Dr. Hugo Bresser

By summer 1943, severe tensions arose between Christian Franke and Hugo Bresser, with the former intending to take over the management and to oust the latter from the entire company. Denunciations followed: Hugo Bresser was accused at the Reich Ministry of Armaments of making regime-critical remarks. The firm’s chief engineer, Otto Roos, became entangled in the conflict. He had told Christian Franke that Hugo Bresser’s expulsion from the NSDAP in 1941 for lodge membership was “worth 50,000 RM,” since it could later serve as proof of opposition to the regime.

On 1 April 1944, shortly after his fiftieth birthday, Hugo Bresser was arrested by the GestapoThe Gestapo, the Secret State Police of the Nazi regime, was the political police during the Nazi era. in Wiedenbrück and taken to Bielefeld District Court Prison. In July 1944, he and Otto Roos were indicted before the People’s CourtThe People’s Court (Volksgerichtshof) was the highest political court established in 1934 to “combat enemies of the state” in the Third Reich. Its seat was in Berlin, but it also held sessions in other cities. No legal remedies could be lodged against a judgment of the People’s Court. The court imposed over 5,200 death sentences. in Bielefeld. They admitted to listening to Swiss and British radio broadcasts since 1941 and to exchanging “enemy news.” The court could not prove that Hugo Bresser made any regime-critical statements, but his “50,000 RM” remark was deemed evidence of “subversive attitude.”

On 4 August 1944, he was sentenced to death for “undermining military morale” and “radio crimes,” and declared “forever dishonourable.” He was transferred to Dortmund Prison days later. His private assets were confiscated, and Christian Franke sued to exclude him from the firm. During proceedings Christian Franke accused Thea Bresser of regime-critical remarks, exposing her to arrest. She nonetheless appealed the exclusion ruling to the Reich Supreme Court in Leipzig; no verdict was issued before the end of the war.

Immediately after the death sentence, Thea Bresser petitioned for clemency. In September 1944, the Führer’s Chancellery granted a stay of execution pending review. In December 1944, the Armaments Ministry supported commutation due to Hugo Bresser’s indispensability for aircraft production. In January 1945, both the Reich Justice Ministry and the Führer’s Chancellery recommended conversion to a ten-year prison term. The process stalled, however, awaiting assessment from the Gau (administrative division) leadership in Münster.

In 1948, after three years of litigation, Christian Franke withdrew his exclusion claim. That November, he was convicted by the Paderborn Jury Court of “crimes against humanity” and sentenced to two years and ten months for instigating Hugo Bresser’s political persecution. Thea Bresser was involved in the management of the company until its restitution to Sigmund Hirschheimer in spring 1950.

Thea Bresser’s fight for compensation lasted a decade. In 1949, the Wiedenbrück District Special Aid Committeerejected recognition of her husband as a Nazi victim, calling the case a mere business dispute. She appealed successfully in 1950, but proceedings stalled, partly because Christian Franke’s repeated appeals until 1954 in the criminal proceedings against him made these court files unavailable for Thea Bresser’s compensation case.

Only with applications under the Federal Compensation ActThe law (Bundesentschädigungsgesetz), retroactively effective from October 1953, was the first nationwide compensation law for people who suffered expropriation, forced labour, deportation, and imprisonment during National Socialism. Eligible were persons who had their residence in the federal territory or the former German Reich by 31 December 1952 or earlier, as well as their surviving dependants. Foreign Nazi victims were thus largely excluded from the law. in 1955 did the case resume. After another rejection in 1957, she yet again appealed successfully. In December 1957, the Detmold Compensation Chamber ruled that Hugo Bresser had “consciously fought against the Nazi regime, risking his freedom and his life” by listening to enemy broadcasts in a prominent position. He had not supported Nazi aims through his role in the Aryanised firm but had acted “as trustee for the former Jewish owners,” doing “everything in his power to prevent Franke’s influence and Nazi objectives in the plant.” In 1958, compensation was granted in the form of a pension and payments for “damage to life” and “property and assets” of Hugo Bresser though disbursement required further legal pressure in 1959.

Decades later, Daniel Bresser was able, with the help of the Wolfenbüttel Memorial, to gain a clearer picture of his grandfather’s persecution and fate under the Nazi regime.