Bernhard Bästlein
Encyclopedia
Bernhard Bästlein was a German
Communist and resistance fighter against the Nazi
régime. He was imprisoned very shortly after the Nazis seized power in 1933 and was imprisoned almost without interruption until his execution in 1944, by the Nazis. Nonetheless, he was one of the most important leaders of German Resistance.
and Cornelia Bästlein, née Kock, of East Friesland. His father came from a family of toymakers and gunsmiths and worked as a gunsmith and safe builder. He was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany
(SPD) and an avid trade union member. After grammar school, Bästlein was trained as a precision mechanic. At the same time, he took evening classes at a worker's education school and the Volkshochschule.
In 1911, Bästlein finished his training as a mechanic and joined the Socialist Workers Youth Party (Sozialistischen Arbeiterjugend), where he met his future wife, the seamstress Johanna Elisabeth Hermine Berta Zenk, daughter of Wilhelmine (née Schröder) and Albert Zenk, a working class family and Social Democrats.
The following year, Bästlein joined the metal workers' union and the SPD and from 1913 till 1915, he went to work at different armaments factories, at which point he became a soldier and went to fight in France on the western front
in 1916. In 1917, he began to write articles about the revolutionary developments then taking place in Russia
. Writing under the pen name, "Berne Bums", he took a position of peace through revolution. On returning to civilian life, he was elected to a council of workers and soldiers in November 1918 and he began writing as the "worker correspondent" for the Hamburg Peoples' Press, a volunteer position. He also switched his party affiliation to the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
(USPD) because of the SPD's stance on war bonds to help pay for World War I
.
(KPD), Bästlein and his wife joined the KPD. In March 1921, Bästlein was elected to the Hamburgische Bürgerschaft, the legislature
of Hamburg. At that time, decisions urged by the Communist International, caused the KPD to incite unrest in Saxony and the Ruhr region. A general strike was called in Hamburg on March 21, 1921 and Bästlein went to the demonstration on the wharfs against Blohm + Voss
. There were fights with the police and after the demonstration, Bästlein found himself wanted by the police on charges of "conspiracy to commit high treason
.
Bästlein fled to Leningrad
(now St. Petersburg) and worked as an editor, lecturer and teacher at the KPD school in Moscow
, where his wife joined him. The two were able to take part in the IV World Congress of the Communist International in December 1922. An amnesty in Germany led to the couple's return in January 1923. Their first child was born in 1924, but died shortly after birth.
From 1923 to 1930, Bästlein worked as an editor at several KPD newspapers in Dortmund
, Hagen
, Wuppertal
, Remscheid
and Solingen
. He was forced to appear in court several times for "press offenses" and once on a charge of high treason, but having learned in the interim about law regarding political offenses, he chose to defend himself, which he did successfully. In 1929, he was editor-in-chief of the Bergische Arbeiterstimme in Solingen and he became the KPD deputy district leader in Düsseldorf
. In 1930, he became the district leader in Cologne
. In 1930, Bästlein received only a small stipend, so small that he and his wife had to sublet from members of the party. The following year, in February 1931, Bästlein became the Political Secretary of the middle Rhine district of the KPD and for the first time received enough salary to live on. In 1932, Bästlein became a member of the Prussian Federal State Parliament
and his second child was born, a son.
on March 5, 1933, but this was the election that brought the Nazis to greater power in the government and he was never able to fulfill his duties.
After Hitler had consolidated power
, the Nazis began to round up their opponents. Bästlein was arrested in May and charged with "conspiracy to commit high treason
". He was sentenced at the Volksgerichtshof to 20 months at hard labor in a Zuchthaus and was sent to Siegburg Prison. Upon release on February 12, 1935, he returned to his family in Hamburg.
On March 8, 1935, he was placed in preventive detention
, indicted as the "intellectual author" of a murder in Bonn
. Despite the fact that the case was closed, Bästlein was sent to the concentration camp in Esterwegen
and in 1936, to Sachsenhausen
, where he met Robert Abshagen
, Franz Jacob
, Julius Leber
, Harry Naujoks
, Wilhelm Guddorf
and Martin Weise. While at Sachsenhausen, Bästlein helped write the "Sachsenhausen Song", which was at the demand of the SS guards, who would use music to torment and mock the prisoners, making them sing while involved in hard labor or when they were exhausted. The prisoners, however, used the singing as an opportunity to uplift their spirits and encourage prisoner unity and an anti-fascist spirit. In April 1939, he was sent to the Cologne
prison, Klingelpütz, where he stayed in police custody till April 6, 1940. Returning to his family, then living at Goldbekufer 19 in Hamburg, he worked as a car washer and driver, then later in Altona, at Riepe-Werken, making ball point pens.
, with the objective of educating workers and organizing acts of sabotage. They were active in the Hamburg shipyard
s, developing over 30 factory cells and supporting prisoners of war and forced laborers
. In time, they built a network of contacts in northern Germany, in Flensburg
, Kiel
, Lübeck
, Rostock
and Bremen and even with groups outside of Germany. These connections were each overseen by a single leader to lessen the chances of the whole network being exposed to the Nazi authorities.
In the middle of 1942, there was a major leaflet campaign directed at construction workers, primarily in Hamburg, who were forced to work with the Organisation Todt
in Norway
and the Soviet Union
. The leaflets linked the general socio-political demands for wages and severance pay with the call to commit acts of sabotage. It closed with the slogan, "Hitler's defeat is not our defeat, but our victory!"
In mid-May 1942, four people entered Germany illegally by parachute, jumping from Soviet planes over East Prussia
. Two of them, Erna Eifler and Wilhelm Fellendorf, made their way to Hamburg to Fellendorf's mother. In the beginning of July, they contacted the Bastlein-Jacob-Abshagen Group, looking for a safe house
. Unfortunately, the Gestapo
was on their trail. On October 15, 1942, the Gestapo began a wave of arrests and two days later, they arrested Bästlein at work. He was shot in the leg, trying to escape. He was taken to the KolaFu in Hamburg and tortured severely, after which, he tried to commit suicide by throwing himself down a stairwell, but survived.
On November 30, 1942, he gave the Gestapo a written statement explaining why he had been and would remain a Resistance fighter.
The war that began in 1939 had "awoken all memories of the 1914-1918 war and strengthened his conviction that as long as the capitalist
social order existed, there would again and again be wars which would destroy all feeling in human society and likewise result in tremendous loss of material wealth."
in Berlin to serve as a witness in the trial of Martin Weise, but in January 1944, the prison was bombed during an air raid
and Bästlein was able to escape. He was hidden by Communists in Berlin and was also able to send a letter to his wife, informing her of his escape. By chance, he ran into Jacob in the S-Bahn
and immediately began working with Jacob and Saefkow to form the leadership team of three of the Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein Organization
.
He helped create an illegal network of the Free Germany Movement (Bewegung Freies Deutschland) in Berlin-Brandenburg. But on May 30, 1944, he was once again arrested. He was brought to the Reichssicherheitshauptamt on Prinz-Albrecht-Straße and tortured for days. In July, he was sent back to Sachsenhausen.
He was sentenced to death on September 5, 1944 for the crimes of conspiracy to commit high treason, aiding the enemy and undermining military strength. The sentencing document states, "You are unteachable and unreformable." Bästlein was executed on September 18, 1944 at Brandenburg-Görden Prison
.
has a street and Hoyerswerda
, Saxony
has a school named for Bästlein. There is also a street named for him in Rostock
. There is a stolperstein for Bastlein in the north of Hamburg, at Goldbekufer 19, where Bästlein once lived. There was a freight ship built in Rostock in 1965 that was named for Bästlein (see photo). The ship was sold to Chinese breakers in 1986 and the name was shortened to "Bernhard".
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Communist and resistance fighter against the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
régime. He was imprisoned very shortly after the Nazis seized power in 1933 and was imprisoned almost without interruption until his execution in 1944, by the Nazis. Nonetheless, he was one of the most important leaders of German Resistance.
Early years
Bernhard Karl Bästlein was born the fourth of five children to Bernhard Bästlein, Sr. of ThuringiaThuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
and Cornelia Bästlein, née Kock, of East Friesland. His father came from a family of toymakers and gunsmiths and worked as a gunsmith and safe builder. He was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
(SPD) and an avid trade union member. After grammar school, Bästlein was trained as a precision mechanic. At the same time, he took evening classes at a worker's education school and the Volkshochschule.
In 1911, Bästlein finished his training as a mechanic and joined the Socialist Workers Youth Party (Sozialistischen Arbeiterjugend), where he met his future wife, the seamstress Johanna Elisabeth Hermine Berta Zenk, daughter of Wilhelmine (née Schröder) and Albert Zenk, a working class family and Social Democrats.
The following year, Bästlein joined the metal workers' union and the SPD and from 1913 till 1915, he went to work at different armaments factories, at which point he became a soldier and went to fight in France on the western front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
in 1916. In 1917, he began to write articles about the revolutionary developments then taking place in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. Writing under the pen name, "Berne Bums", he took a position of peace through revolution. On returning to civilian life, he was elected to a council of workers and soldiers in November 1918 and he began writing as the "worker correspondent" for the Hamburg Peoples' Press, a volunteer position. He also switched his party affiliation to the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany was a short-lived political party in Germany during the Second Reich and the Weimar Republic. The organization was established in 1917 as the result of a split of left wing members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany...
(USPD) because of the SPD's stance on war bonds to help pay for World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
Switch to the Communist Party
As the left wing of the USPD merged with the Communist Party of GermanyCommunist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
(KPD), Bästlein and his wife joined the KPD. In March 1921, Bästlein was elected to the Hamburgische Bürgerschaft, the legislature
Legislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
of Hamburg. At that time, decisions urged by the Communist International, caused the KPD to incite unrest in Saxony and the Ruhr region. A general strike was called in Hamburg on March 21, 1921 and Bästlein went to the demonstration on the wharfs against Blohm + Voss
Blohm + Voss
Blohm + Voss , is a German shipbuilding and engineering works. It is a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems; there were plans to sell 80% of Blohm + Voss to Abu Dhabi Mar Group, but talks collapsed in July 2011.-History:It was founded on April 5, 1877, by Hermann Blohm and Ernst Voss as a...
. There were fights with the police and after the demonstration, Bästlein found himself wanted by the police on charges of "conspiracy to commit high treason
High treason
High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...
.
Bästlein fled to Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
(now St. Petersburg) and worked as an editor, lecturer and teacher at the KPD school in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, where his wife joined him. The two were able to take part in the IV World Congress of the Communist International in December 1922. An amnesty in Germany led to the couple's return in January 1923. Their first child was born in 1924, but died shortly after birth.
From 1923 to 1930, Bästlein worked as an editor at several KPD newspapers in Dortmund
Dortmund
Dortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union....
, Hagen
Hagen
Hagen is the 39th-largest city in Germany, located in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the eastern edge of the Ruhr area, 15 km south of Dortmund, where the rivers Lenne, Volme and Ennepe meet the river Ruhr...
, Wuppertal
Wuppertal
Wuppertal is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in and around the Wupper river valley, and is situated east of the city of Düsseldorf and south of the Ruhr area. With a population of approximately 350,000, it is the largest city in the Bergisches Land...
, Remscheid
Remscheid
Remscheid is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is, after Wuppertal and Solingen, the third largest municipality in Bergisches Land, being located on the northern edge of the region, on south side of the Ruhr area....
and Solingen
Solingen
Solingen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the northern edge of the region called Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr area, and with a 2009 population of 161,366 is the second largest city in the Bergisches Land...
. He was forced to appear in court several times for "press offenses" and once on a charge of high treason, but having learned in the interim about law regarding political offenses, he chose to defend himself, which he did successfully. In 1929, he was editor-in-chief of the Bergische Arbeiterstimme in Solingen and he became the KPD deputy district leader in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
. In 1930, he became the district leader in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
. In 1930, Bästlein received only a small stipend, so small that he and his wife had to sublet from members of the party. The following year, in February 1931, Bästlein became the Political Secretary of the middle Rhine district of the KPD and for the first time received enough salary to live on. In 1932, Bästlein became a member of the Prussian Federal State Parliament
Preußischer Landtag
Preußischer Landtag or Prussian Landtag was the Landtag of the Kingdom of Prussia, which was implemented in 1849 after the dissolution of the Prussian National Assembly, building on the tradition of the Prussian estates that had existed from the 14th century in various forms and states in Teutonic...
and his second child was born, a son.
After 1933
Bernhard Bästlein was elected to the ReichstagReichstag (Weimar Republic)
The Reichstag was the parliament of Weimar Republic .German constitution commentators consider only the Reichstag and now the Bundestag the German parliament. Another organ deals with legislation too: in 1867-1918 the Bundesrat, in 1919–1933 the Reichsrat and from 1949 on the Bundesrat...
on March 5, 1933, but this was the election that brought the Nazis to greater power in the government and he was never able to fulfill his duties.
After Hitler had consolidated power
Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
, the Nazis began to round up their opponents. Bästlein was arrested in May and charged with "conspiracy to commit high treason
High treason
High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...
". He was sentenced at the Volksgerichtshof to 20 months at hard labor in a Zuchthaus and was sent to Siegburg Prison. Upon release on February 12, 1935, he returned to his family in Hamburg.
On March 8, 1935, he was placed in preventive detention
Preventive detention
Preventive detention is an imprisonment that is not imposed as the punishment for a crime, but in order to prevent a person from committing a crime, if that person is deemed likely to commit a crime....
, indicted as the "intellectual author" of a murder in Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
. Despite the fact that the case was closed, Bästlein was sent to the concentration camp in Esterwegen
Esterwegen
Esterwegen is a municipality in the Emsland district, in Lower Saxony, Germany.In 1933 a concentration camp was established in Esterwegen. In 1936 the camp was dissolved and used till 1945 as a prisoner camp, for political prisoners and later for prisoners of the decree Nacht und Nebel.- Well known...
and in 1936, to Sachsenhausen
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...
, where he met Robert Abshagen
Robert Abshagen
Robert Abshagen was a German Resistance fighter against National Socialism and a Communist.- Biography :Abshagen first worked in insurance, then as a sailor and finally, as a construction worker. He joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1931.Beginning in 1933, he took part in the illegal German...
, Franz Jacob
Franz Jacob
Franz Jacob is an Austrian bobsledder who competed in the mid 1970s. He won the bronze medal in the four-man event at the 1975 FIBT World Championships in Cervinia.-References:*...
, Julius Leber
Julius Leber
Julius Leber was a German politician of the SPD and a member of the German Resistance against the Nazi régime.-Early life:...
, Harry Naujoks
Harry Naujoks
Harry Naujoks was a German anti-fascist and survivor of Sachsenhausen concentration camp.- Biography :...
, Wilhelm Guddorf
Wilhelm Guddorf
Wilhelm Guddorf was a journalist and resistance fighter against the Third Reich. He was reputedly a member of the Red Orchestra resistance group.- Life :...
and Martin Weise. While at Sachsenhausen, Bästlein helped write the "Sachsenhausen Song", which was at the demand of the SS guards, who would use music to torment and mock the prisoners, making them sing while involved in hard labor or when they were exhausted. The prisoners, however, used the singing as an opportunity to uplift their spirits and encourage prisoner unity and an anti-fascist spirit. In April 1939, he was sent to the Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
prison, Klingelpütz, where he stayed in police custody till April 6, 1940. Returning to his family, then living at Goldbekufer 19 in Hamburg, he worked as a car washer and driver, then later in Altona, at Riepe-Werken, making ball point pens.
Hamburg activity and another arrest
Bästlein began getting together with friends from Sachsenhausen, such as Abshagen, Jacob and Oskar Reincke, who all wanted to get back to work in the German Resistance. In 1941, they built the Bästlein-Jacob-Abshagen GroupBästlein-Jacob-Abshagen Group
The Bästlein-Jacob-Abshagen Group was a German resistance group that developed around the core members Bernhard Bästlein, Franz Jacob and Robert Abshagen. It fought the National Socialist regime from 1940 till the end of the war in 1945...
, with the objective of educating workers and organizing acts of sabotage. They were active in the Hamburg shipyard
Shipyard
Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...
s, developing over 30 factory cells and supporting prisoners of war and forced laborers
Forced labor in Germany during World War II
The use of forced labour in Nazi Germany and throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II took place on an unprecedented scale. It was a vital part of the German economic exploitation of conquered territories. It also contributed to the mass extermination of populations in German-occupied...
. In time, they built a network of contacts in northern Germany, in Flensburg
Flensburg
Flensburg is an independent town in the north of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg is the centre of the region of Southern Schleswig...
, Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
, Lübeck
Lübeck
The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...
, Rostock
Rostock
Rostock -Early history:In the 11th century Polabian Slavs founded a settlement at the Warnow river called Roztoc ; the name Rostock is derived from that designation. The Danish king Valdemar I set the town aflame in 1161.Afterwards the place was settled by German traders...
and Bremen and even with groups outside of Germany. These connections were each overseen by a single leader to lessen the chances of the whole network being exposed to the Nazi authorities.
In the middle of 1942, there was a major leaflet campaign directed at construction workers, primarily in Hamburg, who were forced to work with the Organisation Todt
Organisation Todt
The Todt Organisation, was a Third Reich civil and military engineering group in Germany named after its founder, Fritz Todt, an engineer and senior Nazi figure...
in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. The leaflets linked the general socio-political demands for wages and severance pay with the call to commit acts of sabotage. It closed with the slogan, "Hitler's defeat is not our defeat, but our victory!"
In mid-May 1942, four people entered Germany illegally by parachute, jumping from Soviet planes over East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
. Two of them, Erna Eifler and Wilhelm Fellendorf, made their way to Hamburg to Fellendorf's mother. In the beginning of July, they contacted the Bastlein-Jacob-Abshagen Group, looking for a safe house
Safe house
In the jargon of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, a safe house is a secure location, suitable for hiding witnesses, agents or other persons perceived as being in danger...
. Unfortunately, the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
was on their trail. On October 15, 1942, the Gestapo began a wave of arrests and two days later, they arrested Bästlein at work. He was shot in the leg, trying to escape. He was taken to the KolaFu in Hamburg and tortured severely, after which, he tried to commit suicide by throwing himself down a stairwell, but survived.
On November 30, 1942, he gave the Gestapo a written statement explaining why he had been and would remain a Resistance fighter.
The first factor was my seven-year confinement from 1933 to 1940 — four years of which were in concentration camps — during which I experienced, saw and heard abominable things. This period removed any shadow of a doubt regarding my political views and made rock solid my conviction, that a society, in which such things as I had experienced are possible, must be eliminated. The second factor was the 1939 beginning of the Second World War. —Bernhard Bästlein (November 30, 1942 in a written statement to the Gestapo, while under their interrogation)
The war that began in 1939 had "awoken all memories of the 1914-1918 war and strengthened his conviction that as long as the capitalist
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
social order existed, there would again and again be wars which would destroy all feeling in human society and likewise result in tremendous loss of material wealth."
Escape, Berlin activity and final arrest
In August 1943, Bästlein was moved to Plötzensee PrisonPlötzensee Prison
Plötzensee Prison was a Prussian institution built in Berlin between 1869 and 1879 near the lake Plötzensee, but in the neighbouring borough of Charlottenburg, on Hüttigpfad off Saatwinkler Damm. During Adolf Hitler's time in power from 1933 to 1945, more than 2,500 people were executed at...
in Berlin to serve as a witness in the trial of Martin Weise, but in January 1944, the prison was bombed during an air raid
Airstrike
An air strike is an attack on a specific objective by military aircraft during an offensive mission. Air strikes are commonly delivered from aircraft such as fighters, bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters, and others...
and Bästlein was able to escape. He was hidden by Communists in Berlin and was also able to send a letter to his wife, informing her of his escape. By chance, he ran into Jacob in the S-Bahn
S-Bahn
S-Bahn refers to an often combined city center and suburban railway system metro in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark...
and immediately began working with Jacob and Saefkow to form the leadership team of three of the Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein Organization
Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein Organization
The Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein Organization was an underground German resistance movement acting during the Second World War, that published the illegal magazine, Die Innere Front ....
.
He helped create an illegal network of the Free Germany Movement (Bewegung Freies Deutschland) in Berlin-Brandenburg. But on May 30, 1944, he was once again arrested. He was brought to the Reichssicherheitshauptamt on Prinz-Albrecht-Straße and tortured for days. In July, he was sent back to Sachsenhausen.
He was sentenced to death on September 5, 1944 for the crimes of conspiracy to commit high treason, aiding the enemy and undermining military strength. The sentencing document states, "You are unteachable and unreformable." Bästlein was executed on September 18, 1944 at Brandenburg-Görden Prison
Brandenburg-Görden Prison
Brandenburg-Görden Prison is located on Anton-Saefkow-Allee in the Görden section of Brandenburg an der Havel. Erected between 1927 and 1935, it was built to be the most secure and modern prison in Europe. It was a Zuchthaus for inmates with lengthy or life sentences at hard labor, as well as...
.
Family
Bästlein's wife also suffered hardships. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, she and their son had to vacate their home of two years. She put their belongings in storage and never saw those items again. She and son moved to Hamburg, where she lived from social welfare, but it was cut off in 1938. Thereafter, she earned a living as a seamstress. In 1943, Hamburg was the target of severe bombing and they lost their home in July. After that, they lived in a primitive arbor. She was arrested twice, but was released due to lack of evidence. She remained ignorant of her husband's execution until September 30, 1944.Memorials
In 1964, the GDR released stamps honoring Bästlein, Saefkow and Jacob on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of their execution by the Nazis. (See illustration, above.) Today, BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
has a street and Hoyerswerda
Hoyerswerda
Hoyerswerda is the largest city in the district of Bautzen in the German state of Saxony. It is located in Lusatia, a region where many people speak the Sorbian languages in addition to German.-Geography:...
, Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
has a school named for Bästlein. There is also a street named for him in Rostock
Rostock
Rostock -Early history:In the 11th century Polabian Slavs founded a settlement at the Warnow river called Roztoc ; the name Rostock is derived from that designation. The Danish king Valdemar I set the town aflame in 1161.Afterwards the place was settled by German traders...
. There is a stolperstein for Bastlein in the north of Hamburg, at Goldbekufer 19, where Bästlein once lived. There was a freight ship built in Rostock in 1965 that was named for Bästlein (see photo). The ship was sold to Chinese breakers in 1986 and the name was shortened to "Bernhard".
Further reading
- Hermann Weber: Die Wandlung des deutschen Kommunismus, Vol. 2, Frankfurt 1969, p. 65
- Ursel Hochmuth. "Hitlers Krieg ist nicht unser Krieg!" (Hitler's War Is Not Our War!") Retrieved April 6, 2010
External links
- Museum Lichtenberg, in Berlin. Official website. Retrieved April 7, 2010