Wilhelm Rietze

Wilhelm Rietze

Wilhelm Heinrich Rietze (born October 10, 1903 in Köpenick near Berlin ; † August 28, 1944 in Brandenburg-Görden ) was a German communist and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Rietze grew up in a working-class family in Prenzlauer Berg . His father died at an early age, and his mother earned the bare minimum for herself and her five children as a laundromat and newspaper woman. The children helped the mother by delivering the newspaper in front of the school and by delivering the finished laundry in the afternoon. Wilhelm Rietze successfully attended the eight-grade elementary school and completed an apprenticeship as an art fitter in 1922. He was repeatedly dismissed "because of a lack of work". He worked as a burner, art locksmith and belt maker . Rietze became a member of the German Metal Workers Association (DMV) and the “Fichte” workers' sports club . He was a member of the sports club "Northwest". As a wrestler, he met the multiple German champion and Olympic gold medalist from 1936 , the communist Werner Seelenbinder . In 1930 Rietze joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), in 1931 he became a member of the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition (RGO). He ran a street cell of the KPD.

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists in 1933, Rietze was active in the communist resistance. Under the pseudonym "Otto", he was the head of organization of the Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg sub-district of the KPD and was involved in the distribution of illegal printed matter. On January 29, 1934, he was arrested and taken to the Columbiahaus concentration camp , where he was brutally mistreated. As a late consequence of this mistreatment, Rietze had to have fourteen teeth in the upper jaw and another ten teeth in the lower jaw replaced in 1940. The High Court sentenced Rietze to three years in prison for a " treasonable enterprise " . In Luckau prison , Rietze met Heinrich Preuss , Robert Uhrig and Franz Mett .

After his release on August 1, 1937, Rietze worked in the illegal KPD organization formed and led by Uhrig. Together with Preuss and Mett, Rietze successfully established connections in companies, led illegal groups there, and sent them leaflets and messages. After the outbreak of war, they agitated in armaments factories against the war and for the sabotage of war production. Rietze kept in touch with the resistance groups in the AEG turbine factory in Moabit, in the AEG cable works Oberspree (KWO) as well as in Knorr-Bremse AG in Lichtenberg and Bamag-Meguin AG . As an instructor, he was also responsible for the communist cell of Osram GmbH in Berlin. Rietze won other fighters against the Nazi regime, especially in the KWO.

Rietze was arrested again on February 4, 1942 in the course of the uncovering of the Uhrig organization. He was initially imprisoned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp before being charged on February 15, 1944. On July 6, 1944, Rietze was sentenced to death by the “ People's Court ” for preparing for high treason “under aggravating circumstances and favoring the enemy in war” .

In addition to him, eight of the eleven co-defendants were sentenced to death: Charlotte Eisenblätter , Ernst Knaack , Helmut Masche , Fritz Plön , Kurt Ritter , Heinrich Preuss , Fritz Siedentopf and Elfriede Tygör .

Rietze was executed with the guillotine on August 28, 1944 in the Brandenburg-Görden prison .

Honors

Plaque

• Rietze lived at Dunckerstraße 13 in Prenzlauer Berg, where a plaque commemorates him since 1977.
• The Rietzestrasse in Prenzlauer Berg was named on 30 January 1952nd

literature

• Luise Kraushaar : German resistance fighters 1933-1945. Biographies and letters . Volume 2. Dietz, Berlin 1970, pp. 542f.
• Luise Kraushaar: Berlin communists in the fight against fascism 1936 to 1942. Robert Uhrig and comrades . Dietz, Berlin 1981, passim.
• Robert Cohen: Bio-bibliographical handbook on Peter Weiss ' "Aesthetics of Resistance" . Argument, Hamburg 1989, ISBN 3-88619-771-9 , p. 105.
• Daniela Guhr: Berlin Prenzlauer Berg: streets and squares. Live with the story . Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-89468-000-8 , p. 89.
• Ulrike Puvogel, Martin Stankowski: Memorials for the Victims of National Socialism. Documentation II: Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Thuringia . Federal Agency for Civic Education , Bonn 2000, p. 141.
• Klaus Grosinski: Prenzlauer Berg. A chronicle . 2nd, expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02151-1 , p. 340.

Web links

• Naugarder Kreis e. V .: From the life of Wilhelm Rietze . (PDF; 1.6 MB).
• Rietzestrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
• Wilhelm Rietze . BdA Köpenick.