Willy Schmidt (trade unionist)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Willy Schmidt (born July 26, 1911 in Duisburg , † September 21, 2003 in Cologne ) was a German trade union official and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime .

Life

After finishing his school career, Schmidt completed an apprenticeship as a typesetter and printer. He was involved in the Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ) and the Young Socialists . From 1925 Schmidt was a member of the printing union in Duisburg, where he became a youth leader and later a delegate of the General German Trade Union Federation (ADGB). Disappointed with the political objectives of the SPD at the time of the Weimar Republic and the dwindling influence of its youth organizations, he joined the Communist Youth Association of Germany (KJVD) and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in the early 1930s .

After the "seizure of power" by the NSDAP in 1933 and the defeat of the KPD, Schmidt continued his political activities illegally as a courier, quarter maker, cashier and head of organization for the Ruhr district administration. After August Stötzel was arrested , he took over his post as political leader in the organization. Schmidt was arrested on 14 March 1934 charged with "conspiracy to commit high treason" and three years in prison convicted. After his imprisonment in the Dortmund – Lüttringhaus prison, Schmidt was sent to the Lichtenburg concentration camp in 1937 and from there in July 1937 transferred to the newly established Buchenwald concentration camp . In Buchenwald, Schmidt was a prisoner functionary , most recently as a deputy prisoner camp protection capo, a leading member of the political and military camp resistance. On April 11, 1945, Schmidt was liberated from Buchenwald concentration camp.

After the war ended, Schmidt returned to Duisburg, where he held the post of party secretary of the KPD for a year and was a member of the Duisburg denazification committee. Schmidt was the co-founder of the Association of the Persecuted of the Nazi Regime - Association of Antifascists (VVN-BdA), became a member of the SPD again in 1952. From the beginning of March 1946 he worked for IG Metall (IGM): initially as a trade union secretary, from 1954 to 1958 as a member of the Cologne district management and from 1958 until his retirement in 1977 as a board secretary in Frankfurt am Main. After his retirement, Schmidt took over the chairmanship of the senior citizens' committee of the DGB Frankfurt and the local IG Metall. In addition, he was a member of the regional seniors' working group of the DGB state district of Hesse, the DGB district executive committee in Frankfurt and delegate of the representative assembly of the IG Metall Frankfurt administrative office. Schmidt also belonged to leading concentration camp victims' associations, for example as a member of the leadership of the Buchenwald-Dora camp community and as a member of the international Buchenwald-Dora camp committee and commandos. He was the editor of Glocke vom Ettersberg and worked on the magazine. In the course of the eyewitness talks - Against Forgetting , he explained to young people about National Socialism and anti-fascist resistance activities.

Schmidt was awarded the Johanna Kirchner Medal of the City of Frankfurt am Main in 1991 .

On April 30, 2014, the square in front of the Duisburg-Süd district office was named after his name. In addition, a memorial plaque was set up. This renaming took place at the request of the district assembly and supported by IG Metall Duisburg-Dinslaken and VVN-BdA Duisburg.

literature

  • Ulrich Schneider: Antifascist and trade unionist. Willy Schmidt. A political biography , Pahl-Rugenstein-Verlag, Bonn 2001, ISBN 978-3891442944 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Duisburg honored his son Willy Schmidt , (PDF, 997 kB), p. 15
personal data
SURNAME Schmidt, Willy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German trade union official and resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH July 26, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Duisburg
DATE OF DEATH September 21, 2003
Place of death Cologne