Willi Gall
Willi Gall (born October 3, 1908 in Falkenstein / Vogtl. , † July 25, 1941 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a German communist and resistance fighter against National Socialism .
Life
Gall, the son of a plumber, worked as a lathe operator, metal worker and passenger. He joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1929 and was active in the local group Pethau near Zittau . In 1932 he was elected to the local council. From 1932 he was a member of the KPD sub-district leadership in Zittau, where he was responsible for agitation and propaganda.
Gall emigrated to Czechoslovakia in April 1933 . From 1934 to 1938 he worked in Prague and secured the connection to Zittau as a courier . From 1938 he worked as an instructor for the KPD's “Center” section and traveled illegally to Berlin from Czechoslovakia, Denmark and Sweden several times . Its main task was to set up permanent cells and independent party leaderships in the factories and districts and to strengthen ties with them.
In September 1939 in Berlin he was surprised by the German attack on Poland and stayed in the city to organize illegal work in the former KPD sub-district Berlin-Süd. With groups from the south-eastern districts of Berlin, Gall produced a series of leaflets and in November 1939 published a number for the Berliner Volkszeitung . In December 1939, Gall was arrested from Berlin-Adlershof with over a hundred other Nazi opponents .
On January 23, 1941 he was sentenced to death by the People's Court and murdered on the scaffold six months later in Plötzensee .
Honors
In the GDR, Willi Gall was honored as an anti-fascist and resistance fighter:
- In the memorial of the socialists his name is listed on the large porphyry plaque.
- The 13th Polytechnic Oberschule (POS) in Berlin was named after Gall.
- Today's Weinau Park Stadium in Zittau was called the Willi Gall Stadium from 1955 to the early 1990s.
- The Pioneer Battalion 11 (PiB-11) of the National People's Army (NVA) in Zeithain was given the honorary name "Willi Gall" on October 7, 1988.
- A street in Oberseifersdorf still bears his name today .
literature
- Luise Kraushaar (Ed.): German resistance fighters 1933-1945. Biographies and letters . Volume 1. Dietz, Berlin 1970, pp. 288-293.
- Stephan Hermlin : The first row . 5th edition. Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin 1985, p. 21ff.
- Gall, Willi . In: Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German Communists. Biographisches Handbuch 1918 to 1945. 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gall, Willi |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German communist and resistance fighter against National Socialism |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 3, 1908 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Falkenstein |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 25, 1941 |
| Place of death | Berlin-Plötzensee |