Willi Seng (11 February 1909 – 27 July 1944) was a German communist activist who became a

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 ...

during the Nazi period. He was captured in 1943 and faced trial in 1944, following which he was convicted and two months later executed.

Biography

Willi Seng was born in

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 ...

. He became a member of a workers' sports club called "Fichte" in 1920 and in 1929 travelled to

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 order to take part in the Soviet sponsored

Spartakiad The Spartakiad (or Spartakiade) was an international sports event that was sponsored by the Soviet Union. Five international Spartakiades were held from 1928 to 1937. Later Spartakiads were organized as national sport events of the Eastern Bloc ...

sports festival. In 1930 he became a member of Rote Hilfe (''"Red Aid"''), a workers' welfare organisation widely (and correctly) believed to have close connections with the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

and with

. In 1932 he joined the

itself. In January 1933 a new government took power and lost no time in transforming Germany into a one-party

dictatorship A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship are ...

. The authorities were diligent in their persecution of political opponents, and in particular of communists, many of whom fled abroad. Others were arrested. Willi Senf was arrested the early part of 1933 and detained at the newly established Oranienburg concentration camp. On his release from "

protective custody Protective custody (PC) is a type of imprisonment (or care) to protect a person from harm, either from outside sources or other prisoners. Many prison administrators believe the level of violence, or the underlying threat of violence within pri ...

" he worked as a link-man for the Communist-backed Kampfgemeinschaft für Rote Sporteinheit (KG – ''loosely "Association for fighting for red sporting unity"''), liaising with the Berlin city authorities. From 1934 he was in charge of the regional KG for "Neiderrhein", headquartered in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

, where he was also the producer of two newspapers: "Westdeutscher Arbeitersport" (''"West German Workers' Sport"'') and "Sportfreund" (''"Friend of Sport"''). The political nature of the KG nevertheless made his involvement with it illegal, and his sports journalism also gave him a significant public profile. In May 1935, responding to a wave of political arrests, he fled to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. In August of that same year he moved on to

where until the first part of 1937 he studied at the Communist International's "Lenin Academy". In 1938 the party leadership ordered Seng back to the west, initially to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

which, along with

, had become an informal headquarters for the German Communist Party in exile. From there he returned to Amsterdam from where, till October 1938, he worked as an instructor on behalf of the party's "foreign leadership" for the economically important Ruhr region of

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. This involved frequent visits across the border into Germany in order to conduct secret meetings with on-the-spot contacts in major cities such as

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...

and

Oberhausen Oberhausen (, ) is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen ( ). The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Rout ...

. At the end of January 1939 he was a participant at the party's "Bern Conference" which was named after the Swiss capital for security reasons. (It actually took place in the

suburb of

Draveil Draveil () is a commune in the department of Essonne in the southern suburbs of Paris, France.German invasion of the Netherlands which took place in May 1940 he continued to be based, using false names, in the Netherlands. At the end of 1940 Seng was instructed, probably on the initiative of

Wilhelm Knöchel Wilhelm Knöchel (; 8 November 1899 – 24 July 1944) was a German Communist Party activist and organizer who after 1933 became an anti-government resistance activist. His trial lasted ten minutes. He was executed/murdered at the Brandenbur ...

(who operated under the code name "Alfred"), to relocate to

and await further instructions. The instructions, which came quickly, involved working to set up an underground anti-government network in the Ruhr region. Seng had good business connections in places such as Essen, Duisburg, Bottrop, Wuppertal and in the Bergisches Land (hill country to the east of the industrial belt) on whom he could call for relevant specialist skills. Using cover names such as "August" and "Kurt", and working alongside Alfons Kaps,

and Alfred Kowalke, he produced illegal literature under titles such as "Ruhr-Echo", "Illegaler SA-Mann" and "Friedenskämpfer" (''"Fighters for Peace"''). According to testimony provided by Alfons Kaps, 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 ...

succeeded in locating and arresting Willi Seng on 20 January 1943. Elsewhere there are suggestions that Kaps himself had been "persuaded" to set up a meeting with Seng which amounted to leading the Gestapo to "August", the name by which Seng was known to his comrade. In response to "intensified interrogation" techniques Seng not merely provided his interrogators with the information that they sought, but also agreed to arrange a secret meeting in Berlin with

which would serve the purpose of leading the Gestapo to Knöchel. That plan misfired, however, since on the day in question Knöchel was seriously ill in bed, so never turned up for the meeting. On 24 May 1944 the special "People's Court" sentenced Will Seng to death. The sentence was carried out in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

on 27 July 1944.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seng, Willi 1909 births 1943 deaths People from Berlin executed by Nazi Germany Communist Party of Germany politicians International Lenin School alumni Executed communists in the German Resistance Member of the Knöchel-Seng-Group People executed by Nazi courts