Listen. The Georg Schumann Statue embodies courage and resistance. It stands as a tribute to a man who defied the Nazi regime.
Georg Schumann was born in Reudnitz in 1886. He became a toolmaker. His father was a socialist. Schumann joined the Social Democratic Party in 1905. He became a shop steward in Jena.
In 1912, Schumann attended a Social Democratic Party school. Rosa Luxemburg recognized his journalistic talent there. The SPD appointed him editor at the Leipziger Volkszeitung in 1913. During World War I, he joined the Gruppe Internationale. This group opposed the war.
He married Johanne Martha Margarethe Wagner in 1915. In 1916, Schumann was conscripted. He was sentenced to hard labor for illegal work within the army but freed by the November revolution. One of his guards was Max Hoelz. Schumann taught Hoelz about socialism.
After World War I, Schumann led the Spartacist League in Leipzig. In 1919, he became a political leader for the Communist Party. He served in Halle-Merseburg. In 1921, he was elected to the Prussian Landtag. The KPD party congress chose him for a central committee position in 1923.
Schumann emigrated to Moscow in 1925. He returned to Germany in 1926. He was arrested and spent almost a year in pre-trial custody. In 1927, he was again chosen for the Central Committee. In 1928, he became a member of the Reichstag.
In 1933, Schumann participated in an illegal meeting of the KPD Central Committee. After the Nazis seized power, he led resistance efforts in Breslau. He was arrested in June 1933. The People’s Court sentenced him to three years in prison in 1934. After his sentence, he was imprisoned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp until 1939.
After his release, Schumann worked as a locksmith in Leipzig. From 1941, he built a resistance group with Otto Engert and Kurt Kresse. The Schumann-Engert-Kresse Group was one of the largest communist resistance groups. His son Horst was also a member.
The Gestapo began arrests in the summer of 1944. Schumann and Engert were arrested in July. Both were tortured but revealed no names. On November 21, 1944, the People’s Court sentenced Schumann to death. He was convicted of preparing for high treason. He was executed on January 11, 1945, in Dresden.
After the war, Schumann’s urn was buried in Leipzig’s southern cemetery. His son, Horst Schumann, became chairman of the FDJ in 1959.
Since 1945, a main street in Leipzig bears the name Georg-Schumann-Strasse. From 1972 to 1991, an East German army barracks was named Georg-Schumann-Kaserne. The former court building in Dresden is named the Schumann Building. It is part of the TU Dresden. A nearby street is also named Georg-Schumann-Strasse.
The Georg Schumann Statue commemorates a man of unwavering conviction. It honors his fight against oppression. Let us remember his sacrifice as we reflect on the cost of freedom.