Leber, Julius.

Leber, Julius, born 16-11-1891 in Biesheim, Alsace, out of wedlock, to Katharina Schubetzer and later adopted by her Freemason husband Jean Leber. Leber ended his school days in Breisach in 1908 with a Mittler Reife qualification from a vocational high school, having completed training in salesmanship in a wallpaper factory in Breisach. From 1910, Julius attended an Oberrealschule (a higher vocational school) and also wrote newspaper reports. To finance his training, he worked as a tutor. After his Abitur in 1913, Leber studied national economics and history in Strassbourg, Germany) and at the Universaty of Freiburg im Breisgau. In this year, he also joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD). In 1914, with the outbreak of the First World War, Leber volunteered for military service. As a soldier, Leber was wounded twice , promoted to leutnant, and served after the war in the Reichswehr, regular army, with border security troops in the east. At the time of the Kapp Putsch  in 1920, he took the Weimar Republic’s’s side. Afterwards, he quit the Reichswehr in protest, as some of its leaders had been behind the putsch. In his further studies after leaving the Reichswehr, Leber received a doctorate from the University of Freiburg. In 1921, Leber became the editor-in-chief of the social-democratic newspaper, the “Lübecker Volksboten” –  for which the then-student Willy Brandt

 , died age 78, on 07-05-1974, also wrote in the early 1930s – and from 1921 to 1933 he was also a member of Lübeck city council. As a member of the Reichstag from 1924, he concerned himself above all with defence politics. After Adolf Hitler (did you know) seized power in 1933, there was an attempt on Leber’s life, after which he was seized, under pressure from Lübeck’s workforce freed, and then arrested anew in March. From 1933 until 1937, Leber was held in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, having been declared a “dangerous opponent of the régime”. After his release, he worked as a coal dealer in Berlin-Schöneberg, which camouflaged his more important rôle in the resistance to the Nazi régime, in which he was supported by, among others, Gustav Dahrendorf, died age 53, on 30-10-1954

       

     Gustav              Ralf                Brandt.          Harnack.     Schwamb.       Goerdeler.    Graf Moltke.                     

Ralf Dahrendorf’s ‘s father, died age 80, on 17-06-2009 – Ernst von Harnack, hanged age 56, on 05-03-1945, in Plötzensee and Ludwig Schwamb, hanged age 44, on 23-01-1945, in Plötzensee. In 1940, Leber sought contact with the armed forces’ leadership and got to know Claus Graf von Stauffenberg

. Thereafter, he was also in contact with Carl Goerdeler, he was hanged age 60, on 02-02-1945 in Plötzensee and the Kreisau Circle around Helmut Graf von Moltke, hanged 23-01-1945, age 38, Plötzensee Stauffenberg’s circle foresaw Leber as Germany’s new Interior Minister after their planned coup d’’etat. After being betrayed by an informer among an underground Communist group led by Anton Saefkow, executed age 41, on 18-09-1944, with whom he had sought contact,

   

              Dahrendorf.                   Maass.               Reichwein.            Reichwein for court.

Death and burial ground of Leber, Julius.

    Leber was arrested by the Gestapo on 05-07-1944, fifteen days before Stauffenberg attempt on Hitler’s life at the Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia. On 20 October, Leber was the accused in a show trial before the Volksgerichthof, alongside Adolf Reichwein, hanged Plötzensee, age 46, 0n 20-10-1944 Hermann Maass, hanged on 20-10-1944 too, age 46. His 43 year old wife died of pneumonia 5 weeks after his death, they left behind 6 underage children and Gustav Dahrendorf, Leber was sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out on 05-01-1945 at Plözensee Prison in Berlin. Leber is buried with his wife Julia, who died age 53 in 1944, on the Waldfriedhof, Zehlendorf, Berlin. Close by the Generalmajor der Wehrmacht, Friedrich Starke, Generalleutnant der Artillerie, Hans Funck, General der Infanterie, Friedrich Karmann, and Generaloberst der Flieger, Alfred “Iron Keller” Keller. Also buried there is actrice and singer, Hidgard Knef.

A bridge in Berlin-Schöneberg is named after Julius Leber and bears a commemorative plaque. The inscription reads “Julius Leber, member of the German Reichstag until 1933, sacrificed his life for FREEDOM and JUSTICE.” The nearby S-Bahn station is named “Julius-Leber-Brücke”.

   

 

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