Gedenktafel Bildhauer Kurt Schumacher Berlin 2008 04 24a

Kurt Schumacher (6 May 1905 – 22 December 1942) was a German sculptor and

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 ...

member of the

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 who was a member of the anti-fascist resistance group that was later called the Red Orchestra by the Gestapo. He was married to the painter and graphic designer, Elisabeth Schumacher who was also an anti-fascist.

Biography

Schumacher was born in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

. As a 14-year-old, he moved to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

to begin an apprenticeship with a wood carver.Short biography of Kurt Schumacher
German Resistance Memorial Center, Berlin. Retrieved April 12, 2010 He first worked with Berlin wood carver Alfred Böttcher. Subsequently, he worked and studied with Ludwig Gies, first at the School of the Museum of Decorative Arts (''Unterrichtsanstalt des Kunstgewerbemuseums''), then in 1935, as a master student at the ''Vereinigten Staatsschulen für Freie und Angewandte Kunst'' (VSS), the State School of Free and Applied Arts in Berlin. Beginning in 1932, he worked at the journal, ''Der Gegner'' ("The Adversary"), where he met

Harro Schulze-Boysen Heinz Harro Max Wilhelm Georg Schulze-Boysen (; Schulze, 2 September 1909 – 22 December 1942) was a left-wing German publicist and Luftwaffe officer during World War II. As a young man, Schulze-Boysen grew up in prosperous family with two sibli ...

. Schulze-Boysen and his wife,

Libertas Libertas (Latin for 'liberty' or 'freedom', ) is the Roman goddess and personification of liberty. She became a politicised figure in the Late Republic, featured on coins supporting the populares faction, and later those of the assassins of Jul ...

introduced him to

Hans Coppi Hans-Wedigo Robert Coppi (25 January 1916 – 22 December 1942) was a German resistance fighter against the Nazis. He was a member of a Berlin-based anti-fascist resistance group that was later called the Red Orchestra by the Gestapo. Lif ...

Heinrich Scheel Heinrich Karl Scheel ( lv, Heinrihs Kārlis Šēls; 17 May 1829 – 13 April 1909) was a Baltic German architect who lived and worked in Riga, Latvia. He is considered one of the greatest 19th century Riga architects and has designed more than ...

and Eugen Neutert. Political discussions strengthened their growing resistance to

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) in Na ...

.Shareen Blair Brysac
''Resisting Hitler: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra''
Oxford University Press (2000) Retrieved April 26, 2010 The atelier at the VSS became a "conspiracy bulletin board," where people from the Resistance were able to associate under the guise of working as

models A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

. In 1934, Schumacher married painter and graphic artist, Elisabeth Hohenemser. In 1939, Schumacher helped an escapee from Aschendorf-Moor Prison, Rudolf Bergtel, flee to Switzerland. In 1941, he was drafted to serve in the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...

, where, risking great danger, he published a leaflet called "Open Letter to the Eastern Front," in 1942. He also gave shelter to a parachute agent, Albert Hößler, who arrived from

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

in early August 1942. In protest of the

National Socialist 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 ...

attack on Gies, Schumacher resigned his privileged position as master student. (The designation meant he had his "own"

atelier An atelier () is the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts or an architect, where a principal master and a number of assistants, students, and apprentices can work together producing fine art or v ...

– albeit shared – with

Fritz Cremer Fritz Cremer was a German sculptor. Cremer was considered a key figure in the DDR art and cultural politics. His most notable for being the creator of the "Revolt of the Prisoners" (Revolte der Gefangenen) memorial sculptor at the former concentra ...

.) During Schumacher's arrest on 12 September 1942, 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 organi ...

destroyed his studio in Berlin, including a large amount of his artwork. Surviving works by Schumacher include two medallions he designed on the Schleusenbrücke (bridge) in Berlin, a basalt head and a printing block for the illustration, "Dance of the Dead" (''Totentanz'') at the German Historical Museum (''Deutsche Historische Museum''). There is a 1941 painting by Carl Baumann called "Rote Kapelle Berlin" at the Academy of the Arts (''Akademie der Künste''), where Schumacher's Resistance group often met. On 19 December 1942 Schumacher was sentenced to death by the

Reichskriegsgericht The Reichskriegsgericht (RKG; en, Reich Court-Martial) was the highest military court in Germany between 1900 and 1945. Legal basics and responsibilities After the Prussian-led Unification of Germany, the German Empire with effect from 1 Octobe ...

. Three days later, on 22 December 1942, he was hanged at

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 ...

, just forty-five minutes before his wife was executed.Walter Lipgens (Ed.
''Documents on the history of European integration''
p. 418. Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin (1984). . Retrieved April 26, 2010

Awards

Schumacher received an award for a figurative sculpture in 1932 from the

Akademie der Künste The Academy of Arts (german: Akademie der Künste) is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The Academy's predecessor organization was fo ...

Sources

Christine Fischer-Defoy Christine Fischer-Defoy (born 30 December 1951 in Hanau) is a German woman writer, film director and cultural historian. Life As a cultural historian, Fisher-Defoy has been working for many years on the life stories of German emigrants. In ad ...

: ''Kunst Macht Politik. Die Nazifizierung der Kunst- und Musikhochschulen in Berlin''. Elefanten Press, Berlin (1988) * Gert Rosiejka: ''Die Rote Kapelle. „Landesverrat“ als antifaschistischer Widerstand.'' With an introduction by

. Hamburg (1986) *

Luise Kraushaar Luise Kraushaar ( Szepansky; 13 February 1905 – 10 January 1989) was a German political activist who became a Resistance campaigner against National Socialism and who also, after she left Germany, worked in the French Resistance. She later beca ...

, ''Deutsche Widerstandskämpfer 1933 bis 1945.'' Berlin (1970) Vol. 2, p. 230

References

External links

Article, photos and documents about the Red Orchestra
Plötzensee Memorial Center official website. Article in English, documents in German. Retrieved April 12, 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Schumacher, Kurt 1905 births 1942 deaths Red Orchestra (espionage) German Army personnel of World War II People from Baden-Württemberg executed at Plötzensee Prison German sculptors German male sculptors Executed communists in the German Resistance Artists from Stuttgart Executed people from Baden-Württemberg People executed by hanging at Plötzensee Prison 20th-century sculptors