Wilhelm Guddorf ( German: Wilhelm Guddorf ; February 20, 1902 , Melle , Belgium - May 13, 1943 , Berlin, Germany ) - pseudonym Paul Brown, journalist , polyglot , anti-fascist , member of the Resistance movement during World War II, member of the organization The Red Chapel .
| Wilhelm Gooddorf | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Date of Birth | February 20, 1902 |
| Place of Birth | Melle ( Belgium ) |
| Date of death | May 13, 1943 ( 41) |
| Place of death | Berlin ( Germany ) |
| Citizenship | Germany |
| Occupation | member of the Resistance movement during World War II |
| miscellanea | pseudonym Paul Brown, journalist, polyglot, anti-fascist, member of the Red Chapel |
Biography
Wilhelm Gooddorf was born February 20, 1902 in Melle in a Catholic family. His father, a professor at the University of Genst , hoped that his son would choose the ministry of the priest. But William chose a different way of life. At the universities of Leiden , Paris and Münster, he studied linguistics and history. William mastered almost all European languages and dialects, learned Hebrew and Arabic . Later, in 1936 , with the help of cellmate Philip Schaeffer , he learned Persian , Chinese, and Japanese at the Lukau Prison.
In 1922 he joined the Communist Party of Germany . A year later, in the Ruhr region, he participated in an uprising under the name Paul Brown. Under this pseudonym, he published articles in the communist press, first in the Freiheit newspaper in Düsseldorf , and from 1926 to 1933 in the newspaper Die Rote Fahne and several other publications of his party.
Since 1933, using fake documents, he participated in the illegal activities of the communist resistance in Berlin- Brandenburg . In April 1934 he was arrested and sentenced to imprisonment, and until 1939 was detained in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
After being released from prison, he was received by former editorial colleagues Martin Weiss , Walter Huseman and John Sieg , members of the Red Chapel organization. Together with John Sieg, he edited the periodicals of the illegal newspaper Die Innere Front (“Inner Front”) [1] . He made contact with the Communist Resistance cell in Hamburg , led by Franz Jacob and Bernhard Bestline . Together with Arvid Harnack, he wrote Die wirtschaftlichen Grundlagen des nationalsozialistischen Deutschlands ("Comprehensive study of the economic foundations of Nazi Germany").
Since 1940 he worked as a seller of books. He introduced the colleague Eve-Maria Buch into the resistance movement.
On October 15, 1942, Wilhelm Gooddorf was again arrested by the Gestapo and on February 3, 1943, was sentenced to death by the Imperial Military Tribunal. The sentence was executed on May 13, 1943.
Memory
In 1972, in the Berlin district of Lichtenberg , the street was named after him. In another district of Berlin, Köpenick , the school is named after Gooddorf.
Literature
- Hans Coppi junior, Jürgen Danyel, Johannes Tuchel (Hrsg.) Die Rote Kapelle im Widerstand gegen Hitler , Schriften der Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand. Edition Hentrich, ISBN 3-89468-110-1
- Gert Rosiejka: Die Rote Kapelle. "Landesverrat" als antifaschistischer Widerstand. - mit einer Einführung von Heinrich Scheel. ergebnisse, Hamburg 1986, ISBN 3-925622-16-0
- Peter Steinbach und Johannes Tuchel: Lexikon des Widerstandes 1933-1945. CH Beck-Verlag: 2., überarb. u. erw. Auflage 1998; ISBN 3-406-43861-X ; S. 77-78
- Ursel Hochmuth, Gertrud Meyer: Streiflichter aus dem Hamburger Widerstand 1933-1945. Frankfurt 1980, ISBN 3-87682-036-7 , S. 341-386
- Luise Kraushaar et al .: Deutsche Widerstandskämpfer 1933-1945. Biografien und Briefe. Band 1, Dietz-Verlag: Berlin 1970, S. 345—347