Walter Husemann

{{short description|German communist and Red Orchestra resistance member}}

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| name = Walter Husemann

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| image = Walter_Husemann.png

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| caption = Walter Husemann

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| birth_date = {{Birth-date|2 December 1909}}

| birth_place = Ellerbek, German Empire

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| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1943|5|13|1909|12|2}}

| death_place = Plötzensee Prison, Berlin, Nazi Germany

| death_cause = Guillotined

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| nationality = German

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| occupation = Toolmaker, later Journalist

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| known_for = Anti-fascist, Red Orchestra resistance member

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| party = KPD

| movement = Communism

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| spouse = Marta Husemann

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Walter Husemann (2 December 1909Buchenwalder Effektenkarte – 13 May 1943) was a German communist and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime. As a young man, Husemann trained an industrial toolmaker, before training as a journalist.{{cite book |last1=Weber |first1=Hermann |title=Deutsche Kommunisten : biographisches Handbuch 1918 bis 1945 |date=2008 |publisher=K. Dietz |location=Berlin |isbn=978-3-320-02130-6 |edition=2nd Revised and expanded|url=https://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/de/recherche/kataloge-datenbanken/biographische-datenbanken/walter-husemann?ID=4504 |access-date=13 October 2021|language=de}}{{cite book |last=Nelson |first=Anne |title=Red Orchestra. The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler |publisher=Random House |location=New York |date=2009 |isbn=978-1-4000-6000-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/redorchestrastor00anne|page=16}} He became interested in politics and joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).{{cite web |title=Husemannstraße |url=https://berlin.kauperts.de/Strassen/Husemannstrasse-10435-Berlin#Geschichte |website=Kauperts |publisher=Kauperts Media Group GMBH |access-date=13 October 2021 |language=German |date=31 January 1952}} With the arrival of the Nazis in 1933, he became a resistance fighter and through his wife, the actor Marta Husemann, he became associated with an anti-fascist resistance group around Harro Schulze-Boysen and Arvid Harnack that was later called the Red Orchestra by the Gestapo.{{cite web |title=Walter Husemann |url=https://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/recess/biographies/index_of_persons/biographie/view-bio/walter-husemann/?no_cache=1 |website=Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand |publisher=German Resistance Memorial Center |access-date=13 October 2021}} Along with John Sieg whom he met in the KPD and Fritz Lange, Martin Weise and Herbert Grasse he wrote and published the resistance magazine, The Internal Front Die Innere Front.{{cite book |last=Brysac |first=Shareen Blair |title=Resisting Hitler: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-19-513269-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/resistinghitlerm00brys|page=298}}

Life

File:Walter Husemann Buchenwald Arolsen Archives DocID6131772.jpg

Husemann was born to Wilhelm and Luise Husemann. After training as a lathe operator, in an apprenticeship, he organised a strike for better wages and was dismissed. In 1924, Husemann became a member of the Young Communist League of Germany and in 1929 became director of the Anti-Fascist Young Guards, the youth organisation of the {{ill|Kampfbund gegen den Faschismus|de||it}} (Combat League Against Fascism), in the randenburg area. In 1930, Husemann met Marta Wolter, a KPD member and actor who had been in Günther Weisenborn's and Bertolt Brecht's play, The Mother and Brechts Kuhle Wampe. In 1932, the couple moved in together an apartment in Mannheim. From 1930 to 1933, he worked as a trainee editor for several communist newspapers including the Die Rote Fahne, the Ruhr-Echo in Essen, the Sozialistische Republik in Cologne and the Mannheimer Arbeiterzeitung in Mannheim.

In 26 November 1936, Husemann, his wife and father were arrested for helping a communist official hide.{{cite book |last=Nelson |first=Anne |title=Red Orchestra. The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler |publisher=Random House |location=New York |date=2009 |isbn=978-1-4000-6000-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/redorchestrastor00anne|page=104}} He and his father were sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp without undertaking any trial proceedings, while his brother managed to escape and move to Moscow. Husemann was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp where he worked as a camp librarian until September 1938, when he was released. Marta was sent to Moringen concentration camp where she remained until June 1937, when she was released, after being seen by Heinrich Himmler who thought she looked too Aryan.

When he was released from prison in September 1938, Husemann went back to work as a toolmaker. Through Marta his wife, who had worked with Gunther Weisenborn, he was introduced into a resistance group around Harro Schulze-Boysen and Arvid Harnack. Husemann became an important member of Harro Schulze-Boysen group and would receive the pamphlets the group had written.{{cite book |editor1-last=Kesaris |editor1-first=Paul. L |title=The Rote Kapelle: the CIA's history of Soviet intelligence and espionage networks in Western Europe, 1936-1945. |date=1979 |publisher=University Publications of America |location=Washington DC |isbn=978-0-89093-203-2 |url=http://archive.org/details/rotekapelleciOOunit |format=pdf|page=141}} Husemann remained with the group during its transition from an underground political faction that resisted into an espionage organisation.{{cite book |editor1-last=Kesaris |editor1-first=Paul. L |title=The Rote Kapelle: the CIA's history of Soviet intelligence and espionage networks in Western Europe, 1936-1945. |date=1979 |publisher=University Publications of America |location=Washington DC |isbn=978-0-89093-203-2 |url=http://archive.org/details/rotekapelleciOOunit |format=pdf|page=142}}

In December 1941, John Sieg began publishing Die Innere Front (The Home Front) on a regular basis.{{cite web |title=John Sieg (1903–1942) |url=http://www.museum-lichtenberg.de/index.php/menschen/ns-widerstand-und-verfolgung/37-ns-widerstand/461-john-sieg-1903-1942 |website=Museum Lichtenberg im Stadthaus |access-date=18 December 2020 |language=de}} Husemann through contact with fellow KPD member Wilhelm Guddorf,{{cite book |last1=Andresen |first1=Geertje |title=Wer war Oda Schottmüller?: zwei Versionen ihrer Biographie und deren Rezeption in der alten Bundesrepublik und in der DDR |date=2012 |publisher=Lukas Verlag |isbn=978-3-86732-125-9 |page=129 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bBp6hiMGdCIC&pg=PA129 |access-date=14 October 2021 |language=de}} became involved in writing articles for the magazine.{{cite web |title=Walter Husemann |url=https://www.gedenktafeln-in-berlin.de/nc/gedenktafeln/gedenktafel-anzeige/tid/walter-husemann/ |website=Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand |publisher=Vereins Aktives Museum Faschismus und Widerstand in Berlin e.V. |access-date=14 October 2021}}

File:Gedenktafel Florastr 26 (Panko) Walter Husemann.jpg in Berlin]]

Arrest

On 9 September 1942, Husemann was arrested at his employer. When he was interrogated, he tried to jump out a closed top-floor window.{{cite book |last=Brysac |first=Shareen Blair |title=Resisting Hitler: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-19-513269-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/resistinghitlerm00brys|page=357}} Husemann was sent for trial by the 2nd Senate of the Reichskriegsgericht, who announced on 26 January 1943 a sentence of death for "preparation for high treason" and "aiding and abetting espionage". He was executed on 13 May 1943 at Plötzensee Prison.{{cite book |editor1-last=Kesaris |editor1-first=Paul. L |title=The Rote Kapelle: the CIA's history of Soviet intelligence and espionage networks in Western Europe, 1936-1945. |date=1979 |publisher=University Publications of America |location=Washington DC |isbn=978-0-89093-203-2 |url=http://archive.org/details/rotekapelleciOOunit |format=pdf|page=135}}

Walter Husemann

Life

Arrest

References

Further reading