Fritz Siedentopf (14 April 1908 – 28 August 1944) was a German communist and

resistance fighter A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objectives ...

against

Nazism 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) i ...

Biography

Siedentopf, a locksmith, was born in

Güsten Güsten is a town in the Salzlandkreis, district of Salzlandkreis, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the river Wipper (Saale), Wipper, west of Bernburg. It is part of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Saale-Wipper. It ...

and moved to Berlin after the death of his parents in the early 1930s. In 1932 he joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). After the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

came to power in 1933, he was tasked with producing illegal anti-fascist pamphlets and newspapers. On 18 August 1934 Siedentopf was arrested, and on 13 December he was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for "preparation for

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

". After his release on 22 December 1938, he joined the resistance group of Robert Uhrig, whom he had met while in prison; Siedentopf was mainly responsible for organizing sabotage of German industry. Siedentopf was arrested once again by the

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 orga ...

on 4 February 1942, amid a wave of arrests of resistance members, and held in

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoner ...

Plötzensee Prison Plötzensee Prison (german: Justizvollzugsanstalt Plötzensee, JVA Plötzensee) is a juvenile prison in the Charlottenburg-Nord locality of Berlin with a capacity for 577 prisoners, operated by the State of Berlin judicial administration. The d ...

and

Landsberg an der Warthe Landsberg may refer to: * Landsberg (surname) * Margraviate of Landsberg, a march of the Holy Roman Empire * Palatinate-Landsberg, a state of the Holy Roman Empire Places * Landsberg (district), Bavaria, Germany * Landsberg, Saxony-Anhalt, German ...

. On 15 February 1944 he was charged with "preparation for high treason" and "aiding the enemy in war time", and on 6 July he was sentenced to death by the People's Court in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream o ...

. Siedentopf was executed by guillotine on 28 August 1944 in

Brandenburg-Görden Prison Brandenburg-Görden Prison is located on Anton-Saefkow-Allee in the Görden quarter of Brandenburg an der Havel. Erected between 1927 and 1935, it was built to be the most secure and modern prison in Europe. Both criminal and political prisoners we ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siedentopf, Fritz 1908 births 1944 deaths People from Salzlandkreis Communist Party of Germany politicians Executed communists in the German Resistance People executed by Nazi Germany by guillotine People from Saxony-Anhalt executed by Nazi Germany Sachsenhausen concentration camp prisoners