Wolfgang Waterstraat

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wolfgang Waterstraat (born January 29, 1920 in Stettin , † April 2, 1952 in Moscow ) was a German doctor, employee of the Berlin Robert Koch Institute and anti-communist activist, who in 1951 in the Berlin S-Bahn on East Berlin territory from the State Security Service was arrested and executed in Moscow on April 2, 1952 for alleged espionage.

Life

Waterstraat was assigned as a troop doctor during the Second World War while studying medicine . Because of a serious wound, he was only able to complete his studies after the war. After fleeing from the Red Army across the Baltic Sea , he settled in Berlin. He married, and in 1948 the couple had a daughter. Waterstraat was an employee of the Berlin Robert Koch Institute , which still deals with infectious diseases today. He conducted research with Georg Henneberg on the then new antibiotic streptomycin . He also worked on behalf of the West Berlin Senate in the Streptomycin Committee, which also sold this expensive antibiotic against tuberculosis to East German citizens. On August 28, 1951, Waterstraat was abducted from the S-Bahn at gunpoint while on the way to work by East Berlin State Security agents. He carried his practically finished dissertation with him.

Since that day he has been missing. It was not until 1959 that the family found out about Wolfgang Waterstraat's death following a message from the tracing service of the German Red Cross . It was said that he "died on the territory of the USSR".

Waterstraat was sentenced to death in Moscow in January 1952 for alleged espionage, diversion and anti-Soviet propaganda and executed in April 1952.

He was a member of the political association “German Union” and the resulting splinter group “European Volunteers West Berlin”, which he was elected chairman. This splinter group consisted mostly of journalists who wanted to work for a united Europe without borders and militarism. Arndt suspects that in addition to this political commitment, which can also be seen as anti-communist, his research on streptomycin played a role, as it was of interest to the East Berlin authorities. The scientific work that Waterstraat carried did not reappear; there is also no indication that this work is used. Furthermore, his professional contact with East German patients at the Robert Koch Institute was obviously his undoing, since after his arrest he was accused of spying on such patient discussions. A patient who lived in East Berlin was sentenced with him. She was imprisoned in the camp for 25 years and was released prematurely from prison several years later because of the renewed outbreak of her illness.

For 927 Germans abducted and executed in Moscow like Waterstraat, a memorial stone was inaugurated on July 1, 2005 in Moscow's Donskoy cemetery .

Waterstraat was rehabilitated in 1993 by the Main Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation on the grounds of "unfounded arrest".

literature

  • Jörg Rudolph, Franz Drauschke, Alexander Sachse: Executed in Moscow - Victims of Stalinism from Berlin 1950–1953 (= series of publications by the Berlin State Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former GDR. Volume 23). The Berlin State Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the Former GDR, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-934085-26-8 , p. 127.
  • Arsenij Roginsky, Jörg Rudolph, Frank Drauschke, Anne Kaminsky (eds.): Shot in Moscow ... The German victims of Stalinism in the Moscow Donskoye cemetery 1950–1953 . Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-938690-14-3 , p. 377.
  • Andreas Hilger : Counter-Intelligence Soviet Style: The Activities of Soviet Security Services in East Germany, 1945–1955 . In: The Journal of Intelligence History , Vol. 3, No. 1, Summer 2003, pp. 101-102, ISSN  1616-1262 .
  • Melanie Arndt: Health Policy in Divided Berlin 1948 to 1961 . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-412-20308-5 , books.google.de (also dissertation at Humboldt University Berlin 2008)
  • Hilger, Schmeitzner, Schmidt: Soviet Military Tribunal e. Volume 2: The conviction of German civilians 1945–1955
  • Andreas Hilger: The Journal of Intelligence History .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Melanie Arndt: Health Policy in Divided Berlin 1948 to 1961 . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2009.
personal data
SURNAME Waterstraat, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor, pro-European activist
DATE OF BIRTH January 29, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Szczecin
DATE OF DEATH April 2, 1952
Place of death Moscow