Heinrich Max Willi Sänger (; 21 May 1894 in Berlin, Germany – 27 November 1944 in Brandenburg, Germany) was a German Communist and resistance fighter against the Nazis.

Life

Willi Sänger, was the son of a

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, Shipbuilding, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. ...

. After school, he completed a commercial apprenticeship. His occupation was a clerk and before

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he joined the labor movement. During the war he served as a soldier in the German Army. He became a member of the

Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been th ...

(SPD) in 1912 at the age of 18. Because of his moderate stance on the war, he changed party membership in 1917 first to the Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (USPD), and eventually joined the

German Communist Party The German Communist Party (german: Deutsche Kommunistische Partei, ) is a communist party in Germany. The DKP supports left positions and was an observer member of the European Left. At the end of February 2016 it left the European party. His ...

in 1919. He was an avid athlete and participated as a high jumper taking part in international competitions. He founded the Division of Workers Sports Athletics Association "Fichte“ (Spruce). Later he took over the presidency of the Fichte-sports community in Berlin-Southeast and in 1928, led the Kampfgemeinschaft für Rote Sporteinheit "struggle unit for red sports unity". As leader of the red sports association he was responsible for the forerunner of the later Society for Sports and Technology /

Gesellschaft für Sport und Technik The Gesellschaft für Sport und Technik (GST), lit. “Sport and Technology Association”, was one of the East German “Mass Organizations”. Officially, it was established to structure the free time of young people interested in sport ...

(GST) in East Germany. In 1933, Willi Sänger worked as an accountant at the Soviet travel agency "

Intourist Intourist (russian: Интурист, a contraction of , "foreign tourist") was a Russian tour operator, headquartered in Moscow. It was founded on April 12, 1929, and served as the primary travel agency for foreign tourists in the Soviet Uni ...

" and oversaw a working library. During

World War II 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 ...

, Willi Sänger worked extensively as an illegal labor functionary of the Communist Party. On behalf of the Communist Party leadership he put together reports indicating the political mood of the population. From about 1938, Willi Sänger was a member of Robert Uhrig's resistance group. After their defeat in 1942, he joined the largest opposition group in the German Communist Party with

Anton Saefkow Anton Emil Hermann Saefkow (; 22 July 1903 – 18 September 1944) was a German Communist and a resistance fighter against the National Socialist régime. He was arrested in July 1944 and executed on 18 September by guillotine. Early life An ...

, Franz Jacob and

Bernhard Bästlein Bernhard Bästlein (; 3 December 1894 in Hamburg – 18 September 1944 in Brandenburg an der Havel) was a German Communist and resistance fighter against the Nazi régime. He was imprisoned very shortly after the Nazis seized power in 1933 and wa ...

. There he worked mainly as liaison to the Leipzig Schumann-Engert-Kresse Group of Georg Schumann. From the government printing office he purchased 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 ...

’s "German wanted list". This allowed some anti-Nazis to be notified and saved from arrest and death. The Saefkow Jacob Bästlein organization was betrayed by an informer in early July 1944, and Willi Sänger was arrested on 6 July 1944. On 21 October 1944, he was sentenced to death by beheading by the People's Court. His execution was carried out on 27 November 1944 at the

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 ...

. He is buried in the central cemetery /

Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde The Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery (german: Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde) is a cemetery in the borough of Lichtenberg in Berlin. It was the cemetery used for many of Berlin's Socialists, Communists, and anti-fascist fighters. History W ...

in Berlin.

Honors

Willi Sänger resistance to

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 ...

is memorialized in the Socialist Central Cemetery Friedrichsfelde in Berlin's Lichtenberg district. At his former home in the Opole Straße 45 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 ...

there is sidewalk plaque commemorating him. The East Germany National People's Army gave their 40th Airborne Battalion the honor name of "Willi Sänger" on 23 September 1969. Sänger was a Socialist hero in

East Germany 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 ...

and several streets, schools, sports teams, etc. were named in his honor.

References

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 ...

et al. ''Deutsche Widerstandskämpfer 1933 bis 1945''. Dietz Verlag, Berlin, 1970, Volume 2, pages 132–134 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanger, Willi 1894 births 1944 deaths Communists in the German Resistance Executed German Resistance members People executed by Nazi Germany by guillotine German Army personnel of World War I