Bruno Tesch (antifascist)

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Bruno Guido Camillo Tesch (22 April 1913 in Kiel – 1 August 1933 in Altona, Hamburg) was a German antifascist. In 1933, he was found guilty of murder and put to death in connection with the Altona Blood Sunday (Altonaer Blutsonntag) incident, an SA march on 17 July 1932 that turned violent and led to 18 people being shot dead. The conviction was overturned in November 1992.

[edit] Life

An Italian woman's son, Tesch spent his childhood in Italy with his mother and moved in 1925 to live with his stepfather in Hamburg, where he learnt to be a plumber. After his apprenticeship was over, he had no job, and went into the Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst (FAD), or Volunteer Work Service.

From 1930, he belonged to the Socialist Worker Youth (Sozialistische Arbeiterjugend), but soon switched to the Communist Youth Association of Germany (Kommunistischer Jugendverband Deutschlands)

On 17 July 1932, which would later be known in German history as the Altonaer Blutsonntag, some Communists, among them Tesch, tried to thwart a march by the National Socialists (Nazis) in Altona through that working-class stronghold's old town. As the arguments and shoving escalated, they culminated in shooting, which killed two SA members and 16 uninvolved bystanders, the latter group likely by uncontrolled police gunfire. Tesch, who was involved in the brawl with demonstration march participants, was later alleged to have fired shots in the incident.

After the Nazis seized power, the matter was brought before the Nazi Special Court (Sondergericht) in Altona. Although the justice authorities' investigation turned up no sound proof of Tesch's guilt, and although it could not once be proved that Tesch had brought a weapon to the demonstration, he was nonetheless sentenced along with Walter Möller, Karl Wolff and August Lütgens to death. On 1 August 1933, in the courthouse courtyard – now home to Altona's Local Court – they were beheaded. These were the first executions in the Third Reich.

In East Germany, a school in Klausdorf as well as a street in Wismar were named after Bruno Tesch. Even a former comprehensive school in Hamburg-Altona managed to get itself named after Bruno Tesch against political resistance. In the end, those sentenced to death were belatedly acquitted of their guilt on 13 November 1992 by the Hamburg State Court. Further sentences meted out by the Sondergericht in connection with the Altonaer Blutsonntag were overturned on 21 June 1996 and 29 June 1998.