Felix Fechenbach
German-Jewish journalist, poet and political activist
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Felix Fechenbach (28 January 1894 – 7 August 1933) was a German journalist, author, and political activist. He served as state secretary in the government of Kurt Eisner, who overthrew the Bavarian Wittelsbach Monarchy. After its overthrow, he worked as a newspaper editor during the Weimar Republic. After the Nazi seizure of power, he was arrested and later shot extrajudicially while being transported to Dachau concentration camp.
Felix Fechenbach | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 28 January 1894 |
| Died | 7 August 1933 (aged 39) Kleinenberg forest |
Cause of death | shot extrajudicially |
| Occupation | Journalist |
Early life
He was born in Mergentheim, the son of a lower-middle-class Jewish family.[1] Fechenbach was the son of Noe and Rosalie Fechenbach. He grew up in poverty. He had five brothers: Max, Siegbert, Mortiz, Abraham, and Jackob Fechenbach. Fechenbach's first job was delivering bread with his older brother Abraham in the town of Würzburg. His first best friend was Stoffele, the girl next door; after she died at age 7, he would burst into tears anytime her name was mentioned.[2] He started his very first apprenticeship at age 13 at a shoe store.[3][2]
He took vocational education in Würzburg until 1910. Later, he worked in a shoe store. In 1911 he secured work in Frankfurt but was later fired for union activity and because of a strike he led.[1]
Political career
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From 1912 until 1914, he was a party secretary of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in Munich. During World War I, Fechenbach was wounded, causing him to become a pacifist. He later served as private secretary for Kurt Eisner, the prime minister of Bavaria, shortly after the war.[1][4]
Fechenbach married Martha Czernichowski on 12 August 1919; the marriage ended in divorce after only two and a half years. On 29 September 1926 he married Irma Epstein; they had three children: Kurt 1927 (named after Kurt Eisner), Lotti 1928 and Hanni 1931. After he was killed by a Sturmabteilung commando on his way to the Dachau concentration camp. His wife, Irma Fechenbach, was able to escape with their children to Switzerland. In 1946, they immigrated to the USA. [3][2]
He was jailed in 1922 for publishing secret diplomatic telegrams while state secretary under Eisner, before the Bavarian Soviet Republic. He was charged with high treason on 22 October 1922.[5] The decision was a scandal because the court at that time had no standing under the Weimar Constitution. He was pardoned in 1924.[1] He thereafter travelled to Berlin and worked for Kinderfreunde (Friends of Children) and criticised the SPD in his children's stories while still a member of the party.[1]
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In 1929, he became the editor in chief of the SPD newspaper Volksblatt in Detmold.[1] On 11 March 1933, he was jailed by the new Nazi government for his anti-fascist activities. On 7 August 1933, members of the Schutzstaffel (SS) and SA who were transporting Fechenbach to Dachau concentration camp stopped and ordered him out of the vehicle in a forest between Detmold and Warburg. He was beaten and then shot by the Nazi officers present.[6]
There are two schools named after Fechenbach: the Felix-Fechenbach Gesamtschule in Leopoldshoehe and the Felix-Fechenbach Berufskolleg in Detmold.[7] A street in Detmold and in Oerlinghausen was also named after him.
Works
- Fechenbach, Felix, Frank Meier, ed. (2009). Felix Fechenbach Lesebuch. Köln: Nyland-Stiftung
- Fechenbach, Felix (1925). Im Haus der Freudlosen, J. H. W. Nachfolger, Berlin. Revised edition edited by Roland Flade, Koenigshausen & Neumann, Wuerzburg
- Fechenbach, Felix (1929). Der Revolutionär Kurt Eisner. Aus persönlichen Erlebnissen, J.H.W. Diez, Berlin
- Fechenbach, Felix (1936). Mein Herz schlaegt weiter: Briefe aus der Schutzhaft, Kulturverlag, St.Gallen. Revised edition with a foreword by Heinrich Mann, a contribution by Robert M.W. Kempner and a postscript by Peter Steinbach, Andreas-Haller-Verlag, Passau 1987.
- Fechenbach, Felix (1937). Der Puppenspieler, Verlag E. & K. Scheuch, Zuerich. Revised edition edited by Roland Flade and Barbara Rott, Koenigshausen & Neuman, Wuerzburg 1988.