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Heinz Prieß
Heinz Prieß
© Archiv Willi-Bredel-Gesellschaft Geschichtswerkstatt

Heinz Priess * 1920

Wellingsbütteler Landstraße 243 (Hamburg-Nord, Ohlsdorf)


HIER WOHNTE
HEINZ PRIESS
JG. 1920
VERHAFTET 1942 UND 44
HINGERICHTET 12.3.1945
ZUCHTHAUS
BRANDENBURG-GÖRDEN

see:

Heinz Prieß, born on 2.4.1920 in Hamburg, executed on 12.3.1945 in Brandenburg-Görden

Wellingsbütteler Landstraße 243

Heinz Prieß was born in Hamburg on April 2, 1920, the third son of the dockworker Carl Prieß and his wife Marie, née Drews, and grew up in the working-class district of Hamm in Hamburg. His political path was determined by his parental home. Marie Prieß had already been elected to the workers' and soldiers' council at Fahrenkruger Mühle near Bad Segeberg in 1918. She was particularly active on behalf of the female workers, e.g. also campaigning for them to be given smock aprons for work.

After moving to Hamburg, she continued to work politically. Heinz Prieß' older brothers Viktor and Bruno became involved early on and were arrested by the Gestapo. After their release from prison, they emigrated to Denmark and from there went to Spain to fight for the Republic in the International Brigades. Bruno was killed on the Ebro in 1938.

Heinz, who was already a member of the Red Young Pioneers at the age of ten, attended the elementary school in Burgstraße. He was always a good pupil, but when his brother Viktor had to go into hiding, he slacked off at school. His teacher spoke to him about it and hid Viktor with him for a few days.

Heinz Prieß and his mother hid two communists who had returned from the USSR, Erna Eifler and Wilhelm Fellendorf. His teacher from the trade school, Ernst Mittelbach, took them in.

Heinz and his mother were arrested on October 15, 1942. After "protective custody” in the Fuhlsbüttel Gestapo prison, they were remanded in custody in the Hamburg remand prison. They were charged with "favoring the enemy” and "VzH” (preparation for high treason).

After the bombing raids on Hamburg from July 27 to August 3, 1943, both criminal and political prisoners were granted parole. After the bombing raids on Hamburg from July 27 to August 3, 1943, both criminal and political prisoners were granted parole. Heinz Prieß and his mother were among the almost 90 resistance fighters released.

Heinz and Marie Prieß did not return to custody and they were wanted by the police.

"Priess stayed with the Kruppa family, Hamburg, Kl.-Borstel, Wellingsbüttlerlandstr. 143, from the beginning of August until September 30, 1943. When Kruppa wanted to register, she allegedly went to visit relatives. In Hamburg she pretended to be a bomb victim. It is suspected that she may have fraudulently obtained care cards, money, ration coupons and ration cards under a false name and will try to get abroad. P. is accompanied by her son.”

They were not arrested again until June 20, 1944; Margarete Hoefer and other friends gave them illegal accommodation.

After they had been arrested again, they remanded in custody in Hamburg and transferred to Berlin for the main trial. On October 26, 1944, they were sentenced to death at the People's Court (Volksgerichtshof) under the presidency of District Court Director Martin Stier. Marie was taken to the women's prison in Berlin and later to Waldheim prison. There she was liberated by the Red Army on May 7, 1945. For a long time she hoped that Heinz had also survived. It was only months later, in October, when she was transported back to Hamburg, that she learned that he had been executed in Brandenburg-Görden on March 12, 1945.

On September 8, 1946, his urn was buried in the Grove of Honor of the Resistance Fighters at Ohlsdorf Cemetery. Marie Prieß reported on her last encounter with her son Heinz: "[...] a detective came in, gave Heinz a cigarette, started a conversation that ended with the fact that the sacrifices we were making were useless, that Germany would undoubtedly win and would have to win. Smiling calmly, Heinz replied that the great collapse was inevitable and that a Germany would then be created that was worth living for, but also worth dying for. After his promise to be calm and brave and 'Good night, mother', we had to part - forever.”

Translation: Beate Meyer
Stand: November 2024
© Christiane Chodinski

Quellen: StaH, 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung, 8069 Marie Priess; Verbliebenenkartei, VVN Hamburg, Az.: H 480; Ursel Hochmuth: Niemand und nichts wird vergessen. Biogramme und Briefe Hamburger Widerstandskämpfer 1933–1945, hrsg. von der VVN-BdA Hamburg, Hamburg 2005, S. 105 ff.; Ursel Hochmuth/Gertrud Meyer: Streiflichter aus dem Hamburger Widerstand 1933–1945, Frankfurt am Main 1980 (Nachdr. der Ausg. von 1969), S. 375 f.; Rundbrief der Willi-Bredel-Gesellschaft, Hamburg 18 (2007), S. 23; …und die Verantwortung wär dein. Lebensbilder junger Hamburger Widerstandskämpfer, hrsg. von der Geschwister-Scholl-Jugend Hamburg 1963, S. 26–29; Gerda Zorn: Rote Großmütter. Gestern und heute, Köln 1989, S. 68–83.

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