Willi Prinz

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Willi Prinz (born August 10, 1909 in Cologne-Kalk ; † December 28, 1973 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen ), actually Wilhelm Peter Prinz , was a German politician. From 1949 to 1951 he was the first chairman of the Hamburg KPD .

Life

His father worked as a painter and varnisher in a machine factory. In 1923, Prinz began an apprenticeship as an engine fitter. From 1927 he was a member of the KPD. In 1928 he joined the KJVD and in 1930 was appointed to Moscow for the Communist Youth International . In the internal party power struggles between Heinz Neumann and Ernst Thälmann , Prince was considered a sympathizer of Neumann and lost all offices on his return to Germany.

In the Ruhr area he fought against National Socialism from October 1932 to May 1933 . In Trier he reorganized the defeating KP . In 1935, Prince was summoned to Paris by his party . Then he took over the leadership of the communist emigration in the Netherlands. There he worked as an organization and training manager. In May 1941 he was arrested by the Dutch police during a raid and taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . Following a high treason trial, he was sentenced to two years and three months in prison. He was sent to the Münster prison, but was drafted into Penal Division 999 in November 1942 .

After the war he was taken prisoner by the British. In 1947 he returned to Germany. In April 1948 he became second chairman of the zone secretary of the KPD in the French occupation zone . In August 1949 he was elected regional chairman of the Hamburg KPD and was a member of the Hamburg parliament from 1949 to 1952 . The KPD found itself in a low poll. In Hamburg, Prince was supposed to take care of the low acceptance of the KPD among voters and the unions.

More decisive for his work as state chairman, however, were the demands for a “ cleansing ” of “party enemies”, because the party executive accused the Hamburg KPD of having shown too benevolent “towards representatives of anti-Soviet and other anti-party views”. However, Prinz prevented most of the party committees of the so-called "anti-party factional group". In relation to the “Without Me” movement , which opposed the rearmament of the Federal Republic and was unreservedly supported by the KPD, Prinz took a different opinion of his party. His classification as a political deviator before 1933 was his undoing.

Erich Mielke had ordered his arrest back in January 1951 . In February, Willi Prinz was in Löwenberg in the GDR for a meeting of the KPD executive committee. On February 9, he was unexpectedly removed from his post as KPD state chairman. During the conference he was asked to come to a "management meeting in Berlin". The car that picked him up delivered him to a prison in the GDR on February 10, 1951. Prince should confess "crimes" against peace, the Soviet Union , the GDR and their leadership. He was also accused of not excluding Harry Naujoks and Walter Müller from the party. Under threat of life imprisonment, sleep deprivation and a ban on any contact with his wife, Prince was supposed to make a "confession". When Prince refused to do so, after several weeks of psychological torture, employees of the MWD took him to the mangle. They threatened him with shooting and torture. When that did not lead to the desired result, Prinz was taken to the Hohenschönhausen MFS prison. Here, too, attempts were made to persuade Prince to make a confession. Prince lost a third of his body weight. Because of a lack of vitamins, he developed suppurations and suffered from his teeth. At times he went crazy.

In April 1954, Prinz was released from prison. It is unclear how the release from prison came about. According to an SED employee, there are no indications "that Comrade Prince was anti-party or otherwise betrayed the party." According to the party's will, Prinz was to live in the GDR, join the SED and work in the editorial office of a Saxon party newspaper. However, Prince fled from East Berlin to West Berlin and traveled from there by plane to Hamburg. However, Prince did not succeed in a new political start. From then on he worked in a machine factory and later ran a business for agricultural machinery with his brother.

literature

Remarks

  1. ^ Jörg Berlin: Willi Prinz (1909–1973). A chairman of the Hamburg KPD as a victim of Stalinism. In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History. 96, 2010, pp. 101-139, here: p. 114.
  2. ^ Jörg Berlin: Willi Prinz (1909–1973). A chairman of the Hamburg KPD as a victim of Stalinism. In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History. 96, 2010, pp. 101-139, here: p. 137.
  3. ^ Jörg Berlin: Willi Prinz (1909–1973). A chairman of the Hamburg KPD as a victim of Stalinism. In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History. 96, 2010, pp. 125-132.
  4. ^ Jörg Berlin: Willi Prinz (1909–1973). A chairman of the Hamburg KPD as a victim of Stalinism. In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History. 96, 2010, pp. 101–139, here: p. 132, note 68.
personal data
SURNAME Prince, Willi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Prinz, Wilhelm Peter (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (KPD)
DATE OF BIRTH August 10, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne-Kalk
DATE OF DEATH December 28, 1973
Place of death Garmisch-Partenkirchen