Stumbling stones in Chemnitz
Emil Wallner
Emil Wallner
Born: 04/03/1903
Died: 04.05.1937
Installation location:
Annaberger Straße 200Stumbling stone laying on:
14 June 2023
Photos of the laying of the Stumbling Stone
Life path
The communist Emil Otto Wallner was one of the many anti-fascists in Chemnitz after whom an institution was named until 1990. On 28 April 1976, the children's and youth sports school for summer sports (now the Chemnitz Sports High School) in the Bernsdorf district was named "Emil Wallner".
He was born the son of a stoker in Lunzenau. When he was four years old, his parents moved to Chemnitz. From 1909 to 1917, he attended the Dittesschule in Altchemnitz. He then learnt the trade of a toolmaker. Due to the poor economic situation after the First World War, he was out of work for a long time.
Under the influence of the November Revolution of 1918/19 in Chemnitz, Wallner joined the Free Socialist Youth. On 7 and 8 August 1919, at the age of 16, he took part in the armed battles against the Reichswehr at Chemnitz main railway station. He became a member of the KPD in 1921. On 7 March 1925, Emil Wallner married Liddy Herta Neubert, a housemaid of the same age. Their marriage produced a son. In the same year, he found work as a locksmith at the Chemnitz power station. The couple initially lived at Neunzehnhainer Straße 3 before finding a suitable flat at Annaberger Straße 200 around 1930.
Wallner was involved in the establishment of a KPD factory cell at the power station. He was one of the most enthusiastic contributors to the communist company newspaper "Der rote Blitz". He was also involved in the Rote Hilfe Deutschlands and the Internationale Arbeiterhilfe. In 1925, he also joined the Red Front Fighters' League. However, he was particularly fond of workers' sport.
On 7 April 1933, Wallner was dismissed from the electricity company without notice by the National Socialists due to his commitment to the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition. This was followed by several house searches. On 6 July 1935, he was arrested for illegal work for the banned KPD.
He spent eleven months in remand prison. The trial against him and 23 other defendants took place at the Higher Regional Court in Dresden from 23 to 26 May 1936. Wallner was sentenced to two years and ten months' imprisonment for "preparation for high treason", which he was to serve in Osterstein Castle prison in Zwickau. As a result of continuous abuse, his health deteriorated more and more there. After a stay in a hospital in Zwickau, he was able to obtain an interruption to his sentence until 12 October 1936. Emil Wallner returned to his wife and son in Chemnitz for a short time. However, his condition deteriorated and he died in the municipal hospital in Küchwald on 4 May 1937. His widow entered into another marriage in April 1942. She died on 4 July 1987 in Karl-Marx-Stadt.
Stumbling Stones in Chemnitz
It is a project against forgetting: stumbling stones have been laid in Chemnitz every year since 2007.
Embedded in the pavement, the memorial stones commemorate the tragic fates of fellow citizens who were persecuted, deported, murdered or driven to their deaths during the National Socialist regime.
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