Stumbling stones in Chemnitz

Rudolf Dähnert
Born: 03/06/1909
Died: 13.11.1947

Kurt Rudolf Dähnert was one of the Chemnitz communists who were subjected to the most brutal form of SATerror in the spring of 1933.

He was born in Chemnitz as the youngest son of the factory manager Emil Friedrich Dähnert. He had two brothers. His father died in 1912. Maria Dähnert, his mother, had to raise the children alone from then on. Rudolf therefore learnt early on what poverty meant. He attended primary school from 1915 to 1923. He then learnt the trade of an electrician.

In 1924, the unbelieving Rudolf Dähnert became a member of the German Communist Youth Association in the Chemnitz-Schloß district. Four years later, he joined the Communist Party of Germany, where he was active as an official until his arrest in spring 1933. He was also a member of the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition and supported the work of Rote Hilfe Deutschlands. In February 1931, Rudolf Dähnert married Olga Elisabeth Zimmermann, a hosiery worker. They had two children: Heinz Rudolf (1929-2005) and Waltraud (*1944). The couple initially lived at Helenenstraße 54 before moving to a small house in the suburb of Borna in 1942, which was owned by the related Jentsch family. The street is part of the Frischborn housing estate, which was built by the city between 1928 and 1936 for rich children and war invalids.

On the night of 9 March 1933, Dähnert and two other men were taken into "protective custody" by the SA in the flat of a comrade-in-arms in Borna and taken to the notorious "Hansa House", where he was held captive for 14 days while being abused. On 15 May 1933, he was arrested again and transferred to the Hartmannstraße and Lange Straße police prisons, where he was put to "work" on Yorckstraße during the day. On 30 June 1933, he was transferred to the Sachsenburg concentration camp, where he was assigned to the construction work detachment. From there he was taken to the neighbouring "protective custody camp" in Augustusburg. On 1 November 1933, he was transferred to the Küchwald Hospital in Chemnitz due to persistent rheumatic complaints. On 21 November 1933, he was released "free of complaints and fit for work". Dähnert was under police surveillance for a year and a half. Nevertheless, he was in contact with the resistance groups in the neighbourhood during those years. As he was not a member of either the NSDAP or the German Labour Front, he was unable to find work for years. However, he was able to earn a decent living for his family by moonlighting and using his wits. It was not until 1937 that he found permanent work as an electromechanic in the technical field office of F. Klöckner KG in Chemnitz.

Immediately after the fall of the Nazi regime, Dähnert made himself available to the KPD in his neighbourhood. He became district leader of the Antifa and organisational leader of the KPD. By decision of the Democratic Bloc and the KPD, he was transferred to the Chemnitz city administration on 1 September 1945. He initially worked there as head of department. On 15 February 1946, he was appointed city official in the social administration department. From 1 January 1947, he worked as administrative director in the main administration. Rudolf Dähnert died on 13 November 1947 as a result of a heart condition.

Author: Dr Jürgen Nitsche

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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