- Arthur Hoffmann (resistance fighter)
Arthur Hoffmann (
29 September 1900 inNeumannswaldau ,Silesia –12 January 1945 ,murder ed inDresden ) was a German resistance fighter against the Nazi régime in theSecond World War .Life
Arthur Hoffmann's beginnings were very humble. He was from a tiny hamlet in Silesia which contained only six houses. His father was a
bricklayer and his mother ran a small agricultural enterprise. An hour-long walk took Hoffmann to a second-rate ruralschool when he was a boy, where the teacher's favour could be bought with gifts of sausages, something well beyond the Hoffmann family's means. After finishing the eighth year of school, Hoffmann wasapprentice d as acarpenter . In 1917, he joined the "Deutscher Holzarbeiterverband" ("German Woodworkers' Union").In February 1917, during the
First World War , Hoffmann was called into the "29er Pionieren" in Posen (nowPoznań ,Poland ), where his comrades in arms saw fit to elect him to the Soldiers' Council. In 1919, he met his future wife, Dora Hörig while she was visiting a cousin in Silesia. Shortly thereafter, however, Hoffmann went travelling. He wended his way through Germany, finally arriving atDelitzsch , whereWeimar Republic political events were brought home to him very clearly. He actively took part in defending the results of the November Revolution in Germany, and for this, he was given two years and ten months inprison for what the court inTorgau deemed to be abreach of the peace . He was, however, freed after one year and nine months under anamnesty .Hoffmann finally wed Dora on
19 May 1923 . They would have a daughter and three sons.Political activities
Arthur Hoffmann joined the
Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1922, and the "Rotfrontkämpferbund " (RFB) in 1926; from 1927, he was a member of the West Saxony RFB's district leadership. In 1929, after the RFB was banned, Hoffmann spent three weeks in custody for organizing demonstrations thanks to then Interior MinisterCarl Severing . In the same year, however, he became a representative in theLeipzig city parliament. In 1931, after trying to buy some weapons, he was sentenced to five years in prison. He was released the next year, however – again, under an amnesty.Resistance activities
After the Nazis seized power in 1933 and his flat was stormed by
police and SA troops meaning to arrest him – he managed to get away – Hoffmann was sent by the KPD as an organizer of antifascist resistance into the underground inChemnitz , but was nevertheless arrested in November. In 1934, he was sentenced to three years inWaldheim Labour Prison ("Zuchthaus") for "spreading a high-treasonous undertaking". In 1937, his time over, he was then taken into "protective custody", but released on20 December for good behaviour after having spent a few months in Sachsenburg, and laterBuchenwald concentration camp , after the former was shut down. He had to put in writing that he would no longer take up any political activities.From 1938 to 1944, Hoffmann belonged to the Organizers of Antifascist Resistance in
Leipzig , a group aboutGeorg Schumann , a part of the so-called Schumann-Engert-Kresse group. He worked zealously in various armament plants; his political goal was to disrupt and spoil production. From 1943 on, he also worked together with theNational Committee Free Germany ("Nationalkomitee Freies Deutschland"; NKFD).Arrest, trial, and death
In 1944, Hoffmann was once again arrested, along with his family on
19 July . The proceedings against him before the Second Senate of the "Volksgerichtshof " on 22 and23 November ended with a conviction for undermining the fighting forces ("Wehrkraftzersetzung"), conspiracy to commithigh treason , and furthering the enemy's cause ("Feindbegünstigung"), along with the attendant death sentence.Alfred Frank ,Karl Jungbluth ,Georg Schwarz andWilliam Zipperer were tried along with Hoffmann. On12 January 1945 , the sentence was carried out in the execution yard at Münchner Platz in Leipzig.Honours
Since
1 August 1945 , a main street in Leipzig leading from "Bayrischer Platz" to Connewitz has borne the name "Arthur-Hoffmann-Straße" (its former name is "Bayrische Straße"). Arthur Hoffmann and his family lived there.Until 1992, the Third Polytechnic Secondary School ("3. Polytechnische Oberschule") in Leipzig (Bernhard-Göring-Straße 107) bore the name "Arthur-Hoffmann-Oberschule".
External links
* [http://marvin.sn.schule.de/~tzl/fb/geschi/hofmann/hoffl.htm Biography] (in German)
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