Edgar André

Edgar Josef André, or Etkar Josef André (17 January 1894 – 4 November 1936) was a politician in the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and an antifascist.

Early years

Born in Aachen, André was a manual labourer's son. By the time he was five, he had already lost his father, and his mother, who was ill, found it quite hard to look after her three children. Belgian relatives brought them to Liège where for a while, Edgar found himself living at an orphanage. After leaving school, he took up an apprenticeship at a bookshop, where he came into contact with political literature.

PD membership

In 1911, he became a member of the Socialist Party of Belgium, and in only two years' time, he had become the Secretary of the Socialist Worker Youth in Brussels. In 1914, he took part in the Party Congress of the Socialist Party of Belgium. In the First World War, he volunteered for service in the Rhineland and in late 1918 wound up a prisoner of the French. After coming back to Germany, he went first to Koblenz, where he joined the Socialist Worker Youth and the Socialist Party of Germany (SPD). In 1922, he moved to Hamburg. There he worked in building and at the harbour, and he became a member of the Building Workers' Alliance, and later also the Transport Workers' Alliance.

KPD membership

During the Great Depression, which struck Germany especially hard owing to the war reparations exacted from it by the Treaty of Versailles, André came into sharp conflict with the SPD's policies, resulting in his resignation from the party, and his joining the KPD on 1 January 1923. He soon belonged to Ernst Thälmann's circle of friends. As a member of the KPD's Wasserkante District Leadership (1926 - 1930), he was one of the best liked labour leaders in Hamburg.Fact|date=May 2007 As the Hamburg jobless workers' spokesman, he likewise stepped forward as co-founder and leader of the Wasserkante branch of the "Roter Frontkämpferbund", the KPD's protection and defence organization (1924 - 1929). After attending the KPD's party school, André was, in 1931-32, active in the Seamen's and Harbour Workers' International as an instructor and propagandist, spending much of his time in Belgium and France. His knowledge of French was a great advantage to him in this endeavour.

Arrest, imprisonment, torture and death

After Hitler seized power following the Reichstag fire, Edgar André was arrested on 5 March 1933. He was held in custody for three and a half years, during which time he was tortured. When it was over, he could walk only on crutches, and he had lost his hearing. When his trial began in Hamburg on 4 May 1936, the prosecution could only present insufficient evidence of André's guilt. Nevertheless, the prosecutor requested – one assumes on Hitler's personal orders – that the death penalty be imposed. On 10 July 1936, the judge imposed just such a sentence.

While the authorities ignored the international protest movement over the case, André was taken forth and beheaded on 4 November 1936. A few hours later, Fuhlsbüttel Prison's 5000 inmates went "on strike" in protest over André's death.

In the Spanish Civil War a short time later, the first battalion of the International Brigades was formed under the name "Edgar André".

Bibliography

* Bredel, Willi: Edgar André : ein deutscher Antifaschist mit dem Tode bedroht. - Strasbourg : Ed. Prométhée, 1936
* Uhse, Bodo: Die erste Schlacht : vom Werden und den ersten Kämpfen des Bataillons Edgar André. - Strasbourg : Ed. Prométhée, 1938
* Joachim Priewe: Begegnung mit Etkar André, Ein Lebensbild, Berlin (Ost) 1986.