Willi Strinz

Willi Eugen Strinz (born February 27, 1908 in Pforzheim ; † August 9, 1988 in Bietigheim ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism . He was one of the organizers of the Red Strike Force .

Life

After attending primary school, Willi Strinz was trained as a blacksmith and locksmith . At first he belonged to the Bismarck Youth , but then became a member of the SPD in 1928 and a member of the Reichsbanner in 1932 . In Berlin he studied at the German University of Politics , where he graduated in 1933. In 1933 he became a founding member of the Red Strike Troop , where he was the organizer for Berlin-Mitte. He was used as a courier and traveled several times to Prague to meet with the Sopade executives . He had contacts with Siegmund Crummenerl , Otto Wels and Wilhelm Sander . He also met Elfriede Zimmermann in Pirmasens .

On November 28, 1933, he was arrested in Karl Zinn's apartment. He was then tortured and taken into custody in the Lehrter Strasse cell prison . While in custody, he tried to warn Willi Schwarz of his impending arrest via cashier , but he ignored this.

Immediately before the trial, Strinz tried to put the judge in a mild mood with a letter of justification. With a prison sentence of seven years, however, he received instead one of the maximum sentences in the trials against the Red Strike Troops. He served his sentence both in Luckau Detention Center and in various labor camps . At the end of 1940 he was released two months early from prison. Strinz then sent a petition for clemency to Adolf Hitler personally. With the letter in which he professed anti-Semitism , he tried to restore his military capacity. In addition, he became a member of the DAF and the National Socialist People's Welfare . At the end of 1943 his remaining sentence was waived.

After the Second World War he became a member of the SPD again and was mayor of Bietigheim from 1945 to 1948 . Then he founded a laundry.

literature

• Dennis Egginger-Gonzalez: The Red Assault Troop. An early left-wing socialist resistance group against National Socialism . Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86732-274-4 , pp. 507 f .