Willy Leow
Willy Leow | |
|---|---|
 Leow c. 1930 | |
| Member of the Reichstag for East Prussia | |
| In office 1928–1933 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 25 January 1887 |
| Died | 3 October 1937 (aged 50) |
| Party | Communist Party of Germany (1919–) Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (1917–1919) Social Democratic Party of Germany (1904–1916) |
Willy Leow (25 January 1887 – 3 October 1937) was a German communist politician and activist.
Life
Willy Leow attended elementary school in Brandenburg an der Havel. He learned carpentry and was taught at the Workers' Educational School in Berlin. In January 1904, Leow became a member of the German Wood Workers Association. In the same year Leow joined the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which he belonged to until 1916. In 1917, Leow participated in the foundation of the Spartacus League and briefly belonged to the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany. He became a founding member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1918.
In 1925, Leow was elected Second Chairman of the Roter Frontkämpferbund (RFB), a KPD paramilitary and defense organization. Leow was often seen marching alongside other prominent KPD and RFB activists such as Ernst Thälmann. In 1928, Leow was elected to the Reichstag, where he served until 1933.
After the Nazi seizure of power Leow fled abroad, living in the Soviet Union by 1935. He worked as an editor and head of the German state publishing house in the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1936, he was arrested during the Stalinist purges and sentenced to death on 3 October 1937 for "organizing a Trotskyist-terrorist group" by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union. He was executed by firing squad.[1]
Legacy
In the German Democratic Republic, Leow was initially subjected to damnatio memoriae. Traces of his existence were systematically removed from published documents and photographic reproductions. Leow was airbrushed out of a widely reproduced photograph showing him alongside Ernst Thälmann during a RFB rally in the 1920s. The reason for this practice was that the arrest and execution of a German communist and refugee from fascism like Leow in the Soviet Union was incompatible with the GDR's historical narrative, and therefore he could not be mentioned in any publication.[2]
References
- ^ Ulla Plener, Natalia Mussienko (Hrsg): Verurteilt zur Höchststrafe: Tod durch Erschießen. Todesopfer aus Deutschland und deutscher Nationalität im Großen Terror in der Sowjetunion 1937/1938. Reihe: Texte/Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Bd. 27. Dietz, Berlin. 2006. S. 58
- ^ Walter Hütter: Bilder die Lügen. Begleitbuch zur Ausstellung der Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn 2000.
Literature
- Leow, Willy. Bundesstifung Aufarbeitung Berlin