Otto Weidt. From Anarchist to Righteous Among the Nations. 1883-1947. A biographical study.

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Otto Weidt. 1883 - 1947.


My doctorate covers the life of Otto Weidt, a German factory owner who ran a workshop manufacturing brushes and brooms in Berlin-Mitte between 1940 and 1947 employing a large number of blind and deaf, and also healthy Jewish workers . Many of them worked illegally and Weidt offered them protection and tried and in some cases succeeded, to save them from deportation to the concentration camps. On September 7, 1971, Yad Vashem recognized Otto Weidt posthumously as Righteous Among the Nations.

The work focuses on the two distinct phases of Weidt’s life: his activities in the Anarchistic Labour Organisation at the beginning of the 20th century and later his role within the Resistance Movement as rescuer. Weidt’s earlier political movements are examined and in particular how this relates to his later assistance of the victims of the Nazi regime. Central to the discussion is the question of the effect of personal and political beliefs and the anarchist networks as facet of the resistance movement during the Nazi times.


 
Information regarding the anarchist workers' movement and the Berlin participants at the beginning 20th Century:

 

 

the editor and upholsterer Karl (also Carl) Kielmeyer (* 31.07.1871 in Pyrmont/ Waldeck)
the writer and engineer Werner „Daya“ Karfunkelstein (* 18.08.1881 in Berlin) who subsequently emigrated to London in the 1930’s
the decorator Arnold Gerhardt
the writer Johannes Holzmann / Pseudonym Senna Heu (* 30.10.1883 in Tuchel)
the salesman Karl Rudolf Heinrich Lange (* 18.03.1873)

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Information relating to blind broom and brush makers and/ or the apprentices, workshops for the blind during the 1920s and 1930s in Berlin.

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blind workshop Otto Weidt. 1941. (Click on the photo for an enlarged view.)

   

Information regarding the people in the photograph

Click on the photo for an enlarged view.


(© photograph: privately owned)


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Information relating to Otto Weidt's Workshop for the Blind in the Rosenthaler Straße 39 in Berlin-Mitte or the Rubensstraße 74 in Berlin-Friedenau.


 

the business-owner Otto Max August Weidt (* 02.05.1883 in Rostock)
the salesman Gustav Kremmert (* 02.11.1899 in Berlin)
the salesman Karl Deibel (* 11.04.1897 in Markdorf am Bodensee)
Inge Marion Eisenstädt / Eisenstedt (* 16.03.1922 in Bromberg)
Gerda Forrer geb. Hausmann (* 27.08.1916 Königsberg)
Leopold Langer (* 06.07.1922 in Güstrow)
Fritz Rettmann (* 22.12.1902 in Berlin)
Gustav Finzelberg (* 24.07.1890 in Segelitz (Ruppin))
Erna Tzschiersky (* 04.03.1910 in Berlin)
Waldtraut Kraud (Krauel ?) (* 23.02.1915 in Eberswalde)
Hedwig Porschütz (* 10.06.1900 in Berlin)

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Information relating to the Central agency for Jews and Gypsies at Berlins Labour office in the Berliner Fontanepromenade 15 between 1938-1945.

 

the former director Alfred Eschhaus (* 11.07.1903 in Berlin)
employee Richard Meilicke (* 01.03.1899 in Berlin)

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Information relating to the Jewish unit of Berlin‘s Gestapo Berlin and the Jewish collection agency in the Großen Hamburger Straße or Schulstraße.

 

the Criminal Police Secretary Willi/ Willy Rothe
the Chief Criminal Police Secretary Walter Dobberke (* 15.08.1906 in Sonnenburg)
the Chief Criminal Police Secretary Franz Prüfer (* 30.11.1893 in Reppen)
the Criminal Police Secretary Herbert Ti(e)tze (* 08.04.1906 in Berlin)
the Detective Superintendent Gerhard Stübs (* 17.10.1908 in Natalsitz)
Günther Abrahamsohn (* 07.07.1920 in Prenzlau)
Stella Kübler-Isaaksohn, geb. Goldschlag (* 10.07.1922 in Berlin)

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Thanks for your assistance and help.


Robert Kain

 

   


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Robert Kain - Driesener Strasse 19 in 10439 Berlin
- February 2011 -