Dagobert Biermann (13 November 1904 — 22 February 1943) was a

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

and

German resistance German resistance can refer to: * Freikorps, German nationalist paramilitary groups resisting German communist uprisings and the Weimar Republic government * German resistance to Nazism * Landsturm, German resistance groups fighting against France d ...

fighter against

National Socialism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

. His son is German singer and former

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

dissident

Wolf Biermann Karl Wolf Biermann (; born 15 November 1936) is a German singer-songwriter, poet, and former East German dissident. He is perhaps best known for the 1968 song "Ermutigung" and his expatriation from East Germany in 1976. Early life Biermann was b ...

Background

Dagobert Biermann was born in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

to Louise (née Löwenthal) and John Biermann. Biermann was

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. He and his wife, Emma (née Dietrich), were members of the

Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...

(KPD). Before the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

seized power, a time when the KPD held the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

(SPD) in disdain, Biermann believed there should be unity between the KPD and the SPD.

Resistance activity

After

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

seized power, Biermann went underground,Biographical sketch of Dagobert Biermann
''Hamburger Abendblatt'' (January 27, 2010) Retrieved March 28, 2010 and published the ''Hamburger Volkszeitung'' ("Hamburg Peoples' Newspaper"). He and his group were discovered, and Biermann was sentenced to two years at hard labor at Zuchthaus

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

, where he met the lawyer,

Herbert Michaelis Dr. Herbert Michaelis (3 September 1898 — 14 June 1939) was a German lawyer and Communist, and a member of the German Resistance during the Third Reich. Biography Michaelis was born in Hamburg, the son of a Jewish businessman. He served from ...

, and the lathe operator, Bruno Rieboldt. Biermann was released in May 1935, and found employment as a metalworker at

Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (often abbreviated HDW) is a German shipbuilding company, headquartered in Kiel. It is part of the ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) group, owned by ThyssenKrupp. The Howaldtswerke shipyard was founded in Kiel in 183 ...

on the waterfront, along with Rieboldt, who was also released. Biermann re-joined the KPD, and resumed working with the German Resistance. Biermann and Riebodt began working with Michaelis, with Rieboldt reporting to him about the armaments work, and especially about the production of airplane motors and warships. In 1937, the Resistance group disclosed a secret weapons shipment from

to Spain's

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War ...

.Hans Michael Kloth
"Mein Nachbar, der KZ-Kommandant"
("My neighbor, the concentration camp commandant"). Spiegel Online (January 21, 2008) Biermann learned of the shipment from his brother-in-law, Karl Dietrich, a ship captain. Biermann and other shipyard workers decided to collect whatever evidence they could of the shipment bound for Spain. Michaelis had contacts living abroad, in exile, who could help spread the word. One example of evidence was discovered in March 1937, when Dietrich slipped two unusual rifle cartridges to Biermann. Unlike normal munitions, these cartridges were unmarked, having no indication of manufacturer, date, or type of bullet. Michaelis passed such information, along with reports of ship movements towards Spain and other materials, to the head of the KPD in Basel, where it was then made public.Heinz Jürgen Schneider

Article about Dagobert Biermann from ''Junge Welt''. (Feb. 1, 2007) Retrieved March 26, 2010 At the same time, leaflets and graffiti calling for solidarity with the Republicans in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

began to appear at the harbor. A

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

spy managed to infiltrate the Resistance group, and Biermann and others were arrested. Biermann was charged with sabotaging Nazi ships. Michaelis was sentenced to death by the Volksgerichthof in 1939, even before the beginning of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Biermann and others were sentenced to prison, Biermann receiving six years. In 1942, the Nazis decided to "eliminate" their Jewish political prisoners, and Biermann was deported to

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

, where he was murdered on 22 February 1943.Photo of Wolf Biermann, with description
Retrieved March 26, 2010

Commemoration

Biermann is included in the

Ernst Thälmann Ernst Johannes Fritz Thälmann (; 16 April 1886 – 18 August 1944) was a German communist politician, and leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) from 1925 to 1933. A committed Marxist-Leninist and Stalinist, Thälmann played a major r ...

Memorial and in the book, ''Streiflichter aus dem Hamburger Widerstand 1933-1945''.

Background

Resistance activity

Commemoration

References

Further reading