Willy Sachse
Willy Richard Sachse (born January 7, 1896 in Leipzig , † August 21, 1944 in the Brandenburg prison ) was a German socialist and communist who organized political resistance as a sailor in World War I and resisted National Socialism as a writer .
Life
Sachse was the son of the cooper Karl Arthur Sachse and his wife Alwine, née Näther. From 1918 his parents ran an inn in Thuringia . After elementary school and a few years of secondary school in Leipzig, he learned the trade of precision mechanic at the Leipzig company Saalbock & Co and during this time joined the German Metalworkers Association and the socialist youth movement.
During the First World War he was drafted into service in the Imperial Navy , where he achieved the rank of chief stoker. In 1917 he was one of the organizers of the political resistance in the Navy . Together with Max Reichpietsch , Albin Köbis and two other sailors, he was therefore sentenced to death . Reichpietsch and Köbis on September 5, 1917, shot and killed , the others to 15 years in prison pardoned. He was freed from Rendsburg prison in Holstein in the course of the November Revolution in 1918 and became a member of the USPD . In Leipzig he was elected to the workers 'and soldiers' council. In 1920 he went to the VKPD with the majority of the USPD .
From January 1924 to January 1925 and from May to October 1925 he traveled to the Soviet Union . The trips would have served to participate in a journalists 'course, he later put on record as a reason for travel when he was imprisoned again in 1925 for publishing his memories of the first German sailors' uprising. After his imprisonment, he worked for the KPD as organizational secretary, mainly in Hamburg , until April 1926 , and from May 1926 as a culture and features editor at the “Sächsische Arbeiterzeitung” in Leipzig. Above all, he was a popular meeting speaker, his personal charisma and the prominent position of a revolutionary who had escaped the death sentence gave him the flair of a cult figure.
He was a supporter of former Communist Party chairman end of 1928 August Thalheimer excluded from the KPD, Sachse became a member of the Communist Party Opposition (KPO), and he joined the awakening circle of revolutionary soldiers and sailors to be connected? Romans on. In 1933 he got a job for a short time in the media empire of Willi Munzenberg . After that he worked mainly as a freelance writer, from 1939 also as a technical draftsman.
After 1933, Sachse also wrote illegal documents for the resistance groups around Robert Uhrig . Willy Sachse was arrested on February 4, 1942, sentenced to death by the People's Court on June 6, 1944 , and executed in Brandenburg prison on August 21, 1944 .
Alexander Graf Stenbock-Fermor wrote about Willy Sachse in his 1973 memoir Der Rote Graf :
“I liked him immediately: a fat, heavy man who looked like a cozy 'neighbor', cosmopolitan and cheerful, who appreciates the good life. But in every conversation you could feel his great political knowledge and his amazing general education ”.
Sachse was married to Johanna Petzold from Zwickau . In 1920 his son Werner was born.
memory
- The city of Bitterfeld-Wolfen paid tribute to Willy Sachse by naming a street after him.
- In Gamengrund there has been a memorial stone since 1974 commemorating the communists Josef Römer , Willy Sachse, Fritz Riedel and Kurt Ritter .
- On October 23, 2012 , a stumbling block was laid in front of his former place of residence, Berlin-Wedding , Corker Strasse 29 .
Works
- Under the pseudonym "Anti-Nautikus": Germany's Revolutionary Sailors . With a foreword by Ernst Thälmann . Hamburg 1925
Willy Sachse has published at least 12 more books under his own name or the pseudonyms Jan Murr and Hein Smut:
- Willi Richard Sachse: Rust on man and ship. A confessional novel about Skagerrak, Traditionsverlag, Berlin 1934;
- Jan Murr: Stoker Jan. Experiences and adventures at sea, Young Generation Publishing House, Berlin 1934;
- Hein Snut: Klaus Timm: The hero of Cameroon. After his own experiences, publishing house Freya, Heidenau 1934;
- Willy Richard Sachse: Race with death and the devil. Roman, Buchmeister-Verlag and Gutenberg Book Guild, Berlin 1934;
- Jan Murr: 'Tom ... Tom ...'. A story from the rainforest of Madagascar, Verlag Junge Generation, Berlin 1934;
- Willy Richard Sachse: Jonetta. Novel of a Seafaring, Verlag Junge Generation, Berlin 1934;
- Willy Richard Sachse: Alaska Jim. A hero of the Canadian police, Freya publishing house, Heidenau 1935;
- Jan Murr: The admiral. Life and death of those from Falkland, Verlag Junge Generation, Berlin 1935;
- Jan Murr: Robben-Roy, Verlag von Schmidt and Spring, Leipzig undated (1936);
- Jan Murr: The six from 'Brummer', Verlag H.-J. Fischer, 1936; Stick Bummys Legacy. Adventure novel, Verlag Das Vaterland, Niedersedlitz, 1936;
- Jan Murr: Black knife. Roman, List Verlag, Leipzig 1936
- Jan Murr: The men of fortune, List-Verlag Leipzig 1935
literature
- Wilhelm Dittmann : The naval judicial murders of 1917 and the Admiral's rebellion of 1918 - Depicted according to the official secret files on behalf of the parliamentary committee of inquiry into the world war. Berlin 1926.
- Günther Weisenborn : The silent uprising. Report on a resistance movement of the German people 1933-1945. Hamburg 1953.
- Gert Rosiejka: The Red Chapel. Hamburg 1986.
- Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German communists. Biographisches Handbuch 1918 to 1945. Dietz, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-320-02044-7 .
- Oswald Bindrich, Susanne Römer : Beppo Römer. A life between revolution and nation. Berlin 1991.
- Susanne Römer, Hans Coppi junior (ed.): Departure. Documentation of a magazine between the fronts. Koblenz 2001.
- Leonore Krenzlin : The unknown writer Willy Sachse. Red sailor and resistance fighter . In: Utopia creative. Series of publications by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation , April 1999, pp. 47–56.
- Luise Kraushaar u. a .: German resistance fighters 1933 to 1945. Berlin 1970.
- Richard Stumpf : Reichpietsch and Köbis admonish! . In: Illustrierte Reichsbanner-Zeitung . Volume 40, 1928, pp. 626-627.
- Sachse, Willy . 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 .
Movie
- Marinemeuterei 1917 , ZDF 1969, 90 min., Director: Hermann Kugelstadt , script: Michael Mansfeld, with Dieter Wilken, Karl-Heinz von Hassel , Joachim Richert (as Willy Sachse), Volkert Kraeft , Claus Wilcke and others (this film specifically describes the Mutiny and the trial of the mutineers).
Web links
- Literature by and about Willy Sachse in the catalog of the German National Library
- Short biography of the German Resistance Memorial Center
Individual evidence
- ↑ Alexander Stenbock-Fermor: The red count. Autobiography. Berlin 1973, p. 402. Quoted in Krenzlin: Sailor (PDF; 79 kB) , p. 47.
- ↑ http://www.stolpersteine-berlin.de/de/biografie/3618
- ↑ Red sailor and resistance fighters (PDF; 79 kB)
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Sachse, Willy |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Anti-Nautikus (pseudonym); Sachse, Willi Richard (real name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German writer and resistance fighter |
DATE OF BIRTH | January 7, 1896 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Leipzig |
DATE OF DEATH | August 21, 1944 |
Place of death | Brandenburg prison , Brandenburg an der Havel |