaria. The group was broken up in 1942 before they could carry out major operations.
Hans Hartwimmer
Hans Hartwimmer (born July 31, 1902 in Braunschweig ) was a merchant and took part in the First World War as a lieutenant . In 1922 he became a member of the right-wing Freikorps Bund Oberland led by Beppo Römer and took part in the 1923 Hitler putsch . Later he approached the Communist Party (KPD) and from the early 1930s became involved in the Munich Aufbruch-Arbeitskreis, one of the circles around the magazine Aufbruch , which was published by Beppo Römer, who switched to the KPD in 1932 and with which the KPD had a national revolutionary spirit Wanted to win rights for himself. In 1934 Hartwimmer was arrested by the National Socialists on suspicion of high treason and, despite an acquittal, was interned in the Dachau concentration camp until 1937 .
Wilhelm Olschewski senior
Wilhelm Olschewski senior (Born August 18, 1871 in Lyck ) was a merchant and took part in the First World War as an officer. In the November Revolution in 1918 he participated in the workers' and soldiers in Augsburg and was sure to seven years imprisonment sentenced, from which he was released early 1924th Afterwards he was managing director of the KPD in southern Bavaria and member of the management of the Munich KPD newspaper Neue Zeitung . In 1929 he was expelled from the KPD for “oppositional attitudes”. From 1930 to 1933 he headed the Awakening Working Group in the district of southern Bavaria. In 1933 he was taken into " protective custody " for a few months by the National Socialists .
activities
After the outbreak of the Second World War , the then 68-year-old Wilhelm Olschewski began to build up a resistance group that also included several family members, including his son Wilhelm "Willi" Olschewski junior. (Born February 7, 1902 in Berlin ), who joined the KPD in 1925.
After his release from the Dachau concentration camp, Hans Hartwimmer made contact with former members of the Bund Oberland, as well as with people he had met in the Dachau concentration camp, and with the communist resistance group around Olschewski, whom he knew from the Aufbruch work group. The contacts were initially still loose. In 1940 Beppo Römer, now living in Berlin, whom Hartwimmer knew from the Bund Oberland, established a connection with the communist group around Robert Uhrig. In the years that followed, Römer went to Munich several times to maintain contact between the Munich group and the Berlin group. The Berlin group also kept in contact with other regional groups in Germany and tried to set up a Germany-wide organization.
The resistance of the KPD, which had been banned since 1933 and was characterized by leaflet and sticky note campaigns, had been largely crushed by the Gestapo by 1937 and most of the KPD members were arrested. Therefore the groups around Römer and Uhrig planned a different approach. Actions directed at the masses were seen as too dangerous. No value was placed on building a hierarchical, party-political organization. Instead, a group of well-trained communist leaders should be built up who could take over the leadership after a defeat in Germany. Targeted acts of sabotage on targets important to the war effort were also planned.
Busting
Despite the conspiratorial approach of the resistance group, the Gestapo succeeded in smuggling informers into the Berlin group around Uhrig and Römer and thus also learned about the activities of the Munich group. In Munich, the Gestapo had also received information from Hans Hartwimmer himself, although the latter concealed the true extent of the activities and the role of Beppo Römers.
In February and March 1942 the Gestapo arrested at least 43 people in connection with the resistance group in Munich. Six of those arrested were murdered in custody in Munich-Stadelheim prison , including Wilhelm Olschewski sen. († April 30, 1943). The People's Court in Berlin imposed a total of six death sentences for members of the Munich group in 1944 , including Hans Hartwimmer († October 31, 1944) and Wilhelm Olschewski junior. († June 28, 1944), who were executed in Stadelheim . The remaining members were to prison - and prison sentenced, some for life . Other members were sentenced to several years in prison and prison terms by the Munich Higher Regional Court.
Commemoration
Hans Hartwimmer's grave is located in collective grave II for political victims in the Perlacher Forst cemetery , which is adjacent to the Munich-Stadelheim prison. The grave of the Olschewski family is in the Munich North Cemetery . In 1987 the Olschewskibogen , a street in Munich- Feldmoching , was named after Wilhelm Olschewski.
literature
- Gustl Müller-Dechent : Resistance in Munich - The Forgotten. Salzgitter 2004, ISBN 3-9809058-2-9 ( PDF; 833 kB ).
- Marion Detjen: Appointed an enemy of the state. Resistance, resistance and denial against the Nazi regime in Munich. Buchendorfer Verlag, Munich 1998, ISBN 3927984817 .
- Hartmut Mehringer : The KPD in Bavaria 1919-1945. In: Bavaria in the Nazi era. Vol. 5. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1983, ISBN 3486424017 .
- Heike Bretschneider: Resistance to National Socialism in Munich 1933–1945. Miscellanea Bavarica Monacensia, No. 4. Stadtarchiv Munich, 1968.
Individual evidence
- ^ Hans Dollinger: The Munich street names. 5th edition. Ludwig Verlag, Munich 2004.